A new study published in the American Journal of Public Health looks at hospital practices, women’s intent to breastfeed, and how the former may influence the latter.

I don’t currently have access to the full-text, but here’s what I can gather from the abstract and the press release:  The study authors looked at data from the Listening to Mothers II survey, which asked women to recall their breastfeeding intentions, infant feeding practices at one week, and hospital practices. The researchers found that 70% of these women reported an intention to exclusively breastfeed, but only 50% achieved that goal at one week.

The women also reported hospital practices that conflicted with the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative’s ten steps to successful breastfeeding, including supplementation (49%) and pacifier use (45%). The researchers report that women who had their babies in hospitals practicing 6 or 7 of the steps were much more likely to achieve their goal of exclusive breastfeeding than those whose hospitals practiced 1 or none of the steps, suggesting that hospital practices have an influence on whether women succeed at breastfeeding.

Additionally, according to the press release, “about half (49 percent) of first-time mothers who intended to exclusively breastfeed reported that their babies were given water or formula for supplementation, while 74 percent reported being given free formula samples or offers.”

Commenting on the findings, lead author Eugene Declerq asks:

“Why are those hospital practices that have been repeatedly shown to increase breastfeeding among new mothers not more consistently instituted in United States hospitals? A large proportion of mothers stop exclusive breastfeeding within the first week, and that action was strongly related to hospital practices.”

For related coverage of hospital practices and breastfeeding, see our past posts, Task Force Recommends Prenatal and Postnatal Breastfeeding Support and CDC Releases New Report on Hospitals’ Support for Breastfeeding.

Chemicals in Toyland: The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) took effect this week, mandating stricter enforcement of lead and phtalates in children’s products and toys.

“While the ban was hailed as a victory for children’s health, it’s no guarantee that the products are safe,” reports NPR’s “Morning Edition.” “That’s because companies currently aren’t required to publicly disclose the chemicals they use in place of phthalates — and little is known about the health effects of one of the most widely used alternatives.”

Pthalates have been shown to affect the development of the male reproductive system in lab animals. They’re also present in some cosmetics, personal care products, pharmaceuticals, food packaging and cleaning and building materials — making them almost impossible to avoid. Check out NPR’s timeline of phthalate regulation and an interactive look at chemicals in the home.

IVF – New Lab for Studies: “In addition to helping thousands of infertile couples have children, ‘test tube’ babies are offering scientists a novel laboratory for resolving one of the most vexing debates in science: nature vs. nurture,” writes Rob Stein in the Washington Post.

In the first study of its kind, British researchers have studied children conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF) to examine whether children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy were more likely to develop behavioral problems because of the toxic effects of smoking — as has been suspected — or because their mothers passed on a genetic predisposition to antisocial behavior.

The study, which appears to debunk the notion that smoking’s effects on the brain of a developing fetus result in antisocial tendencies, could be the first in a series of attempts to use the approach to disentangle whether genes or various prenatal exposures are responsible for later behavioral problems.

Friends Don’t Let Friends Get “Booty” Injections: And definitely not from a woman who administers shots without a medical license. Two women are now hospitalized in critical condition in Tampa, Fla. “It almost is bootleg cosmetology here,” said sheriff’s office spokesman JD Callaway.

Plus: The economy is having some effect on cosmetic enhancements, reports The New York Times. Natasha Singer writes that doctors and pharmaceutical executives thought antiwrinkle shots like Botox would be resistant to the downturn, but the latest earnings report from Allergan, the maker of Botox, fell almost 9 percent compared with a year earlier. Allergan’s sales of breast implants were down 12 percent.

“You could forecast that with implants, but the bigger question was, ‘How have injectables been holding up?’” said Gary Nachman, an analyst with Leerink Swann, a health care investment bank. “Now, even the injectables have been impacted significantly.”

Maternal & Child Health in the Obama Administration: “[...] President Obama has lauded and pledged to expand presidential initiatives to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria — recognizing the sizeable effect they have had not only in saving hundreds of thousands of lives, but also in improving U.S. foreign policy. Now is the time for President Obama to elevate the issue of global family health to that high level,” argues Maurice Middleberg, vice president for public policy at the Global Health Council.

Council members, including global maternal health, child health and family planning organizations, are developing a framework for a Global Family Health Action Plan.

On Their Own Terms: “[B]etween the clinic demonstrations, the political discussions and the imprecations from the pulpit, too many American women have come to feel that their pelvis is public property. Slowly, quietly, a new abortion method has become part of the landscape, and it’s no accident that those women who have chosen it often cite reclaiming privacy and control as the reason,” writes Anna Quindlen at Newsweek, describing how RU-486 has allowed women to keep abortion private and personal.

Plus: Glamour magazine recently featured a whole section on abortion, acknowledging that one in three women will have at least one abortion by age 45. Eight women share their personal stories.

Salma Hayek Sparks Breastfeeding Discussions: By now you’ve probably heard about Salma Hayek breastfeeding an infant in Sierra Leone. ABC’s “Nightline” filmed Hayek during a trip to Africa to spotlight efforts to eliminate tetanus through vaccinations. The infant’s mother had no milk, so Hayek did what came naturally. Tracy Clark Flory nicely sums up some of the respectful and sophmoric public reactions.

Hayek, who is still breastfeeding her 1-year-old daughter, said, “I actually think my baby would be very proud to share her milk. And when she grows up I’m going to make sure she continues to be a generous, caring person.” Read more reactions and more about Hayek’s journey. The full “Nightline” episode is quite moving.

Happy Valentine’s Day: Some feminist advice from RH Reality Check. Plus, researchers at the University of Iowa report on what college-age men and women are looking for in a mate and how priorities have changed since the 1930s. While it’s nice to see that “chastity” is no longer an important characteristic, I’m surprised “similar political background” is considered unimportant as well.

And here’s the best act of defiance I’ve seen mentioned for Valentine’s Day — members of the Facebook group “A Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women” are encouraged to “Join us on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day, the day on which Indian women’s virginity and honor will self-destruct unless they marry or tie a rakhi. Walk to the nearest pub and buy a drink. Raise a toast to the Sri Ram Sene.” Swati Prasad explains the rebellion against the right-wing Sri Ram Sene.

What I Learned From Breast Cancer Memoirs: “Breast cancer memoirs have become such staples — reliably displayed during Let’s Wave Pink Ribbons for Breast Cancer month — that it’s hard to remember a time when women didn’t document their journey from onset through the catalog of treatments to restored health, stabilization, or imminent death. But it wasn’t always thus,” writes S.L. Wisenberg in the Chicago Reader.

She continues:

True, British author Fanny Burney wrote to her family about the agonizing mastectomy she underwent — without anesthetic — in 1811. And Katharine Lee Bates (whose poem “America the Beautiful” became the famous hymn) wrote to friends in 1915 about her partner’s breast cancer and death. But neither of these works was published in the author’s lifetime. It was only after World War II that prominent American women went public with their tumors. Marion Flexner, wife of a well-known doctor, wrote “Cancer — I’ve Had It” for Ladies’ Home Journal in May 1947, breaking a taboo by refusing to euphemize her condition — and even inserting a little slapstick with a passage describing “roving boozies”: prosthetic breasts that escaped the confines of a bra and fell to the floor.

It’s a terrific essay, and it makes this reader eager to read Wisenberg’s own story, “The Adventures of Cancer Bitch,” due out in March from University of Iowa Press. In the meantime, visit her blog.

Healthcare Overhaul: “Mindful of how delays sapped the political will to overhaul healthcare during the Clinton administration, health advocates hoped to get a major bill during the new administration’s first 100 days,” reports the Boston Globe. “Now, it looks like it will take longer, and some observers fear that a historic opportunity could be missed.”

Family Planning Nursing Program Saved in Washington: “A campaign by Planned Parenthood to save a program that provides family-planning services in welfare offices has apparently worked, for now,” reports the Yakima Herald. “The Community Service Office (CSO) Family Planning Nurse program, which houses 70 nurses statewide at 58 Department of Social and Health Services offices, will stay open through June. Previously, DSHS planned to shut down the service Jan. 30.”

Split Over Abortion-Reduction Tactics: “The election of a pro-choice administration and a Democratic Congress has divided the pro-life movement, between those who are preparing for the fight of their lives and those who see an opportunity to redefine what it means to be pro-life,” reports Newsweek.

Plus: Red Sex, Blue Sex: Back in November, The New Yorker looked at another type of divide:

During the campaign, the media has largely respected calls to treat Bristol Palin’s pregnancy as a private matter. But the reactions to it have exposed a cultural rift that mirrors America’s dominant political divide. Social liberals in the country’s “blue states” tend to support sex education and are not particularly troubled by the idea that many teen-agers have sex before marriage, but would regard a teen-age daughter’s pregnancy as devastating news. And the social conservatives in “red states” generally advocate abstinence-only education and denounce sex before marriage, but are relatively unruffled if a teen-ager becomes pregnant, as long as she doesn’t choose to have an abortion. A handful of social scientists and family-law scholars have recently begun looking closely at this split.

What About …: The delivery of octuplets in Los Angeles this week raised many questions, including: Can a woman breastfeed eight children?

Lawsuit Takes on Higher Insurance Rates for Women: “California insurers are discriminating against women, charging them more for individual health insurance than men, the city of San Francisco maintained in a lawsuit filed Tuesday against the state regulators who govern them,” reports the L.A. Times.

Gender rating is health insurance is also the focus of two bills have been introduced in the California state Legislature to address the issue. If either of the bills is signed into law, the suit may be dropped.

Study Says Common Chemicals May Affect Fertility: HealthDay News reports on a study that suggests chemicals known as perfluorinated chemicals, which are pervasive in food packaging, pesticides, clothing, upholstery, carpets and personal care products, may delay pregnancy. The study appears in the Jan. 29 edition of Human Reproduction and is available online.

These chemicals are being phased out in the United States because of their toxic effects, and are expected to be completely gone by 2010. However, they remain in the environment and in the body for decades, and have been linked to developmental problems.

“These widespread chemicals apparently lower the fertility in couples trying to get pregnant,” said lead researcher Dr. Jorn Olsen, chairman of the Department of Epidemiology at UCLA’s School of Public Health.

Danish women in the study who had with high levels of perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) took longer to get pregnant, Olsen said.

This just in –
4th Breastfeeding & Feminism Symposium: From Birthplace to Workplace
Thursday and Friday, March 26 – 27, 2009

We are now accepting abstracts for poster presentations that describe research, programs or policies that address our theme. From Birthplace To Workplace will build on the following principles addressed at previous symposia:

• Breastfeeding is public health imperative and an important aspect of reproductive health, as well as a reproductive right and a social and biological process;
• Women must have the right of self-determination to breastfeed freely and without constraint;
• It is important to re-orient the paradigm in which breastfeeding is viewed as  a “lifestyle choice” to a paradigm in which it is a “human right” and a “social justice issue” so as to ensure the social, economic and political conditions necessary to promote success; and
• Women’s decisions to breastfeed should not result in the loss of their economic security or any rights or privileges to which they are otherwise entitled.

The 2009 symposium brings a feminist lens to ensuring the social, economic and political conditions necessary to secure breastfeeding for all women from the birthplace to the workplace. Working together in a transdisciplinary manner, with social scientists, health workers, lactation and feminist advocates, employers,  and policy makers, we will create a policy agenda for action.

Hosted by: The UNC at Greensboro Center For Women’s Health and Wellness and The UNC at Chapel Hill Carolina Breastfeeding Institute.

Please email CWHW AT uncg DOT edu for more information.

Who Decides? A State-by-State Analysis: NARAL Pro-Choice America has released its 18th edition of “Who Decides? The Status of Women’s Reproductive Rights in the United States.” The report summarizes the state of women’s access to reproductive healthcare nationwide, including legislation considered and enacted in 2008. This year’s edition also examines attacks on choice in the states and in the courts and highlights pro-choice legislative and non-legislative victories, including NARAL’s Prevention First initiative.

Trading in “Barefoot and Pregnant” for Economic and Reproductive Justice: “The relevance of barefoot and pregnant remains central to an inclusive and just America,” writes Gloria Feldt. “Economic parity and reproductive justice are still intertwined, not only in the lives of individual women; they are indivisibly connected to our economic recovery as well.”

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Clinic …: That’s the title of an essay in Exhale’s latest issue of its bilingual abortion zine, “Our Truths/Nuestras Verdades” (download the pdf). Yes, it’s the humor issue. As Exhale founder Aspen Baker writes in the intro to the issue:

Abortion is a serious personal issue that is hotly debated in public while real women have abortions in private, often in secret, and with little social support or understanding.

What could possibly be funny about that?

In this issue of Our Truths, we aim to find out. We witness funny women who use humor to get through tough times, truth-tellers who bust ridiculous myths about women who have abortions, and discover laughter that heals the soul. We also question humor that hides what’s real, judges or hurts others.

Check it out.

Massachusetts Adopts Breastfeeding Law: Massachusetts this month became the 48th state to offer legal protection to women who breastfeed their children in public. The Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition will provide mothers a “license to breastfeed” card with details of the new law and instructions on how to report violations, according to the Patriot Ledger.

The state Legislature passed the bill, “An Act to Promote Breastfeeding,” in December, and the governor signed it into law Jan. 9. Up to this point, women could have been prosecuted for indecent exposure or lewd conduct.

North Dakota and West Virginia remain the only states without breastfeeding legislation.

The Cutting Edge of Opera: “Skin Deep,” a new production opening in the UK, looks at the work of an unscrupulous fictional plastic surgeon: Dr. Needlemeier. At this BBC video slideshow, composer David Sawyer describes the opera as a story about “fear of death, vanity and the wish for immortality.” The “Skin Deep” website is far from superficial.

NABJ Conference on Health Disparities: The National Association of Black Journalists is hosting a conference on health disparities Jan. 30-31 at Morehouse School of Medicine.

The purpose is to “give journalists insight into health disparities affecting the African American community, resulting in significantly higher mortality rates. Learn how to cover major health and medical stories that make an impact. Topics include obesity, heart disease, stroke, HIV/AIDS, mental health and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.”

IVF Doesn’t Restore Fertility in Women Over 40: “A study involving more than 6,000 women who underwent the treatment at a large Boston clinic found that while [in vitro fertilization] could give infertile women younger than 35 about the same chance of having a baby as women typically have at that age, it could not counteract the decline in fertility that occurs among those older than 40,” writes Rob Stein at the Washington Post.

“Even as effective as IVF is, it can’t reverse the effects of aging,” said Alan S. Penzias of Harvard Medical School, who led the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine. “We cannot reverse the biological clock.” Here’s the study’s abstract.

Kidney Transplants Less Likely to go to Women: A new study indicates that women over 45 are significantly less likely to be placed on a kidney transplant list than their equivalent male counterparts, even though women who receive a transplant stand an equal chance of survival. The study appears online in the Journal of the America Society of Nephrology.

“As woman age, that discrepancy widens to the point where woman over 75 are less than half as likely as men to be placed on a kidney transplant list,” said lead researcher Dorry Segev, M.D., a Johns Hopkins transplant surgeon. “If the women have multiple illnesses, the discrepancy is even worse.”

Fosamax Linked to Two Diseases: “Two recent reports have linked the osteoporosis drug alendronate (Fosamax) with rare but serious side effects,” reports the L.A. Times.

“In a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine published Jan. 1, a Food and Drug Administration official reported that since Fosamax was first marketed in 1995, 23 cases of esophageal cancer in patients taking the drug — including eight deaths — have been reported to the agency. And a USC study published in the January issue of the Journal of the American Dental Assn. reported that nine patients who were taking Fosamax suffered osteonecrosis of the jaw — a bone-killing infection — after having teeth extracted at USC dental clinics.”

Among the many luminaries who died in 2008 are women who made significant contributions in the areas of women’s health and hospice care. Please add names and links we might have missed in the comments.

Pamela Morgan | b. 1949
In November, Our Bodies Ourselves lost one its founders, Pamela Morgan. A writer, editor and administrative manager of the organization in its early days, Morgan was “one of these extraordinarily multitalented individuals, and as a dancer, everything she did was with élan and flair,” said Judy Norsigian, executive director of OBOS.

Remembrances by other OBOS co-founders who had the privilege of working closely with Pamela can be read here.

Barbara Seaman | b. 1935
Barbara Seaman, a self-described muckraker, co-founded the National Women’s Health Network in 1975. A tireless advocate, she is credited with helping to create the concept of patients’ rights, particularly “informed consent,” and is well-known for her writings on women’s health. Her first book, “The Doctors’ Case Against the Pill” (1969), led to congressional hearings on the safety of oral contraceptives. “The Greatest Experiment Ever Performed on Women” (2003) was an expose of hormone replacement therapy.

OBOS co-founder Norma Swenson wrote wrote a rememberance of Barbara Seaman focusing on their involvement in the early women’s health movement.

Edwina Froelich | b. 1915
In the 1950s, Edwina Froelich was part of a group of suburban Chicago moms who met at each other’s homes to help new mothers with breastfeeding. The seven women, all Catholic housewives, founded the La Leche League.

“In those days you didn’t mention ‘breast’ in print,” Froehlich once said. “We knew that if we were ever going to get anything in the paper we would have to find a name that wouldn’t actually tell people what our organization was about.”

When we first wrote about her death in June, it sparked a discussion about La Leche and feminism. In an essay about Froelich published in The New York Times Magazine last week, Emily Bazelon addresses the history of the organization and its attitude toward working mothers.

Florence Wald | b. 1917
Here’s a hero we haven’t yet mentioned. In the 1960s, after attending a lecture by a British physician about opening the world’s first hospice, Florence Wald resigned her position as dean of the Yale School of Nursing to focus on developing a hospice care center in the United States.

“In those days, terminally ill patients went through hell, and the family was never involved,” she said. “No one accepted that life cannot go on ad infinitum.”

In 1974, Connecticut Hospice, the nation’s first home-care program for the terminally ill, opened its doors. A 44-patient hospice opened six years later. From The New York Times:

“This hospice became a model for hospice care in the United States and abroad,” the publication Yale Nursing Matters said this week, adding that Mrs. Wald’s role “in reshaping nursing education to focus on patients and their families has changed the perception of care for the dying in this country.”

There are now more than 3,000 hospice programs in the United States, serving about 900,000 patients a year.

In recent years, Mrs. Wald had concentrated on extending the hospice care model to dying prison inmates.

“People on the outside don’t understand this world at all,” Mrs. Wald told The New York Times in 1998. “Most people in prison have had a rough time in life and haven’t had any kind of education in how to take care of their health.”

Rosetta Reitz | b. 1924
Rosetta Reitz is best known for her support of women involved in early jazz and blues — stars who were overlooked in the shadow of male performers. With $10,000 borrowed from friends, Reitz created Rosetta Records, releasing 17 albums of lost music. But as The New York Times notes, music history was just one of Reitz’s accomplishments:

Ms. Reitz was at different times a stockbroker, a bookstore proprietor and the owner of a greeting card business. She was a food columnist for The Village Voice, a professor, a classified-advertising manager and author of a book on mushrooms. She was a founding member of Older Women’s Liberation. She reared three daughters as a single parent.

Ms. Reitz also wrote “Menopause: A Positive Approach” (1977), considered one of the first books to look at menopause from the viewpoint of women and not doctors. She listened to her recordings of women while she wrote the book, many of them celebrating the strength of women rather than treating them as victims.

“I was so alone and needed to be nurtured, and I found I was getting it from them,” she told The Los Angeles Times in 1992.

What to Discuss When You’re Discussing Health Care: If you’ve signed up to join or lead a health care discussion in your community — as requested by President-elect Barack Obama and Obama’s secretary-designate for Health and Human Services, former Sen. Tom Daschle — you might want to read Judith Graham’s “community discussions” blog series. Graham, a health writer for the Chicago Tribune, poses questions to ask and consequences that should be considered as part of any conversation.

And if you haven’t yet signed up, consider taking part; don’t leave health care reform up to the insurance and drug companies.

Plus: As part of the national discussion, The Big Push for Midwives is hosting a meeting today in Missouri on maternity care in the heartland. From the press release:

The conversation will explore the national maternity care crisis, which sits atop the two crumbling pillars of affordability and birth outcomes. The recent “D” and “F” grades that Kansas and Missouri received respectively from the March of Dimes for pre-term birth rates will be examined. Further, the need for our community, our state, our nation, to immediately shift its ingrained belief “that more medical intervention, regardless of cost, is better — even when the evidence doesn’t support such a claim” will be explored, specifically as it relates to mother and child health.

New Perspective on How HIV Infects Women: A new study by U.S. researchers has found that HIV appears to attack normal, healthy genital tissue in women. Previously researchers thought HIV transmission was more likely through breaks in the skin, such as a vaginal tear or herpes sore.

“Normal skin is vulnerable,” Thomas Hope, of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, told Reuters.

Hope said the study suggests the virus takes aim at places in the skin that had recently shed skin cells, in much the same way that skin on the body flakes off.

The finding casts doubt on the prior theory of the virus requiring a break in the skin or gaining access through a single layer of skin cells that line the cervical canal.

And it might explain why some prevention efforts have failed. Hope said one clinical trial in Africa in which women used a diaphragm to block the cervix had no effect at reducing transmission of the virus. Nor have studies of drugs designed to prevent lesions in genital herpes proven effective.

Breastfeeding Photos Censored; MILC Fights Back: Via Motherlode, we learn that MILC, the Mothers International Lactation Campaign, is asking Facebook members on Dec. 27 to change their profile picture, just for one day, to an image of a nursing mom, to protest the way Facebook has arbitrarily removed photos of women breastfeeding from member albums and profiles. The event description reads:

This could be a picture of you or someone you know nursing a child, it could be a painting or image of a sculpture of a breastfeeding woman, it could also be a photo or image of any nursing mammal … We ask that you include the status line of “Hey Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!”

Residency Law Struck Down in CA: “A San Francisco judge struck down a state law Tuesday that requires low-income women to live in California for six months before qualifying for state-funded care during pregnancy and immediately after childbirth,” reports the San Francisco Chronicle. 

“Time is of the essence in obtaining access to prenatal care, especially in the first trimester,” said Lynn Kersey, executive director of Maternal and Child Health Access, a nonprofit organization that filed a lawsuit against the state in April. “Study after study shows that early access to prenatal care is important for the well-being of the mother and the child. To deny working women health care simply because they are new to the state endangers the health of both the mother and the child.”

The ACLU of Northern California, one of the groups that represented MCH Access, has more.

Journal Articles on Promoting Preconception Health: The November/December issue of the journal Women’s Health Issues includes a free supplement — Policy and Financing Issues for Preconception and Interconception Health — meaning all articles are available online without a subscription. Topics include welfare reform, Medicaid funding and the role of community health centers.

For example, an article (pdf) by experts at the Kaiser Family Foundation reviews Medicaid’s eligibility policy and benefits of relevance to women of reproductive age and discusses challenges facing the program.

V-Day is Coming Soon: Chicago Women’s Health Center is holding an open call for all self-identified women to join the cast of The Vagina Monologues in Chicago. The open call takes place at 1p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 4. No experience needed. Email sexual DOT empowerment AT gmail.com for more info.

Pharmacy Owners’ Case Against Morning-After Pill Moves Forth: “Two pharmacists who object to filling prescriptions for emergency contraception, commonly known as the morning-after pill, will get their day in court after the Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday overturned an appellate decision dismissing their case,” reports the Chicago Tribune.

The pharmacists are challenging a 2005 executive order issued by now-troubled Gov. Rod Blagojevich requiring all Illinois pharmacists to dispense contraceptives, including the morning-after pill. The executive order later became an administrative regulation.

Pro-choice groups aren’t getting too upset about the 5-2 ruling (view the decision [pdf]).: “The court avoided the merits of the [pharmacists'] claim. All they did was say, procedurally, the case has to go back to the trial court for further consideration,” said Lorie Chaiten, director of the reproductive rights project at the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.

Dear Obama: Here’s Why You are Wrong on Warren: Leah McElrath Renna breaks it down:

The Presidential Inauguration is – by definition – a symbolic event. That’s its entire purpose. What it is NOT is a policy roundtable. No one disputes your right to seek a variety of viewpoints about policy concerns.

The point is that – with an entire world of spiritual leaders chomping at the bit to participate in this Inauguration – there is simply no valid reason that you could not have chosen someone to perform the Invocation who actually recognizes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people as whole and perfect children of God exactly how they are.

Plus: Wanna send donuts to Pastor Warren? Other ideas?

Enough with the Unofficial Feminism: I love Kate Winslet, which is why it pains me all the more to see her answer the tired gotcha question, “Are you a feminist?” with the tired mushy response:

“I think I probably am, aren’t I?” Her assistant hurriedly adds, “In a loose, unofficial kind of way,” but Winslet continues to ponder. “I think I probably am. I mean, not in a bra-burning way. But I think I am a feminist, yeah.”

Winslet does think Betty Friedan was “a feisty chick.”

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has updated its statement on breastfeeding promotion following a review of the evidence, and recommends that “health care settings use strategies that work with women and families both before and after delivery to encourage and support breastfeeding.” The previous review, published in 2003, did not address prenatal support and had found insufficient evidence for interventions such as counseling by primary care providers.

The Task Force is part of a government agency and focuses on better informing healthcare providers by reviewing evidence of effectiveness and developing recommendations for clinical services. Its recommendation in this case is Grade B, meaning that “There is high certainty that the net benefit is moderate or there is moderate certainty that the net benefit is moderate to substantial.”

In the recommendation, the reviewers note that there is evidence that breastfeeding may have health benefits for women and children, and that interventions to support breastfeeding have been found to increase the rates of initiation, duration, and exclusivity of breastfeeding, while the harms of such interventions are thought to be minimal.

The commentary on these potential harms specifically addresses the empowerment of women to make informed choices. The reviewers explain (emphasis added):

“No studies identified for the USPSTF reported harms from interventions to promote and support breastfeeding. Nonetheless, there are potential harms, such as making women feel guilty. Breastfeeding interventions, like all other health care interventions designed to encourage healthy behaviors, should aim to empower individuals to make informed choices supported by the best available evidence. As with interventions to achieve a healthy weight or to quit smoking, breastfeeding interventions should be designed and implemented in ways that do not make women feel guilty when they make an informed choice not to breastfeed.”

The reviewers also note that additional research is needed on issues such as exclusive vs. partial breastfeeding, costs and cost benefits of interventions to promote breastfeeding, the effectiveness of compliance with the World Health Organization’s Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative in the United States, the effects of individual components of breastfeeding support, and “to allow the tailoring of interventions to the needs of individual women and families.”

The agency’s Recommendation Statement is freely available online, and links to supporting documents are provided here.

A post at Well this week about a new breastfeeding study provides several lessons in language and privilege — and it also serves as a reminder of the importance of collective action.

The study, published in the August issue of the Journal of Human Lactation, found that while three-quarters of new mothers try breastfeeding, only 36 percent of babies are breastfed through six months. The recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics is to breastfeed exclusively for six months, with continued breastfeeding for one year or more. WHO recommends continuing for two years or more.

Despite those recommendations, the United States famously lags behind other countries in providing much-needed support for nursing mothers. Factors include the absence of breastfeeding training and support after hospital discharge; the high percentage of hospitals handing out free infant formula samples; the lack of paid maternity leave (only 51 percent of new mothers receive any paid maternity leave, and even among companies considered the best for working mothers [PDF], the statistics aren’t good); and the difficulties women encounter upon returning to work, including a lack of time and privacy to express milk in a safe, clean environment.

One of the first commenters on the Well post described her own experience:

I can tell you why breast feeding drops off before 6 months: Women have to work! As I type, I’m hooked up to a beast pump in my nice office with a locking door. It would not be possible for me to breastfeed if I didn’t have these small perks.

As a prosecutor, I’ve had to make some sacrifices to continue to breastfeed my daughter. For example, I can’t take any cases to trial because I can’t be away from my office for an entire day. Luckily, I have a supportive work environment.

I don’t know what one of my secretaries would do if she wanted to breastfeed. They are all stuck in cubicle land. [...]

Which prompted this response a few comments later:

Perhaps the prosecutor – and other women with the privileges and perks she cites – ought to stand up for the secretaries and others who don’t have those perks. Rather than wondering what those in cubicle land would do, she might ask those women what they do, and what the workplace as a whole could do to support them. There must be some space that could be used periodically by any woman needing to pump, and advocating for that would be a nice way for the poster, or anyone else (male or female!) to support working mothers. [...]

The commenter makes a great point, but really it’s the responsibility of all of us to advocate for these changes. Here’s another comment from a mother whose workplace seems to offer the ideal supportive environment that should be available to all women:

After returning to work when he was 3 months, I pumped three times a day in my work place’s “Mom’s rooms” which were a couple of small rooms in different buildings where we could plug in our pumps and store milk if needed in a fridge. Now 10 years later, we have more rooms and also company provided hospital grade pumps so Moms can just bring their own attachments instead of carting around the pump. I know being able to pump at work was a huge factor in me staying in the work force and not quitting to stay home. [...]

This amenity is available to all workers at our location – both manufacturing technicians in our plants and office (we only have cubes) employees. I will say, it took a lot of work to pump, deal with the bottles, skip outside lunches etc but it was worth it to me and my family. Meeting other Moms who were also pumping was another factor in sticking with it, so now I try to give this info to any new Moms in my group. I try to be non-judgemental when I mention this, just letting them know what is out there and thats its possible.

A number of commenters also took issue with the headline of the post: “Most Moms Give Up on Breastfeeding.” I think this response best sums up the critique:

“Giving up” definitely implies failure by the person doing the giving up — and yes, how you express the fact of abbreviated nursing periods DOES matter, a great deal.

Blame for the failure should be shared by many overlapping systems (and, of course, in some cases, the particular families involved). But when the problem is expressed in terms that frame it as a matter of personal, individual responsibility, the solutions to the problem end up focusing on improving individual behavior.

Even though the evidence of the benefits of avoiding artificial feeding continues to accumulate, we fail SYSTEMICALLY to allow all women and children to enjoy these benefits. So yes, some families “give up”. But this article isn’t about a few individual women or families who choose badly, it’s about the many hurdles faced by breastfeeding women in this country.

If you’re looking for a place to get started, Moms Rising has a statement you can sign in support of the Breastfeeding Promotion Act, which was introduced by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) in 2007 and now seems stuck. These are the major provisions:

• amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect breastfeeding women from being fired or discriminated against in the workplace
• provides tax incentives for businesses that establish private, lactation areas in the workplace
• provides for a performance standard for breast pumps
• allows breastfeeding equipment to be tax deductible for families

Rachel has more details about the bill here (along with a smart quibble!). And check out more campaigns sponsored by Moms Rising concerning family leave, health care and fair pay.

Plus: For anyone interested in the history of campaigns to increase breastfeeding rates, I came across this interesting article in the American Journal of Public Health that describes infant feeding practices and public health campaigns in the early 20th and 21st centuries.

Several organizations working on reproductive and other health topics are now sharing their message via online video. I’ve listed several examples below; feel free to suggest others in the comments.

Ipas has a video on abortion in Brazil, and explains that “Abortion in Brazil is highly restricted, allowed only in cases of rape, or to save the life or health of the mother. Women who break the law can be imprisoned for up to three years.” Their website also provides more information on the topic and their work in the nation.

World Breastfeeding Week starts today; a video contest was held on the theme of supporting breastfeeding women, and the winning entries are now available.

Consumer Reports Health has been conducting a “Cover America Tour,” in which they interview people about their struggles with paying for healthcare. The resulting videos from across America can be viewed here.

Finally, in a previous post, I mentioned the recent Wide Angle program, “Birth of a Surgeon,” on Mozambique midwives being trained to offer emergency surgical care to obstetric patients; the full episode is now available for online viewing.

Aisha Qaasim, a civil rights attorney, often advocates on behalf of others.

Today, in an essay published at Women’s eNews, Qaasim takes on the insults hurled at women who breastfeed in public and argues that the negativity surrounding breastfeeding is hurting the health of children and mothers, particularly in African-American families, where the rate of breastfeeding is the lowest.

Women who breastfeed lower their risk of developing uterine cancer, osteoporosis, Type 2 diabetes and breast cancer over their lifetimes.

But the irony is that in today’s ambitious parenting climate — where millions of dollars are being spent on educational toys and organic baby products — breastfeeding as the most important developmental head-start is often neglected.

Among African American women that’s particularly true. In 2004, 74 percent of U.S. women initiated breastfeeding soon after giving birth. Among black women it was 60 percent.

By the time infants reached 6 months of age — a key health target — only 14 percent of U.S. infants were breastfed exclusively. Among black infants it was 7 percent.

Only 36 percent of U.S. babies received breast milk in combination with formula or other foods at 6 months of age. For African American babies make that 29 percent.

Black women are the least likely to breastfeed, even those of us with a college education, health insurance and a nice paying job. African American women across the spectrum breastfeed less than women who have only a high school education, less than women who live below the poverty line and less than adolescent mothers, according to the Centers for Disease Control 2004 National Immunization Survey.

It’s not an abstract issue for Qaasim. As a black women, she has weathered overtly racist insults, much of which she could brush off. But Qaasim couldn’t shake a comment she heard while breastfeeding her 2-month-old daughter at a suburban Maryland mall.

“That is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen,” the woman said.

“A nameless woman at a mall was somehow the one to find the insult that I could not toss onto the neat pile of words that would never hurt me. It did hurt. And, these attitudes toward breastfeeding are making our children sick, especially African American children, who are the least likely to get the benefit of mothers’ milk,” writes Qaasim.

And when she complained about the ridicule — which she said almost always came from other women — friends and family didn’t offer much support.

The response is not uncommon. Among the many public obstacles women face with regard to breastfeeding — including a lack of privacy and time to pump breast milk at work and a lack of knowledge concerning laws in most states granting mothers the right to breastfeed in public spaces — discouragement from friends and family is also a major deterrent.

A recently published study of 88 new or soon-to-be mothers, mostly Hispanic and African-American, found that the opinions of family and friends are the most significant factor in determining whether low-income mothers breastfeed their children. The study, titled “Breast-feeding Intentions Among Low-Income Pregnant and Lactating Women,” appeared in the March-April 2008 issue of The American Journal of Health Behavior.

Interestingly, researchers found no statistical relationship between positive attitudes held by pregnant women concerning breastfeeding and their intent to breastfeed. The views of family members closest to them mattered the most. The researchers concluded that education about breastfeeding include the “opinion-shapers” as well as pregnant women.

“In the study, women were most significantly influenced by what they perceived to be the opinions of people close to them such as their husband or partner, siblings, friends and parents,” said Gina Jarman Hill, assistant professor of nutritional sciences at Texas Christian University. “Husbands or partners were the most influential.”

Henry Hale gets it. The 25-year-old African-American father of a 3-year-old daughter named Miracle is the first male certified breast-feeding peer counselor at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. He may even be the first in Illinois (or anywhere?).

“No one knows for sure, because calls to organizations that track this type of thing are met with befuddled silence,” writes Bonnie Miller Rubin in the Chicago Tribune. A photo of Hale is on the Trib’s front page today.

His interest in lactation began after the birth of his now 3-year-old daughter, Miracle, who was born at 24 weeks, weighing only 1 pound, 3 ounces. Hale and Miracle’s mother, Jackie Scott, attended Mother’s Milk Club, a weekly support group for parents of babies in the neonatal intensive-care unit, and learned about the health health benefits of breast feeding.

Although dads may make occasional appearances, Hale never missed a meeting, said Paula Meier, Rush’s director for clinical research and lactation.

“A lot of dads find it repulsive,” she said. “But Henry was just so outspoken and inspiring.”

That’s when Meier had a lightbulb moment: She’d recruit Hale to extol the virtues of breast-feeding — especially to the African-American community, which traditionally nurses at lower rates than other groups. [...]

“When I heard all the good things about breast milk,” Hale said, “my first thought was, ‘C’mon, let’s get it out. Let’s get going.’ ”

So Scott started pumping. For the first seven months, Miracle consumed nothing else.

“At the beginning, it was really hard,” Scott said to the group, which meets weekly to discuss every aspect of lactation, from inadequate milk supply to how nipple-piercing affects the process. “There were a couple of days when I just wanted to stop. But Henry really helped.”

How Hale assisted isn’t immediately clear given the basic anatomy involved. However, he picks up the thread of the discussion smoothly, explaining how he’d bring the pump to Scott at all hours and wash the equipment when she was done.

“It’s about focusing on what we — as men — can do,” he said.

Hale and Scott have a second daughter now, and both completed a five-day certification course that qualified them to volunteer as peer counselors. Rush is now looking at hiring Hale part-time to lead a male-only group.

Can you imagine? Think of how that education might translate to support at home — and more acceptance in public. The results could literally be life-saving.

Edwina Froehlich, who helped found La Leche League to support breast-feeding, died earlier this month at the age of 93.

The organization was founded in the 1950s, when Froehlich and six other women met in Franklin Park, Ill., to share information on how to successfully breastfeed their babies.

“In those days you didn’t mention ‘breast’ in print,” Froehlich once said. “We knew that if we were ever going to get anything in the paper we would have to find a name that wouldn’t actually tell people what our organization was about.”

From The New York Times:

A pioneer on several fronts of motherhood, she worked for Young Christian Workers, a Roman Catholic lay organization, before marrying John Froehlich when she was in her early 30s. She had her first child a couple of years later, making her comparatively old to have a first child at the time, and she made the controversial decision to forgo giving birth in a hospital in favor of a more natural delivery in her Franklin Park, Ill., home, with an obstetrician attending.

At a time when most pediatricians encouraged formula and bottle-feeding and when there were few scientific studies demonstrating the health benefits of breast milk, Mrs. Froehlich chose to breast-feed all of her babies, said another La Leche founder, Mary White.

“We used to tell the mothers the three main obstacles to successful breast-feeding were doctors, hospitals and social pressure,” Mrs. White said.

As Rachel noted yesterday, some hospitals, particularly in the south, are still engaging in practices that are not considered supportive of breastfeeding …

Update: The Dallas Morning News calls Edwina Froehlich a feminist pioneer in today’s editorial, which also describes regional prejudices against breastfeeding:

Local breastfeeding activists say many Texans think of the breast only in sexual terms, hence the anxiety over public breastfeeding. State law grants the right to breastfeed in public, but it has never been tested in court. And the risk of public humiliation is a powerful incentive to stay closeted.

That must change, and will. Even so, countless women are more free, and their babies better off, because a 1950s suburban mom refused to accept that one of the most natural things in the world is shameful or retrograde. Edwina Froehlich was ahead of her time.

The CDC has released a new summary of findings with regards to how well U.S. hospitals and birth centers meet Healthy People 2010 goals for supporting breastfeeding.

First, a little background. Healthy People 2010 is a series of health improvement objectives for the nation, with goals of increasing life expectancy, improving quality of life, and eliminating health disparities. Specific targets to reach by 2010 have been established in areas such as tobacco use, maternal health, nutrition, oral health, overweight, mental health, injury and violence prevention, and the like. The breastfeeding objective is to increase early postpartum breastfeeding from 64% to 75%, breastfeeding at 6 months from 29% to 50%, and the one-year rate from 16% to 25%.

In 2007, a survey was distributed to hospitals and birth centers to assess how well they were addressing these targets. They were asked about practices related to 1) labor and delivery, 2) breastfeeding assistance, 3) mother-newborn contact, 4) newborn feeding practices, 5) breastfeeding support after discharge, 6) nurse/birth attendant breastfeeding training and education, and 7) structural and organizational factors related to breastfeeding.

2,687 facilities (2,546 hospitals and 121 birth centers) from 50 states, Puerto Rico, and D.C. returned the surveys, and were assigned scores from 1 to 100, with 100 being the most supportive of breastfeeding.

Among the findings:

• Regional variation was apparent. Out of context, you’d probably think this was an election map. My southern sisters are being served least well with regards to breastfeeding support.

• 99% of facilities had documented the feeding decisions of the majority of mothers in facility records
• 88% “taught the majority of mothers techniques related to breastfeeding”
• “65% of facilities advised women to limit the duration of suckling at each breastfeeding, and 45% reported giving pacifiers to more than half of all healthy, full-term breastfed infants, practices that are not supportive of breastfeeding” (see report online for references for these statements).
• 70% of facilities reported providing discharge packs containing infant formula samples to breastfeeding mothers (another practice considered “not supportive of breastfeeding”)
• This is something I didn’t expect – “postpartum home visits were reported by 22% of facilities.” However, breastfeeding support after discharge received the lowest mean score of all measures.
• “24% of facilities reported giving supplements (and not breast milk exclusively) as a general practice with more than half of all healthy, full-term breastfeeding newborns”
• “In addition, 17% of facilities reported they gave something other than breast milk as a first feeding to more than half the healthy, full-term, breastfeeding newborns born in uncomplicated cesarean births.”

Findings from birth centers are also included – in general, they scored higher overall than hospitals (mean of 86 vs. 62 for hospitals).

The authors note that participating facilities will receive a benchmarking report in July of this year illustrating how they stack up against other facilities in their state, similarly sized facilities, and the nation.

[Cross-posted at Women's Health News]

Bush Ally Orr Leaves Just as Domestic Gag Rule Is Reconsidered: RH Reality Check has good coverage of the surprise resignation of Dr. Susan Orr, the assistant deputy secretary for population affairs. Orr previously worked for the Family Research Council — one of several conservative groups now pressuring President Bush to cut Title X family planning funding for clinics who also provide abortion services.

“Her most notable accomplishment in the year she has served is to defend the abstinence-until-marriage approach in the face of incontrovertible evidence it has failed,” writes Cristina Page. “Now that the Unplanned Family Research Council is within days of hitting another nail into Title X’s coffin, Dr. Orr suddenly and quietly resigns from her post so, one suspects, to not appear to have orchestrated the undermining of her own program from within.”

Read related posts by Amie Newman and Emily Douglas, and here’s more on the domestic gag rule by Marilyn Keefe of the National Partnership for Women & Families.

Plus: The Hill reports on how a group of centrist House Republicans are squaring off with GOP conservatives over modifying Title X regulations.

Domestic Partners Can Wed Without Dissolution: “Same-sex couples who are registered as domestic partners do not have to dissolve that union before getting married, attorneys that advise the state Legislature said Thursday, just as county clerks and other local officials met to determine how they will enact last week’s historic state Supreme Court ruling,” reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

Of course, there’s still the possibility of voters this November approving a constitutional amendment to limit marriage to opposite-sex couples. State Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco warned that in light of future uncertainty, couples should not dissolve their domestic partnerships until that question is settled.

“It would be foolhardy to dissolve because it would create a period of vulnerability” for couples, Migden said.

For answers to more questions on the legality and logistics of same-sex marriage in California, check out this special news section.

FDA Warns Mothers About Nipple Cream: The Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to nursing mothers on Friday not to use or purchase Mommy’s Bliss Nipple Cream, marketed by MOM Enterprises Inc. of San Rafael, Calif., The product label says there’s no need to remove the cream before nursing, but it contains ingredients that may cause respiratory distress, vomiting and diarrhea in infants. Whoa.

The potentially harmful ingredients in the cream are chlorphenesin and phenoxyethanol. From the FDA release:

“Chlorphenesin relaxes skeletal muscle and can depress the central nervous system and cause respiratory depression (slow or shallow breathing) in infants. Phenoxyethanol is a preservative that is primarily used in cosmetics and medications. It also can depress the central nervous system and may cause vomiting and diarrhea, which can lead to dehydration in infants.”

“FDA is particularly concerned that nursing infants are being unwittingly exposed by their mothers to this product with dangerous side effects,” said Janet Woodcock, director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Additionally, these two ingredients may interact with one another to further compound and increase the risk of respiratory depression in nursing infants.”

The FDA said it has not received any reports of injury to infants. The company has stopped selling the cream.

Chemicals in Nail Salons Affect Workers: A new survey from the Northern California Cancer Center and Asian Health Services of Oakland has found that Vietnamese nail salon workers suffer from acute health effects associated with the chemicals they use in that work, according to this release. Toxic and potentially hazardous ingredients, including solvents, plasticizers, resins and acids, are commonly found in nail care products.

“A majority of the workers reported health concerns from exposures to workplace chemicals,” reports Dung Nguyen of Asian Health Services who directed the face-to-face interviews with 201 Vietnamese nail salon workers at 74 salons. “Many of them reported having some health problem after they began working in the industry, particularly skin and eye irritation, breathing difficulties and headaches.” said Nguyen.

“Our findings highlight a critical need for further investigation into the breast cancer risk of nail salon workers, underscored by the workers’ routine use of carcinogenic and endocrine-disrupting chemicals, their prevalent health concerns about such chemicals, and their high level of acute health problems,” adds Thu Quach, MPH, of the Northern California Cancer Center.

The study was published online and is scheduled to appear in the October issue of Journal of Community Health.

New Safety Program to Monitor Medicare Drug Use: “Federal health officials will begin monitoring prescription drug usage by millions of Medicare participants in an effort to identify potential safety problems,” reports the Associated Press. Kevin Freking writes:

The Food and Drug Administration has been under increasing pressure to develop a comprehensive drug surveillance system since the painkiller Vioxx was pulled from the market in 2004 after it was linked to increased risk of stroke and heart attack.

New regulations announced Thursday by the Health and Human Services Department will enable the FDA, states and academic researchers to screen the Medicare claims data. Under the regulation, the Medicare data can be made available in 30 days.

My favorite quote from the story: “The era of wait and see is going to become the era of tell me right now,” the FDA commissioner, Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, said.

At first glance it sounds great. But then you read that only general details about the cost of enacting this new “Sentinel Initiative” were provided and, as Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said, it’s still in the planing states. Our verdict: We’ll wait and see.

Legal Rights of the Uninsured: The Chicago Tribune blog Triage, written by Judith Graham, covers issues related to the health-care industry. Here’s an interesting post on the legal rights of the uninsured — which in Illinois refers to 1.75 million people, almost 60 percent of whom are employed. For starters:

There is no such thing as a “right to care” for people who don’t have health insurance, with one major exception.

If you’re experiencing a medical emergency, you can go to any hospitals and get treatment. Hospitals are enjoined from turning you away under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), a federal act passed by Congress in 1986.

Plus: For up-to-date statistics and analysis of health care coverage and the uninsured, visit this section of the Kaiser Family Foundation. And check out the new Kaiser Fast Facts.

My Veggie Hero: Meet Johanna McCloy, who is taking on one ballpark at a time, trying to get vegetarian hot dogs added to the menu so all baseball fans can experience the joy of filling a bun with sauerkraut and mustard (ketchup? yeah, right). Check out her site, SoyHappy.org. And go Cubs!

When Chick Flicks Get Knocked Up: “Eventually, your female friends — the ones who married late and retained youthful obsessions with Yo La Tengo and graphic art books until forty — may shock you by having children,” writes Alissa Quart at Mother Jones. “This year, at least, they have cinematic alter egos; those millennium Mary Tyler Moores Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt have left their cosmos and canned laughter behind and gotten knocked up onscreen too. In the process, they have created a new genre: The Fertility Film. But are the new fertility film stars actually feminists?” (via Feministing)

Silicone Gel Implants May Lose Approval: From our enlightened neighbor to the north … “Health Canada may have to reverse its controversial 2006 decision to allow women to get silicone gel-filled breast implants if it proceeds with a plan to declare key chemicals found in them to be toxic, experts say,” reports The Ottawa Citizen. (via Beauty and the Breast)

South Carolina Supreme Court Overturns Conviction: “A South Carolina woman convicted of homicide by child abuse after her stillborn baby tested positive for cocaine should get a new trial because of several mistakes her attorneys made, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday,” reports the Associated Press. “Attorneys for Regina McKnight did not introduce the baby’s autopsy report into evidence and failed to rebut the prosecution’s medical expert, the court said in the unanimous decision.”

Prosecutors have 15 days to decide whether to appeal. From the Myrtle Beach Online:

Attorneys for the National Advocates for Pregnant Women and the S.C. Civil Liberties Union became involved in McKnight’s case when she asked for post-conviction relief.

“The groups got involved because there is complete consensus that prosecuting pregnant women is bad for mothers and babies,” said Lynn Paltrow, with the National Advocates for Pregnant Women. “Regina McKnight was convicted on junk science and was not fairly represented at trial.”

A Place to Pump: “Washington area women have hooked up electric or manual versions in parked cars, restrooms, a telephone booth and the basement storage room of the National Zoo visitors center, where a box of panda costumes doubled this spring as a table on which one woman set her pump, bottles and other equipment,” writes Rebecca Adams at the Washington Post.

“Not perhaps what the D.C. Council had in mind when it passed a law in December requiring employers to provide female workers a private, clean space, outside a restroom, to express milk. The Child’s Right to Nurse Act also gives a woman the right to breast-feed, covered or not, in any place, public or private, where she has a right to be.”

Maternal Exposure to Persistent Organic Pollutants Linked to Urologic Conditions in Boys: This release from the American Urological Association summarizes studies that confirm existing hypotheses that maternal exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals – including total polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs, such as Arochlor) and organochlorinated pesticides (such as dichlorodiphenyl-trichloroethane, or DDT) may contribute to an increased incidences of congenital anomalies.

Mammograms Coupled with Ultrasounds: Deborah Katz of U.S. News & World Report looks at new research on combining mammography and ultrasounds, which may be better for finding cancers in some women, but it also greatly increases the rate of false-positive results. Plus: Check out our analysis on routine mammograms for premenopausal women.

The Business of Bacteria: The L.A. Times reports on the popularity of probioitics, live "friendly" bacteria that is showing up in more foods, like Dannon’s Activia yogurt. “Companies claim that the daily consumption of probiotics can provide consumers with benefits such as a boost to the immune system and relief from intestinal distress — and researchers think that certain probiotic strains hold promise in a number of areas,” writes Brendan Borrell. “But how significant these benefits are is a matter of debate. And it can be tough to decipher which products offer verifiable health claims and which are piggybacking on the hype of the booming industry.

Doctors Start to Say “I’m Sorry” Long Before “See You in Court”: The New York Times reports on a change in hospital policy: full disclosure when a doctor makes a mistake. Kevin Sack writes:

For decades, malpractice lawyers and insurers have counseled doctors and hospitals to “deny and defend.” Many still warn clients that any admission of fault, or even expression of regret, is likely to invite litigation and imperil careers.

But with providers choking on malpractice costs and consumers demanding action against medical errors, a handful of prominent academic medical centers, like Johns Hopkins and Stanford, are trying a disarming approach.

By promptly disclosing medical errors and offering earnest apologies and fair compensation, they hope to restore integrity to dealings with patients, make it easier to learn from mistakes and dilute anger that often fuels lawsuits.

Malpractice lawyers say that what often transforms a reasonable patient into an indignant plaintiff is less an error than its concealment, and the victim’s concern that it will happen again.

Culture Affects How Teen Girls See Harassment: “Teenage girls of all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds still experience sexism and sexual harassment – but cultural factors may control whether they perceive sexism as an environmental problem or as evidence of their own shortcomings,” according to this release from the University of Kentucky summarizing a study of 600 girls, ages 12 to 18, in California and Georgia.

Ninety percent of the girls reported experiencing at least one incident of sexual harassment, the researchers from University of Kentucky and University of California Santa Cruz found.

Specifically, 67 percent of girls reported receiving unwanted romantic attention, 62 percent were exposed to demeaning gender-related comments, 58 percent were teased because of their appearance, 52 percent received unwanted physical contact and 25 percent were bullied or threatened with harm by a male. 52 percent of girls also reported receiving discouraging gender-based comments on the math, science and computer abilities, usually from male peers, and 76 percent of girls reported sexist comments on their athletic abilities, again
predominantly from male peers.

The researchers found that girls have different levels of understanding of sexism and sexual harassment, which may affect reporting data. Older girls and those from a lower socioeconomic background reported more sexism than did their peers. Latin and Asian American girls reported less sexual harassment than did girls of other ethnic groups. Girls who had been exposed to feminist ideas, either through the media or an adult such as a mother or teacher, were more likely to identify and report sexist behavior than were girls who had no information about feminism. Girls who reported feeling pressure from their parents to conform to gender stereotypes were also more likely to perceive sexism. Girls who felt atypical for their gender and/or were unhappy with stereotypical gender roles were most likely to report sexism and harassment.

The study appears in the May/June issue of Child Development.