Thursday, August 14, 2008

HIV & Breastfeeding--part 8

photo by Jessie McClain

"Although humans are at continuous risk of infection by microbial pathogens, most survive these repeated onslaughts by mounting rapid responses that utilize a variety of antimicrobial proteins and small polypeptides."

This quote is from a patent filed by Agennix, a company in Texas that genetically engineers human lactoferrin (a component of human milk) for use as an antibiotic. The patent was filed in 2002 and called "Antimicrobial/endotoxin neutralizing polypeptide." Those who synthetically manufacture or genetically engineer what is made naturally in the body, seem to have lost hope that nature will resolve the infection. In fact we seem to live in a society that believes that nature doesn't work right or fast enough to suit the needs of a modern world. We imitate a small component of the natural world and make lots of it. Of course, nature does not work that way, so there is always repercussions.

For centuries prior to the manufacturing of baby milks, breastfeeding meant survival. We have always lived in a world teeming with microbes/pathogens and the survival of our young was dependent upon a mother's ability to breastfeed her babies. With the manufacturing of baby milks, the need for a sterile environment becomes critical for the survival of the infant. Baby milks have to be sterile liquids--without life. Survival of humanity becomes dependent on a world without living microbes/pathogens. And there are repercussions. The human body was designed to survive among microbes. Sterile environments mean that the human body does not work optimally. Prebiotics and probiotics are now being marketed because antibiotics in the body create a sterile environment ripe for the next pathogen. Medical science has begun to realize that it is the beneficial microbes that create health. When we sterilize our environment, we kill the pathogens but we also kill the beneficial microbes. Breastfeeding is designed to selectively target the pathogens in the mother/baby environment while building a beneficial microbial environment in the gut of the infant. There is no sterility, no lack of life. The use of infant formula is premised on the belief that man can create something as good or better than human milk and that breastfeeding is unnecessary in a wealthy world. We will liberate women from being slaves to their bodies. Interestingly, men are never interested in being liberated from the slavery of their bodies. But we, women, need to be liberated from our bodies--from birth, from breastfeeding. We will let men design and create birth and nutrition for infants. We will let institutions bring up those infants and this will create a better world. Let's look around us and see the ramifications of this belief (few births in the US are without interventions, few babies are exclusively breastfed and more and more children spend enormous chunks of time without either parent). I see alot of mentally and physically unhealthy children. What do you see?

Our society believes that we can do without breastfeeding and that we can export that viewpoint to other countries around the world. Medical science thinks the solution to pathogen/hiv transmission from mother-to-child is to prevent breastfeeding. Should we be surprised about the number of infants of hiv-positive mothers in Africa who died while being formula-fed versus the survival of infants exclusively breastfed? We believe that if we could eradicate poverty, then formula feeding would be safe. But is that a truth?

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"HUMAN MILK PATENT PENDING"

Human milk components and their gene constructs are being patented. Currently, there are some 2000 patents and applications in the US Patent & Trademark Office. Will the commercialization of human milk encourage, protect and promote breastfeeding? Or will patenting with its need for profits and monopoly result in less encouragement, protection and promotion of breastfeeding?

About Me

How does one describe oneself to those who landed on this page in this virtual library called the internet? I was born in Canada and moved to the USA when I was six years old. I graduated from the State University College of New York at Potsdam with a BA, majoring in political science. Got married, got divorced. Got married again, had children, got divorced. I birthed all my babies at home, breastfed them, and became a La Leche League leader for 10 years. I became an a IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Consultant) in 1991 and retired that credential in the fall of 2011. I was employed by the WIC Program for 4 years in Volusia County, Florida. In 1998 I began to question the reasoning behind denying hiv positive women the right to breastfeed. In my research for answers I stumbled upon a human milk component patent to be used to treat hiv/aids patients. Thus began my quest to understand why so much of the real knowledge of human milk is buried.