Category: Maternal Health

  • Allergy Inquiry Submission November 2019

    HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Standing Committee on Health Aged Care and Sport : Inquiry into Allergies and Anaphylaxis submission by Maureen Minchin, Milk Matters Pty Ltd Summary Since 1976 I have lived and worked with allergy, published about it since 1980, and taught health professionals and others about it. I have worked with international bodies such…

  • Human or microbial? deception in marketing

    Over the years, many sad stories, but were there happy endings? I often wonder about outcomes long term. One in particular.  Were you the midwife who attended both my infant feeding and allergy and IBLCE exam prep workshops with your newborn baby more than 20 years ago? Workshops were held in Armadale around three weeks…

  • The visual Milk Hypothesis

    ‘what we feed them now matters forever’…… www.infantfeedingmatters.com

  • Infant Feeding History revised

    Chapter 14 of Breastfeeding and Breast Milk: from Biochemistry to Impact. What follows is the Content (but not the lovely formatting) of the entire chapter and references, pp. 219-239, as from my galley proofs of the above-titled book, published by Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart in September 2018. Reproduced here with the consent of the publisher,…

  • IBFAN Asia Presentations Reading List

    Basic resource: Milk Matters: infant feeding and immune disorder, is also available as two inexpensive e-books, Infant formula and Modern Epidemics (the science and reality of artificial feeding) and Crying Babies and Food in the Early Years.No other book contains what this does. You need access to this. My Milk Hypothesis is available online in shorter…

  • Tuteur-Minchin Debate Outline

    WHY A TIMELINE? In my opinion, in an era of fake news and online hatred, Amy Tuteur (AT), the so-called Skeptical Obstetrician, and author of Push Back: Guilt in the Age of Natural Parenting, is undermining public health efforts, and I suspect, profiting from doing so. Personally, as a result of her behaviour, I consider…

  • Tuteur Push Back: Minchin Review

    Push Back. Guilt in the Age of Natural Parenting by Amy Tuteur. (HarperCollins NY 2016) INTRODUCTION I find it extraordinary for any medical doctor to have written a book containing such sweeping generalisations, allegations of vile motives by other health professionals, and minimally researched, provably untrue, and defamatory, assertions. Sadly, it is no longer rare…

  • Evidence streams in infant feeding: ex-debate

    Breastfeeding has become the centrepiece of public health programmes, endorsed by the health industry and the infant formula industry and philanthropic groups and national governments alike. How did the world arrive at that global consensus about the importance of breastfeeding? It developed from three related, but independent, streams of evidence. 1. The first stream flows…

  • Tuteur debate: Minchin 3

    TUTEUR MINCHIN DEBATE  MINCHIN 3: A REPLY TO TUTEUR 2  Thanks to an onlooker, I received a copy of Amy Tuteur MD’s latest reply, which I discovered online at 12.30pm today June 21. It is not a reply addressed to me, but to her supporters. It is they who matter.    And to them I say that…

  • Tuteur debate: Minchin 2

    Tuteur debate: Minchin 2  is a two part reply for the historical record. It is in two parts. The first annotates what  Amy Tuteur posted online on her Facebook page.  The second part is a  critique of her reply (Tuteur 1)  to Minchin 1.   Get a cuppa or a glass of wine and read…

  • Tuteur debate: Minchin 1

    PREAMBLE FOR ANY SPECTATORS It is because infant feeding is such a powerful issue, and so important to global health, that I agreed to spend the time on this question set by Amy Tuteur, and to create a time-stamped secure permanent record on a dedicated website for future reference by historians of the “the Mommy…

  • Why am I (still) debating Amy Tuteur?

    As you wait for my reply to her question, to be posted tonight at midnight, here’s an answer to a question I am being asked. Why would anyone persist through so many unilateral changes ot procedure and topic as Amy has tried to create, though so much rudeness and scorn from her? Well may you…

  • Tuteur/Minchin debate procedure

    Debate procedure Maureen Minchin will follow This process has been independently designed after consulting tech experts to maximise accountability, minimise pointless emotive conflict, clearly delineate what is included and what is not, and create an independent record of all contributions. I am satisfied that the time spent on specialist consultation should achieve the end result of a…

  • The Bottle, the Breast and the State: Oakley review

     The Bottle the Breast and the State. The politics of infant feeding in the United States.  By Maureen Rand Oakley. (Lexington Books 2015) I like this book, which should be  read by those in mother support, breastfeeding advocacy and feminist academia with the time to do so. I  support Oakley’s approach, as I welcome any book…

  • MILK: THE BIOLOGY OF LACTATION

    MILK: THE BIOLOGY OF LACTATION by Michael L Power and Jay Schulkin (Johns Hopkins Press, 2016) This relatively small book aims to inform, stimulate and even challenge thought about milk and lactation, its evolution, and its importance to modern life. It achieves those aims. The structure is clear, the authors adhere to it, and summarise…

  • What 3-4 months means…

    There should be no recommendation for change to the age of introduction of other foods to breastfed infants. For formula fed infants, there may be a case for widening the diet from 3-4 months onwards, as total dependence on a single dehydrated industrial powder is inherently risky; moderation and variety are the keys to dietary…

  • UNDOING THE MYTH THAT SUSTAINS FORMULA FEEDING

    Food in general has never been more extensively and intensively investigated, and recently three books have added to my knowledge of the reality of food processing. I commend them to anyone interested in the politics and science of food. And I hope the authors of all three books will in future address the topic of…

  • Milk coming in…or not getting out? Engorgement at day 3

    About milk coming in on day 3. A discussion in a closed group prompted this. People need to realise that milk coming in is a gradual process, from about 20-48 hours onwards, as progesterone levels drop and lactose synthesis revs up, and with it, an increase in milk supply. Stasis can occur when there is a combination of…

  • Mastitis: old thoughts

    In 1985 I first argued, in Breastfeeding Matters: what we need to know about infant feeding, that mastitis is not (always) synonymous with breast infection, as was commonly said then.  This is by now accepted in the lactation consultant community. But a recent post in a mothers online group made me realise that the old idea is still alive…

  • Are baby biotics bugging you?

    I was recently asked to comment on the use of probiotics and prebiotics preconceptionally, during pregnancy, while breastfeeding, and to the newborn. The questioner wanted to know which,  if  any, probiotics I recommend over others. What follows is adapted from my reply. Probiotics, probiotics and synbiotics are discussed in Milk matters at more length than I…

  • Embarrassing Bodies embarrasses themselves

    Imagine you meet a young woman who is embarrassed by the fact that one eye is brown and the other green, to the point where she has worn an eyeshade to conceal what she sees as the odd one. There are many solutions to this problem, beginning with discussion and reassurance that this abnormality is…