"Going for the gold" World Breastfeeding Week

Another World Breastfeeding Week around the corner, August 1-7. 2008. The theme this year is "Mother Support: Going for the Gold."

Well, it is certainly a going for the gold kind of year. How many patents and applications on human milk components? Over 2000. And add to that an application for a human milk composition, a standardized human milk.

Going for the gold.....a rather ironical statement...........oh the silence of the lambs....you won't hear a peep from me.......secrets and patents............sshh.......what a topsy-turvy world, where down is up and up is down..........and who really is going for the gold???

Ownership, invention, and control

The magnolia blossom unfolds magically. It must be magic--I didn't see it happen even though I stared at it for at least an hour. Just suddenly, there it is, and the bees and wasps are landing and relanding to get their fill of pollen. If I had the remote control for nature, I would just sit and watch this miracle happening over and over and over again. But I don't need a remote, because its there in my backyard and I can watch it all spring and summer long. I own the tree or so I think I do. It's on my property. I pay taxes on the property but do I really own it? Sometimes Florida Power & Light (FPL) thinks its their tree and hacks its branches out of the wires. They v-notch her, a butchered job, and I can't bear to watch or look at her for a month. FPL seems to own her, if she touches their wires. She is just a job to them, just a thing in the way of progress, our need for electricity. To me, she is a glorious living creature. Tall and beautiful, with wonderful shade in this hot and humid climate. A great invention, when men want to have her. But in the way and a burden to those of us who must have our electricity.

How do you patent human milk? Like the magnolia blossoming in its own time, breastmilk flows in its own time, regulated by birth and/or nipple stimulation. There it is...a miracle food for our children. We can't see the milk being produced nor see the ounces in designer plastic bottles. So, we question the magic, the miracle of nature. We think it is our property, afterall it is produced in our bodies. Yet someone else sees the beauty and decides that its utility should be shaped and pruned by men of science. They suddenly own it and can hack it into components that give it utility for our progressive society. Human milk as invention. Men will shape her into their definition of nature and natural. For after all they own this earth and with ownership one must control one's property. Fence, prune, and destroy it at will because one can do what one likes when its your property. But who truly owns nature? Who invents it? Who controls it? Men of science say they do. And then the hurricane comes......who controls who?

Copyright 2008 Valerie W. McClain

Human Milk ...An Invention

Isn't it bizarre to think that some humans are inventing a standardized human milk? Are the inventors (employees of Prolacta Bioscience) claiming ownership of pasteurized human milk with certain specifications? If so, what does this mean for the non-profit milk banking system? Will they be allowed to use their donated pasteurized milks for free? Or will they owe Prolacta?

What has this world come to when a part of our society believes that one can "invent" a standardized human milk? Who determines what the standard is regarding human milk? A corporation? Human milk is species specific, as are all mammal milks. Human milk is also specific for the individual--the mother's mammary gland reacts to the mother's environment by creating antibodies that protect the infant. Thus the level of protection through breastfeeding from mother to infant is far greater than an infant receiving donor milk (which is pooled, heat-treated, and/or fortified).

So what do breastfeeding advocates and organizations feel about this? Silence is acceptance. Is this an ethical approach to the problem of infant feeding? Is this justice? Is this taking away the power of human milk from its owners and designing a product to suit the whims of a new industry? Will the cries of our infants for the breast, for human intimacy be stilled? Human milk is not invention. It is not a product we redesign to suit the needs of an industry.

Copyright 2008 Valerie W. McClain

Ethics: Ask the roof cat

My roof cat, Neeko--photo by Valerie W. McClain

Ask a roof cat about life and living and she smartly stays silent. She prowls her territory with great agility and wisely surveys her domain from the safety of the roof. Ask a roof cat about ethics at breakfast time, and she meows quite loudly. How dare you postpone breakfast for some discussion that is of no interest to her life? Feed her and ask her again and she promptly runs to the roof. "Oh roof cat, what do you think about the patenting of human milk?" Meow and a graceful leap to the roof. She turns and leans over the roof to stare at you, unconcerned by the tumultous world of humans and their thoughts on ethics. She stares at you. She knows something, if only she spoke my language. She meows again and bolts to the other side of the roof to watch her mockingbird. Yes, her bird friend, who keeps her on her toes and tries to peck her to keep her from getting to close to the nest.

Ask a roof cat about birth and feeding her babies. How did it go for you? Birthing all those babies? Oh my roof cat, I am afraid I could not offer you drugs for your birth or even speed it up or slow it down. I sat and watched and petted you during the worst moments. I don't think you realized I was even there but then again maybe you do remember. Your kittens came one after another, ugly little wet animals, tail first looking like you were birthing snakes. I kept my hands out of your space and watched as you a new mother nursed your babies. I wondered were the babies correctly positioned? Should I move them closer? Should I touch your precious little ones? No, I think not. I let you and your family alone. I was astounded at how you as a new mother knew what to do. You fed them around the clock and never seemed to be weary. And as they grew older, you left them more and more. And when weaning began, you showed your irritation with the antics of your babies and yet you were their protector.

So roof cat, what do you think of the human world, where mother's milk can be owned and sold? If you could break the species barrier and speak to us, would you discuss the wisdom of companies owning mammal milks and selling them to save us all from the task of raising our young? Oh, I think you wouldn't care because you could not comprehend the enormity of a world gone mad. Jump to the roof, hide from the humans....it is a world gone insane by desire for wealth without conscience. Do you know roof cat that they have cloned a cat? Oh yes roof cat I am sure they have cloned a cat. Oh roof cat, roof cat...what do you think of that?

Copyright 2008 Valerie W. McClain

Standardized human milk patent-pending

photo by Jessie McClain

Welcome to the Brave New World. One has to be brave to read and digest this patent application # 20080124430 called "Human Milk Compositions and Methods of Making and Using Same." This is a patent application on the invention of a human milk fortifier and standardized human milk (whatever that means--read the patent application).

http://www.uspto.gov/patft/

Invented by Elena Medo et al and various employees of Prolacta Bioscience. So the question is what are they claiming to own?? There seems to be some slippery slope language in this application. What is standardized human milk? Is this a claim to ownership of a "standardized" human milk from donors? And aren't we charting new territory with this patent? Should we be outraged over this? It was inevitable but there are some ethical questions regarding the patenting of a "standardardized human milk." It would seem to me that the language used in this patent application is careful but still creates some ethical dilemnas. How will my profession respond to this patent application? I would think that it should at the very least bring up some needed debate/discussion but I am not holding my breath on that. Who really cares? So what if a few people of a corporation own a pending patent claiming ownership to a standardized human milk? What does it matter that there are over 2000 human milk component patents? Stem cells in human milk? We just discovered (cough-cough) stem cells in human milk. Of course, we won't tell people that old text books on human milk state that there are stem cells in human milk. Picture a mother donating her milk to save a preterm infant or sick adult. Does she realize that her milk is an invention created by an industry? Her milk is the raw ingredient. A corporation will standardize it and sell it. Sounds like the dairy industry to me. Enslavement in the 21st century under the auspices of doing good. Human milk is not an invention, nor any version/variation that some group of people dream up!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Breastfeeding is the value. Human milk is valuable but it should not be a commodity nor is it an invention. Brave New World, I never thought I'd live to see this day.

Copyright 2008 Valerie W. McClain

patents regarding neonatal jaundice and breastfeeding

photo by Jessie McClain

Filed in 2001 is patent # 6627213 called, "Inhibition of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia in breast fed infants." The inventors of this patent Glenn R. Gourley and Bill L Kreamer have written studies in Pediatrics on the use of various substances to lower bilirubin in breastfed infants. The patent is assigned to the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation but the patent specifically mentions Nutramigen (Mead Johnson) as a particular formula of interest for this patent. The US Government has interests in this patent (so they get to make money off it too) Both Gourley and Kreamer received funding for their research through Mead Johnson. The L-aspartic acid they suggest will lower bilirubin is in all probability genetically engineered. This invention will of course have ramifications for mothers who plan to "exclusively" breastfeed their newborns. Rather fascinating how the infant formula industry can target breastfeeding for remedies...yes, yes...remember the golden role of choice in infant feeding: breastfeeding always is questionable and therefore the default of choice is infant formula or some kind of intervention so that breastfeeding can be fixed. Of course, industry just knows that fixing breastfeeding is the basis of infant formula sales. The world calls it choice....

The illusion of "choice"

photo by Jessie McClain

As women, we have been liberated from our biology. Infant feeding is declared a choice. Breast or bottle?? Spin the bottle and the bottle lands on breast. So mom "tries" breast. She survives THE BIRTH (and nowadays that is a miracle--another stomping ground of "choice") and has a try at this thing called breastfeeding. She has difficulties...sore nipples, engorgement, feelings of being overwhelmed but she thinks she has it all under control. Oops, she goes to the two week pediatric check and finds that her baby has not gained enough weight. Sorry, the medical staff say you must supplement with the "BOTTLE." So where did choice go? Mother chooses breast, the medical staff declare it ain't working. So choice defaults to BOTTLE. Breastfeeding mothers find that choice always defaults to bottle...no matter what. Does bottle ever default to breast? Sorry mother, bottlefeeding isn't working for you, you will have to breastfeed your baby? Your baby hasn't gained sufficient weight on the bottle, so you must go to breast. Your baby has gotten diarrhea for the second time on that formula, so you must go to breast. Any mother ever ever heard those words out of a medical professional. No because the medical rule is that "Breast always defaults to bottle never bottle to breast." Yet as a lactation consultant I know that women can and do relactate. (relactated myself and know it is possible)So it isn't something that is biologically impossible. It is just a mental leap that cannot be circumvented in the medical community. So exactly how is choice in infant feeding an equivalent choice? Isn't this a token choice to make women feel like they can be freed from their biology?

The offer of choice dissolves when a mother tests positive for hiv. Fascinating in that a number of infant formula companies, pharmaceutical companies, medical institutions, and the US Department of Health own patents on various human milk components to inactivate or treat hiv/aids. A hiv positive mother goes against medical protocol in the USA, if she breastfeeds. While our multi-national corporations, medical institutions, and the US government have "faith" as documented by their patenting in human milk components, a hiv-positive mother loses her faith in breastfeeding. Choice, what is that when you test positive for hiv? Doesn't exist....an illusion.

Breastfeeding is often terminated when a mother is ill or when the infant is ill. And often it is not the choice of the mother but the choice of the mother's health care provider. Why? What evidence do they use? How are pediatricians trained? What sales people visit their offices, take them on cruises, leave their gifts? Yes, we all know, the formula representative like the pharmaceutical rep spends alot of time at medical offices and institutions providing their "free" gifts. How was the pediatrician trained? Did he or she know that the professor that taught them infant nutrition moonlights at Nestle or Wyeth? Probably not, young students think the world of their professors, source of all knowledge, giver of A's and B's. While they are paying the institution to be "educated," often that institution is funded by the corporate world. Capitalism at its finest moment. Education becomes the corporate reality without the student ever being aware of where their "knowledge" comes from and at what cost to a society, to the world. The view of infant nutrition is the Nestle/Wyeth/Mead Johnson/Abbott/PBM-WalMart illusion. Let the babies eat almost organic, almost real baby milk...recombinant/cloned human milk components. Preserved in plastic, grown in plastic...fungi and algae from god-knows where??? Out of the depths of the vent holes from hell...the very best....the very best. Spin the bottle and it lands on disease and disaster and lots of money...the mother of all jack pots. Thank the multi-national corporations for giving us a choice and liberating us from our bodies, our health, and our money.

Copyright 2008 Valerie W. McClain