Fw: Implants and breastfeeding-Letter to the editor from DZ

[Guest guest]

Another great "letter

From:

to the editor" from Diane Zuckerman.

" Zuckerman" <dz@...>

To:

sunletters@...

CC:

"Cathleen Witter" <cw@...>

Subject:

Letter to the editor: Re Implants No Bar to Breastfeeding

Date:

Thu, 20 Feb 2003 00:45:46 -0500

Letter "Implants no bar to breastfeeding: study" (2/19/03) describes a medical "study" that could never be published in a respectable medical journal. The article describes how three plastic surgeons studied their own patients and claimed that their patients' ability to breastfeed was not harmed by breast implants.

In medicine, it is essential that the researchers not be biased. When doctors study their own patients, it is not surprising that they find that their patients have not been harmed.

The doctors then biased the study even more when they excluded patients who had more than one implant surgery. Implant makers have reported that a substantial number of augmentation patients require additional surgery within three years of getting their implants. These women should not be excluded from a study of breastfeeding, since multiple surgeries could potentially cause breastfeeding problems.

Published research in peer-reviewed medical journals have found that women with any kind of breast surgery, including breast implants, are less likely to be able to breastfeed their babies than other women. The plastic surgeons in your article didn't even compare their patients to other women to determine if they had more problems breastfeeding.

Wishful thinking is not the same as science. University faculty should know better than to report preliminary findings that have not been reviewed for scientific accuracy. To publish an article that merely quotes these doctors but does not question them adds to confusion rather than clearing it up.

[The original article is at: http://canada.com/national/story.asp?id=C5707721-3E23-4D11-8E07-60F377CCB51F]

Sincerely,

Zuckerman, Ph.D.PresidentNational Center for Policy Research (CPR) for Women & Families1901 Pennsylvania Avenue, NWSuite 901Washington, DC 20006202 223-4000www.center4policy.org