Medicine: Mind & Milk

When Niles Rumely Newton had her first daughter, Willow, five years ago, she was told that she would not be able to nurse the baby. "It made me so mad,' recalls tall (5 ft. 10 in.), grey-eyed Mrs Newton, "that I insisted on trying it. Anc I succeeded." Since then, Mrs. Newton and her husband, Dr. Michael Newton, a research surgeon at the University oi Pennsylvania School of Medicine, have been interested in the problems and processes of breast feeding. In the current issue of Pediatrics, they insist that many mothers who bottle-feed their babies could breast-feed them.

Working for her Ph.D. at Columbia, and backed by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, Mrs. Newton asked 91 expectant mothers in the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania whether they intended to breast-feed their babies. The answers showed a meaningful relationship to their later success in nursing. Of the mothers who said positively "I'm going to," or "I'd love to," 74% did. Among those who were doubtful or had mixed feelings, 35% succeeded. Of those who said at the outset that they expected or preferred to use the bottle, only 26% were actually able to nurse their babies.

A mother who is determined to breastfeed may help herself, the Newtons suggest, by allowing the baby to try longer, which stimulates the milk supply, and by putting aside fear or anxiety, since the supply of substances which lead to milk production is affected by emotional upsets.