{"id":423,"date":"2019-10-04T21:50:24","date_gmt":"2019-10-05T00:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/?p=423"},"modified":"2019-10-05T00:03:36","modified_gmt":"2019-10-05T03:03:36","slug":"can-scientists-be-carriers-of-ideology-arrivistes-or-are-we-just-living-in-silly-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/2019\/10\/04\/can-scientists-be-carriers-of-ideology-arrivistes-or-are-we-just-living-in-silly-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Can scientists be carriers of ideology, arrivistes, or\u2026 are we just living in silly times?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Bambi came across this article (Journal de Montr\u00e9al<\/em>,\nOctober 4, 2019) by Ms. Marjorie Champagne entitled \u201cJe n\u2019allaite pas donc je\npollue\u201d <\/em>[I do not breastfeed, therefore I pollute].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.journaldemontreal.com\/2019\/10\/04\/je-nallaite-pas-donc-je-pollue<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, the journalist expressed her shock in\nreading another article by Ms. Pauline Gravel (Le Devoir<\/em>, October 3,\n2019) entitled: \u201cAllaiter son enfant pour l\u2019amour de la plan\u00e8te\u201d [Breastfeeding\none\u2019s child out of love for the planet]. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.ledevoir.com\/societe\/science\/563924\/allaiter-c-est-bon-aussi-pour-la-planete<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bambi was curious. She searched for and read the original scientific article cited in the news article above. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article basically argues that \u201cFormula milk\ncontributes to environmental degradation and climate change\u201d (a sub-title of\nthe article).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The author wrote that \u201coverall, breastfeeding for\nsix months saves an estimated 95-153 kg CO2<\/sub> equivalent per baby\ncompared with formula feeding\u201d. For the UK, this would \u201cequate to taking\nbetween 50\u2009000 and 77\u2009500 cars off the road each year<\/em>\u201d.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First and foremost, Bambi is shocked to see that this\npaper was authored by a scientist who has published in a very serious journal:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, Dr. Schenker seems to be \u201ca former surgeon,\nscientist, and the cofounder of the Human Milk Foundation\u201d.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plus, the British Medical Journal (BMC for short) is\u201d\none of the world’s oldest general medical journals. It published its first\nweekly edition on 3 October 1840 as the Provincial Medical and Surgical\nJournal<\/em> before uniting with the London Journal of Medicine<\/em> and\npublishing from January 1853 as the Associated Medical Journal. <\/em> Four\nyears later in January 1857, this merged journal became the British Medical\nJournal\u201d. <\/strong><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2018 \u201cImpact Factor\u201d of this journal was 27.604.\nThis is considered a prestigious measure of the frequency\nwith which the journal\u2019s average article has been cited in a particular year. Of\ncourse, one must not attribute to this numerical indicator more importance than\nneeded. However, this measure usually tells how much a journal is a serious one\nin its scientific field. Some articles, namely reviews of the literature, tend\nto be cited more frequently than others (empirical studies or other types of articles).\nIf this journal publishes that sort of papers, this can contribute to increase its\nimpact factor (or IF) for the year(s) following the review. Regardless, 27.604\nis clearly a prestigious IF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is the article in question:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/367\/bmj.l5646<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, Dr. Schenker ends her paper with the following\nstatement: \u201cWe need to acknowledge that \u201cour house is on fire\u201d and that the\nnext generation requires us to act quickly to reduce carbon footprints in every\nsphere of life. Breastfeeding is a part of this jigsaw, and urgent investment\nis needed across the sector<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the first time in Bambi\u2019s lifetime, both as a\ncitizen and as a researcher, that she reads a scientific (medical) paper where an\nauthor cites a teenager (Greta!) instead of citing the body of knowledge from\nearlier science (usually produced by real scientists!). How odd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, exactly for the same reasons as Ms. Champagne, Bambi\nis shocked: Indeed, once again, we are guilting new mothers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New mothers do not need that extra existential guilt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They already feel guilty in their early moments of\nadjustment to motherhood (and even later in their lives). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They can feel guilty if they do not breastfeed long\nenough. They can also feel guilty if they cannot breastfeed altogether. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They may also wish to or end up not wanting to breastfeed\nfor all sorts of reasons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who knows? They may be feeling a bit down due to the\ncommon postpartum blues\u2026 or worse, they may be struggling with symptoms of postpartum\ndepression. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether clinically depressed or not, new moms may end up learning to let go, in order to rely on their support system, and include their partners or family members in the feeding activities. This by itself is an ultimate gesture of maternal love\/sensitivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, basically, even if we know all the benefits of\nbreastfeeding from evolution across species, from common sense, and from\nscience, Bambi will say: Enough of pressure on women (and their families) please.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pressure can come from the external world or\u2026 worse, from the mothers\u2019 own self-pressure to be \u201cgood\u201d mothers. So, imagine the additional ecological pressure (the new religion of our times) on top of all this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One must also recall that despite all the benefits of the world stemming from natural milk\/breastfeeding, natural selection may have come into play at one point in our human earlier generations to allow us to develop enzymes to digest cow milk. Thank Goodness Bambi is thinking to herself, as her own mom fed her with that delicious cow milk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plus, we do not talk much about it but maternal stress\nhormones do pass through breastfeeding to the infants. Bambi had to statistically\ncontrol for this effect in one of her studies on depression during pregnancy\nand infant stress reactivity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, plus, can\u2019t or don\u2019t mothers who do breastfeed love\ntheir kids AND the planet even they do not nurse them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without having had the honour of successfully reproducing with her loving partner, Bambi is convinced that their newborn would have meant the world to them\u2026 and, at that moment of giving birth, they would have not given a damn about our planet\u2026 in all honesty (Bambi is saying this and she usually cares about people, animals, plants, and our shared environments).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, the last thing that Bambi thought of when\nlosing her three pregnancies was our Planet (neither A nor B!). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That thought also was the last thing on her mind\nduring her fostering and hosting parental experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When kids are in a survival mode (e.g., going through\nadversities or in their journey transitioning into a new foster home or out of\nit, they simply do not have the luxury of being as illuminated as some of us\nare in their aspirations for a \u201cgreener\u201d world\u2026 or for a sexier (more fundable?)\nresearch. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bambi came across this article (Journal de Montr\u00e9al, October 4, 2019) by Ms. Marjorie Champagne entitled \u201cJe n\u2019allaite pas donc je pollue\u201d [I do not breastfeed, therefore I pollute]. https:\/\/www.journaldemontreal.com\/2019\/10\/04\/je-nallaite-pas-donc-je-pollue In this article, the journalist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":431,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions\/431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}