·         LACTATE ON YOUR OWN TIME, LADY:  In August 2009, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that Totes/Isotoner had the right to fire a breast-feeding mother for taking breaks to pump milk.  The employer argued that the dismissed mother took breaks that were unauthorized, regardless of her gender or condition.  The court ruled that lactation was not a condition related to pregnancy, but a condition related to breast-feeding and therefore did not constitute gender discrimination!!!  Click here to read the full story.  

·         AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT -- A FACEBOOK CAROL: Charles Dickens never imagined anything like this! The Ghost of Facebook Past, Present, and Future confront CEO Eben Scrooge, as his response to the health care crisis is “Bah!  Humbug!” And the end has not yet been written. . . Click here to read “A Facebook Carol.”

·         STUDY HIGHLIGHTS NEW DRUG RISK IN PREGNANCY:  Reuters reported in June that pregnant women who use cocaine or heroin while taking methadone to beat their addiction may weaken their placentas, opening the door to dangerous infections that could further harm an unborn baby.  The new agency was reporting on a lab study that found that exposure to either of the drugs in the presence of methadone, used to wean people off narcotics, harmed the placenta and allowed other dangerous substances through that protective barrier.

·         STUDY SHOWS BREAST-FEEDING MAY LOWER RISK OF MS RELAPSE:  Reuters also reported in June that breastfeeding may protect women with multiple sclerosis against relapses of their disease, possibly by delaying a return to normal monthly cycles.  The study published in the Archives of Neurology found that MS patients who nursed their babies exclusively, using no bottled formula for at least two months appeared less likely to have a relapse within a year of the child's birth than women who did not breastfeed.  The researchers noted that women who breastfed exclusively delayed the return of normal menstruation, and those whose monthly cycles stayed repressed, a normal effect of breastfeeding, were those whose MS symptoms did not return.  "Studies of immunity and breastfeeding, while plentiful, are predominantly focused on breast milk content and health benefits to the infant. Little is known about maternal immunity during breastfeeding," the researchers wrote.

·         BREAST-FEEDING LINKED TO HIGH GRADES, COLLEGE:  Breast-fed babies seem more likely to do well in high school and to go on to attend college than infants raised on a bottle.   According to a study published in June 2009 in the Journal of Human Capital, an additional month of breast-feeding was associated with increases both in high school grade point averages and increases in the probability of college attendance.