The antibodies argument always made the most sense to me. But note that this is an argument for some breast milk, not an all-breast-milk diet—that is, it’s not an argument against formula, just an argument against an all-formula diet. I mention this because when we were in the hospital with our kid, they were pushing against formula very hard.
Also, it’s not an argument for literal feeding at the breast, as opposed to pumping and then bottle-feeding with the breast milk, which is easier for some people.
Emily Oster covers breastfeeding in Chapter 4 of Cribsheet, more extensively than in the 538 article you linked to. IIRC, she notes that there is evidence of benefit for the mother in terms of reduced breast cancer risk (no idea why that would be, though).
(But in general, I agree that Oster is too quick to say “it doesn’t matter” about things that we don’t have rigorous evidence for, rather than trying to make an informed decision about the best course of action based on what data and theories we do have. Other than that minor criticism, though, I am a big fan of her work.)
Yeah, I think Oster is great. I think I only differ with her in two respects:
As you noted, she sometimes seems to imply “absence of evidence is evidence of absence”.
I think she’s too quick to dismiss PROBIT. In Cribsheet, she notes that the IQ measurements at 6.5 might be biased since the evaluators were not blinded. But she doesn’t mention the audit results or the teacher evaluation results. None of these were significant, but every single subtest was positive, and had surprisingly large effects once you account for the fact that the intervention had such a small effect on breastfeeding.
For most of the plausible mechanisms, it seems like partial breastfeeding (and/or pumping) could capture most of the benefits. The major exceptions would be if the local water was unhealthy, or some of the weirder theories, e.g. that babies feeding in a supine position might cause temporary deafness. (Sounds crazy to me, but seems to be taken seriously).
Regarding benefits for the mother, may I introduce you to the most surprising thing I learned of all: Breastfeeding apparently causes the uterus to contract faster.
The antibodies argument always made the most sense to me. But note that this is an argument for some breast milk, not an all-breast-milk diet—that is, it’s not an argument against formula, just an argument against an all-formula diet. I mention this because when we were in the hospital with our kid, they were pushing against formula very hard.
Also, it’s not an argument for literal feeding at the breast, as opposed to pumping and then bottle-feeding with the breast milk, which is easier for some people.
Emily Oster covers breastfeeding in Chapter 4 of Cribsheet, more extensively than in the 538 article you linked to. IIRC, she notes that there is evidence of benefit for the mother in terms of reduced breast cancer risk (no idea why that would be, though).
(But in general, I agree that Oster is too quick to say “it doesn’t matter” about things that we don’t have rigorous evidence for, rather than trying to make an informed decision about the best course of action based on what data and theories we do have. Other than that minor criticism, though, I am a big fan of her work.)
Yeah, I think Oster is great. I think I only differ with her in two respects:
As you noted, she sometimes seems to imply “absence of evidence is evidence of absence”.
I think she’s too quick to dismiss PROBIT. In Cribsheet, she notes that the IQ measurements at 6.5 might be biased since the evaluators were not blinded. But she doesn’t mention the audit results or the teacher evaluation results. None of these were significant, but every single subtest was positive, and had surprisingly large effects once you account for the fact that the intervention had such a small effect on breastfeeding.
For most of the plausible mechanisms, it seems like partial breastfeeding (and/or pumping) could capture most of the benefits. The major exceptions would be if the local water was unhealthy, or some of the weirder theories, e.g. that babies feeding in a supine position might cause temporary deafness. (Sounds crazy to me, but seems to be taken seriously).
Regarding benefits for the mother, may I introduce you to the most surprising thing I learned of all: Breastfeeding apparently causes the uterus to contract faster.