[LMB] Breastfeeding in the Vorkosiverse/Chalionverse

[Bear Master]

On Nov 30, 2007 4:49 PM, Agnes Charrel-Berthillier <agnes at charrel.net>
wrote:

> Suzette Petty wrote:
> >
> > At least formula has the liquid added and heated only when necessary.
>
> Not true. Formula is currently marketed in both powdered and ready to
> drink forms, and has been for at least 5 years.


Make that at least 30 years.  I remember it was carried in the drug store I
worked in while I was in High School.  Prefilled bottles with nipples
already attached, heat and serve.


> > LE|> Vat breast milk can be cooled, possibly pasteurised, and
> > re-heated or produced only in quantities needed for immediate use
> > depending on circumstances and risk analysis.
>
> Pasteurization kills the antibodies that make breastmilk so valuable,
> destroys most of the enzymes that make is more digestible and alters
> some of the proteins (one of the reasons why pumping moms are told not
> to microwave their milk). The vitamin content would also be modified,
> meaning that the vat milk would have to be supplemented pretty much the
> same way formula is these days.


Cultured tissue, don't know why the entire vat could not be bacteria-free,
eleminating the need for pasturization, and gene-modified to make it more
temperature stable.


> What the Vorkosiverse should be able to do (beyond kickstarting the milk
> supply of any woman who wants to breastfeed, whether or not she
> body-birthed) would be to have personalized mini-vats producing milk
> from cells cloned from the mother herself. Personalized milk supply,
> available on demand at home.
>
Agree, small batches, "microbrew" so to speak, would be the first choice.