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Nature’s Gift
Promoting the Benefits of Breastfeeding

by Steven D. Bevier

Mari Douma, D.O., is on a mission. As a pediatrician and a mother of three young children, she knows the benefits that breastfeeding provides for babies and their mothers. Now, she’s made it her goal to ensure everyone else knows it too.

Dr. Douma graduated from MSUCOM in 1993 and joined the pediatrics department as an assistant professor in 1996. She had recently given birth to her first child, and it was at that time that she began to learn just how important breastfeeding is.

Mari Douma, D.O., discusses the benefits of breastfeeding with one of her patients.

“When I was in medical school,” she explains, “breastfeeding information was not part of the curriculum. This is the case all across the country.” As she studied the issue more closely, she realized just how beneficial breast milk is – and how little patients and even some doctors knew about it.

The difference between breast milk and formula, according to Dr. Douma, is that breast milk is a “live” substance. It can fight off bacteria that might contaminate it – unlike formula, which spoils easily. Breast milk contains over two hundred active substances, including white blood cells and other anti-infective and anti-inflammatory substances that help babies fight infections. Studies have shown that children who are breastfed have lower rates of stomach and ear infections, diabetes, asthma and lymphoma.

Dr. Douma examines a newborn at MSU's Westside Pediatric Clinic.

The benefits aren’t just for baby, either. Mothers who have breastfed also have lower rates of breast and other cancers. These are all reasons why the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all babies be breastfed for at least the first 12 months of life.

For most new mothers, the decision to breastfeed is a difficult one. They worry about their ability to feed their child at work or in public. For a generation raised on baby formula, there is still some stigma attached to breastfeeding. Dr. Douma says that some doctors don’t talk about it with their patients because it is an uncomfortable subject, and many don’t fully understand the benefit to both mother and patient.

“People think that formula is the standard for a baby’s health and breastfeeding is just slightly better,” explains Dr. Douma. “In reality, breastfeeding is the standard and formula falls far below that.”

So she took it upon herself to change that perception. Dr. Douma started her own research project called BaBI-SaM (Basic Breastfeeding Information and Management). She began by studying the medical records of nearly 1,800 patients to learn which mothers had breastfed and how it related to their baby’s health. She also took surveys of hundreds of new mothers and asked about their personal experiences with breastfeeding.

Dr. Douma found what other studies have shown – that children who are breastfed have much lower rates of infection and needed fewer visits to the doctor. She also learned that most mothers try breastfeeding during the first few weeks, but most become discouraged and do not reach their goals.

The next step in the project was to get doctors and nurses to take a more active role in the process. She began by distributing brochures and newsletters to MSU’s pediatric clinics, with information about breastfeeding and advice on how to talk to patients about it. Dr. Douma also created new patient forms for use in the clinics. The new forms included questions about breastfeeding as part of the standard patient history. She is also finding new ways to educate MSUCOM students about the subject by including it in the curriculum. These are small changes, but they can make a big impact by getting doctors to think about the issue whenever they see their patients.

For now, Dr. Douma will continue her campaign to make breastfeeding more widespread. She knows it will be difficult. “It can take our country a long time to change,” she says. That sounds like time well spent.