Hello Karleen, You wrote that "In general studies have found that professional input positively impacts the initiation of breastfeeding but not exclusivity of bf or duration of bf and peer support positively impacts duration of exclusivity of bf but not duration overall" I found a systematic review (2001)of Cochrane , Medline and Embase from Sikorski et al, which gives a different conclusion. I cite: "There is clear evidence for the effectiviness of professional support on the duration of any breastfeeding although the strength of its effect on the rate of exclusive breastfeeding is uncertain. Lay support is effective in promoting exclusive breastfeeding while the strength of its effect on the duration of any breastfeeding is also uncertain." This is a very large review. Twenty eligible randomised or quasi-randomised controlled trials from 10 countries were identified involving 23 712 mother- infant pairs. The review is cited as "Sikorski J, Renfrew MJ, Pindoria S, Wade A. Support for breastfeeding mothers (Cochrane Review) in The Cochrane Library, Issue 4, 2003. It seems like the support of professionals and peer support are complementary. However I wonder: the exclusivity of bf has an important influence on the duration of bf. If professionals had no influence on the exclusivity of bf at all, it should be expectable that the influence on the duration of bf was not so large either. I agree with you: those mothers who feed for a very long time very often have had peer support. *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html