Judith says,

> There were people breastfeeding in the '70's and I =
> deeply resent the position that's been adopted that there weren't, or =
> that breastfeeding resurgence is somehow a late '90's phenomenon.  In =
> the 70's there were lots of us campaigning for change in birthing =
> practices and for support of breastfeeding.  We got those birth =
> practices changed - like routine meds, enemas, shaves, etc. because we =
> worked at it.  We worked hard to begin the movement back to =
> breastfeeding as the norm.  Every one of my co-workers, most of whom are =
> in their fifties, have kids 18 to 30 years old, and all breastfed.  I'll =
> concede that we weren't as tuned in to exclusive breastfeeding, but =
> that's it. =20
>

She's absolutely right.  When Jill was born, (1974) my breastfeeding her was
in the minority.  Four years later when Torrey was born, my being a
breastfeeding mom was now a majority.  Keep in mind that in 1982 we reached a peak of
breastfeeding of 62% of moms initiating bf in the hospital.  It dropped from
there (1984 was the first Surgeon General's Workshop in which it was predicted
that we would have a 75% initiation rate by 1990 -- we didn't -- bf initiation
dropped to 51% in 1991 -- and has been rising slowly since).  We never have had
the huge surge of moms breastfeeding -- approximately 25% in 1974 up to 62%
in 1982 -- since then.

So yes, a LOT of moms were breastfeeding in the early 80's.  The 2001 stats
of 69.5% initiating bf in the hospital aren't all that much higher than the 62%
initiation rate in 1982.  7.5%age points in nearly 20 years is pretty shabby.

Jan Barger, RN, MA, IBCLC, RLC
Wheaton, Illinois
www.lactationeducationconsultants.com

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