I'll be brief as this is getting OT :)

I think the disparity shown in infant mortality rates between 
countries and between population groups within the same countries 
does not tell us much about the difference in the healthcare systems 
of these countries - not much at all.

It shows that healthcare systems have really minimal impact, by 
themselves,  on health outomes, which are largely predicted, and 
predictable, by social and economic circumstances.

To bring it back to breastfeeding, in the UK, the most effective way 
to increase the numbers of women choosing to breastfeed would be to 
ensure everyone had an education post-16!

Black women in the UK almost always choose to breastfeed, by the way. 
This has (I would say) nothing to do with our respective healthcare 
systems, but do with their respective social and economic histories.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK

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