Alicia Dermer writes:

<< If anyone is in possession of actual numbers (for any and all years from
1970
 through 2000), especially including exclusive rates at hospital discharge
 and 6 months, I would greatly appreciate your contacting me privately. >>


Alicia, I have in front of me the Ross study as of 1997 (I think 1999 is
available now, but I'm not sure - I have never seen it).

There are a lot of numbers in it (various demographics, mainly) but the
headliners are "National Breastfeeding Rates" each year from 1970 to 1997.
They give two numbers for each year, "In Hospital %" and "6 Months %".   In
the context (w/other numbers) it's clear that that's percentage of *all*
babies that are bf (at all, apparently) at 6 mos (not just percentage of
those who started).

Note that it says nothing about exclusivity, and indeed I am nearly sure that
few of these babies, at least in the early years, were exclusive by any
measure.    And of course the source for all of these is the Ross Mothers
Survey, which as we know is hardly the most objective in the world!   But
it's what we have.

To me the most extraordinary thing on it -- purely historical -- is the way
the numbers for 6 mos in 1980 is almost as high as the number for In-hospt in
1970.    Now there is a public health campaign for you - wow.

That said, for you and for the archives, here are the numbers:

Year    In Hosp         6mos
1970    26.5                -----
1971    24.7                5.4
1972    28.1                5.0
1973    28.9                7.5
1974    32.2                6.5
1975    35.5                14.1
1976    41.6                17.0
1977    44.7                19.6
1978    46.6                18.9
1979    51.0                21.3
1980    55.3                23.2
1981    57.6                25.1
1982    61.9                27.1
1983    58.4                23.3
1984    59.7                23.8
1985    58.0                22.1
1986    56.9                21.6
1987    55.5                20.2
1988    54.3                19.5
1989    52.2                18.1
1990    51.5                17.6
1991    53.3                18.2
1992    54.2                18.9
1993    55.9                19.0
1994    57.4                19.7
1995    59.7                21.6
1996    59.2                21.7
1997    62.4                26.0


Elisheva Urbas
NYC

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