>Jessica_Laughlin posted:
>I was hoping that some one would be able to help a friend of mine out.  She
>is writing an article about breastfeeding to appear in a local pulication
>during World Breastfeeding Week.  She would like to site the statistic that
>95% of women are medically able to breastfeed.  This is something we have
>been told repeatedly however, we do not have a source to quote for this.

Jesi,

I've seen this stat, but phrased differently, in a paper by Marianne 
Neifert: Prevention of Breastfeeding Tragedies. Pediatric Clinics of North 
America 48(2):273-297 (April 2001). She writes, "In a prospective study of 
lactation outcome measured by weight gain in infants exclusively fed breast 
milk, 15% of healthy primiparous women were deemed to have insufficient 
lactation at 2 to 3 weeks postpartum. At least two thirds of cases were 
judged to be secondary breastfeeding problems rather than primary."

By secondary problems Neifert means issues that'd arise from things like 
scheduled feedings, use of supply-diminishing hormonal birth control, and 
frequent mother-infant separation. Those cases account for two thirds of 
the insufficient milk supply cases---i.e., 10% of all breastfeeding women. 
That leaves 5% of women in the category of being medically unable to 
breastfeed due to primary lactation failure (e.g., breast hypoplasia, 
metabolic disorder in infant). So, with 5% of women being medically unable 
to breastfeed, 95% are able.

Theoretically, anyway. I'd be cautious about applying the conclusions to 
the general population. IIRC, the report Neifert cites above was a 
prospective study in a clinical population. The reference is Neifert et al. 
The influence of breast surgery, breast appearance, and pregnancy induced 
breast changes on lactation sufficiency as measured by infant weight gain. 
Birth 17:31-38 (1990).

Both of Neifert's studies have been discussed on Lactnet before and I 
recall that several posters felt that the 5% figure might actually be too 
high. That could, of course, mean that more than 95% of women are medically 
able to breastfeed. Rather than repeat their explanations and risk 
misrepresenting anything though, I'll suggest doing an archive search on 
"Neifert". There are, of course, other threads relating to the 5%. I'm not 
sure of the exact search terms that would be useful; maybe 5% + lactation + 
failure?

My feeling is that there have been some good studies that apply to certain 
circumstances, but nothing for the overall population. I could be wrong 
though. I'm sure someone will step in with better information if I am!

regards,
Julia

Julia R. Barrett
Freelance Science Writer & Editor
Mom to Sean (6) and Kira (2)
Madison, Wisconsin

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