Esther:  I have lived and worked in Honduras for almost 30 years.  Here
98% of the women initiate breastfeeding and the last national survey
indicated that among babies born during the last two years, 45% of the
women said that they had exclusively breastfed during the first four
months of life.  Approximately one third of the women continue to
breastfeed until 24 months.  The figures all over Latin America are not
too different than what I report here for Honduras.  I agree with Jack
that one cannot generalize about Hispanic women and that the experience
in the US is different.  In fact, it varies from state to state.   About
10-12 years ago, someone did a study of Mexican migrant workers
breastfeeding patterns in Florida.  I don't remember the details but
they found that women who had breastfed in Mexico, or in Texas or
California came to the area being studied, if they had a subsequent
baby, they had lots of problems with breastfeeding.  Upon analysis it
was clear that the problem was the hospital practices.

If your hospital practices are good, it might be helpful to look at the
general environment in your community vis-a-vis breastfeeding.  What
messages are they receiving about the desirability or not of
breastfeeding?  If there are students in your hospital or clinic,
perhaps they could do a small study or you could organize some
discussion groups and have someone who is bi-lingual talk with women and
try to get at what some of their concerns are.

Hispanic families are pretty close and in general, the mother's
influence, especially when women have a new baby, are quite important.
Sometimes it is helpful to invite grandmothers to discussion groups.
Incorporating grandmothers into an "informal discussion" can often prove
beneficial.