I am not a whiz at statistics, but I have always thought that in figuring breastfeeding initiation and duration rates that we look at the total number of infants born, then figure the percentage who breastfed at birth (for initiation) and the percentage of all those babies who breastfed at 6 months (for 6 month duration).  So the Year 2000 Goal of 50% breastfeeding at 6 months would mean 50% of ALL infants. Right?  Now I'm being told by a couple of sources that duration rates only look at the percentage of babies who were ever breastfed that are still breastfeeding at 6 months.  Looking at it that way, you could have a duration rate that is higher than initiation rate.

As an example, if 30 out of 100 infants born breastfed at birth, that is a 30% initiation rate.  That part's easy.  If 15 of those babies are breastfeeding at 6 months I would call that  a 15% duration rate.  Others would figure that 15 out of the 30 breastfed babies is a 50% duration rate.  Makes a big difference in how successful we think we are if we're not all looking at the numbers the same way.  How do the rest of you interpret this?

Barbara Raymond

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