http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2002-12-01-feeding-usat_x.htm

A nice article  someone just sent me.

U.S. breast-feeding rate soars
By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY
More U.S. women are breast-feeding their babies than at any time in modern
history, according to a survey of about 400,000 mothers out Monday.
Seven out of 10 women nurse in the hospital and a third are still doing it
six months later, shows the 2001 poll by Ross Products Division of Abbott
Laboratories, makers of formula and pediatric nutrition products. The Ross
questionnaires, started in 1954, have never found such high rates of
breast-feeding, says study leader Alan Ryan.
"It's the best news I've heard for children in a long time," says Ruth
Lawrence, a neonatologist and nutrition expert at University of Rochester
(N.Y.) Medical School. The report is in Pediatrics.
Breast-fed babies are less likely than the bottle-fed to get ear,
gastrointestinal and urinary tract infections, evidence shows. Kids nursed
for a few months also are less prone to developing childhood cancers,
particularly leukemia, Lawrence says. Breast milk strengthens the immune
system.
It greatly reduces a child's risk for diabetes, too. Childhood diabetes
rates are skyrocketing in the USA, so the increase in breast-fed babies
could help curb this public health problem, Lawrence says.
Breast-feeding is rising the most among mothers who have been least likely
to do it: blacks, employed women, teenagers and first-time moms. For
example, 53% of black mothers nurse in the hospital, compared with 37% in
1996. Although employment tends to usher in the bottles, 25% of full-time
employed mothers still breast-feed their 6-month-olds at least some of the
time, up from 15% in 1996.
The rise in nursing has been sparked by changes in the federal government's
public health policies, along with new state laws and employer practices,
experts say.
A federal nutrition program for low-income families changed its policies in
the past few years to emphasize breast-feeding education and promotion and
downplay the use of formula, says Ryan.
"Peer counselors" in the program have done the most to help black women
start and continue breast-feeding, says Katherine Barber, executive director
of the African-American Breastfeeding Alliance, a pro-nursing education and
support group for black mothers. Former Surgeon General David Satcher also
vigorously campaigned for nursing in speeches to health care agencies,
physicians and consumer groups, Barber says.
Over the past several years, nearly half of the states passed laws to
protect a woman's right to breast-feed in public, says family law attorney
Elizabeth Baldwin of Fort Lauderdale. Some states also require employers to
give working moms time and a private place to pump breast milk.
Despite the progress, "we still have a way to go," Lawrence adds. Only 17%
of moms exclusively breast-feed for six months, which is recommended by the
American Academy of Pediatrics. And about four out of five black women
aren't nursing their 6-month-olds at all.


Tess Parriott  RN, IBCLC
Donna Slovinsky  RN, IBCLC
Lactation Consultants
Nebraska Health System
987540 Nebraska Medical Center
Omaha, NE  68198-7540
office(402) 552-3487
fax(402)552-3042


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