Heather (I think) writes: When asked 'would you have liked to breastfeed for longer?' the majority of women say 'yes' , right up to the category '4 months, less than 6 months' when 48 per cent say it. I think a study re breastfeeding goals and the number of women who meet them would have to be designed a little differently. I suspect mothers might retrospectively say they wished they could have bf longer, but that this might not really have been their original goal. I think it would be interesting to ask women in their last trimesters how long they wished to nurse and then to do a follow up a year later to see how close they come to their originally stated goals. I suspect, for instance, that a mom who says "I'm going to try for a month" will be giving bottles within a week, if not immediately. I would contrast this with a mother who strongly states that she plans to BF for a year or longer. I believe that many more of these women will come close to meeting this goal. In other words, I think that intention translates into accomplishment, but that we need to be pretty sure of what the real intention is to evaluate it. Has anyone studied this? Kathy Boggs, RN, IBCLC *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html