Disclaimer: I have not gone to The Source to read the paragraphs in question, am merely responding to Phyllis' post.

Behind these two statements lie a complex picture of influences on infant survival, including factors working to reduce it and factors to increase it.

"Infant mortality has tended to be highest among populations in which breastfeeding was most common: the poor."
"The advent of primary health care for a large portion of a population may explain decreased in infant mortality in the face of declines in breastfeeding."

The first statement tells us that the protective function of breastfeeding is less visible in a population suffering from many other obstacles to infant survival.  
The second statement tells us that the harmful effects of other kinds of infant feeding are less visible in a population in which factors other than feeding have been improved.  Another way to read this is 'only through provision of high-quality primary health services to children can one mitigate the harmful effects of artificial feeding enough to reduce mortality.'

Finally, a question to Susan Burger: could you re-read your post on this, esp the opening paragraph, and see whether it makes sense?  I wonder whether you meant breastfed infants, rather than artificially fed.  I ended up feeling confused.

Rachel Myr
hoping gray hairs reflect increased amounts of gray matter, so much that it is actually oozing out through hair follicles, in
Kristiansand, Norway

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