In a message dated 10/7/98 3:21:24 PM Central Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< Ann, I do not find these statistics believable.  That of the mothers who
 left the hospital breastfeeding in 1997, 62.4% were still nursing at 6
 months.  Who are they kidding??  So many women give up in the first few
 weeks, or nurse for only 6 weeks and wean when they go back to work.  I
 simply cannot believe that well more than half of the moms who left the
 hospital breastfeeding are still doing so at 6 months.  Does this sound
 "off" to anyone else out there?  Has there been a quiet revolution that none
 of the researchers are aware of? >>

No, she means that of the 62.4% of women who initiated bf in the hospital, 41%
were still bf at 6 months.  Nearly half?  I find that difficult to believe.
However, translated into raw numbers:  If there were 4,000,000 births
(approximately -- give or take one or two) in 1997, that means that 2, 496,000
initiated bf.  Of those women, 1,023, 360 continued for 6 months.  What I'd
like to know is, WHERE ARE THEY ALL?

Jan Barger - who wouldn't do this number crunching without a calculator.