Just a quick note to remind people that Ross Labs is not the only one who
collects breastfeeding data in the US. The November 2000 issue of the Journal
of Human Lactation contains a very good article by Larry Grummer-Strawn from
the CDC that summarizes 12 surveillance systems in the US. The National
Immunization Survey will contain breastfeeding questions as does numerous
other collection systems. The article has a chart comparing each system.

Under the Title V Maternal/Child Block Grant program, each state is required
to report on their breastfeeding rates as a Performance Measure. State
results and yearly progress can be tracked at www.mchdata.net. Performance
Measure #9 is the breastfeeding measure which uses the same goal as HP2010.
At the above website you can see the number of births in each state, the
number of mothers who exclusively breastfeed at hospital discharge, what
percentage this is, and what the state's goal is.

Makes for interesting reading and a handy resource for pulling data.

Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Weston, MA

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