On 11/4/04 12:20 PM, "Gordon Patricia (DHSS)" <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Our state infant mortality task force is making a list of
> recommendations to the governor on how to reduce infant mortality in the
> state, and the chairman is refusing to include breastfeeding because it
> was recommended by a hospital LC who he accused of being "self serving."
> We are getting ready to take this on before the final recommendations
> are made, but I need studies specifically dealing with infant
> mortality--not morbidity.  Can anybody send me references/abstracts
> within the past 5 yrs that can be included?  Thanks for your help.  An
> internet search could get awfully cumbersome but that's where I'll go if
> I need to.
> 
> 
> P.D. Gordon, RN, BSN, IBCLC
> Breastfeeding Coordinator
> Delaware WIC Program

The study below received a lot of media attention back in May of this year:

Pediatrics. 2004 May;113(5):e435-9.
Related Articles, Links
  
Breastfeeding and the risk of postneonatal death in the United States.

Chen A, Rogan WJ.

Epidemiology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences,
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, USA.

OBJECTIVE: Breastfed infants in the United States have lower rates of
morbidity, especially from infectious disease, but there are few
contemporary studies in the developed world of the effect of breastfeeding
on postneonatal mortality. We evaluated the effect of breastfeeding on
postneonatal mortality in United States using 1988 National Maternal and
Infant Health Survey (NMIHS) data. METHODS: Nationally representative
samples of 1204 infants who died between 28 days and 1 year from causes
other than congenital anomaly or malignant tumor (cases of postneonatal
death) and 7740 children who were still alive at 1 year (controls) were
included. We calculated overall and cause-specific odds ratios for
ever/never breastfeeding among all children, conducted race and birth
weight-specific analyses, and looked for duration-response effects. RESULTS:
Overall, children who were ever breastfed had 0.79 (95% confidence interval
[CI]: 0.67-0.93) times the risk of never breastfed children for dying in the
postneonatal period. Longer breastfeeding was associated with lower risk.
Odds ratios by cause of death varied from 0.59 (95% CI: 0.38-0.94) for
injuries to 0.84 (95% CI: 0.67-1.05) for sudden infant death syndrome.
CONCLUSIONS: Breastfeeding is associated with a reduction in risk for
postneonatal death. This large data set allowed robust estimates and control
of confounding, but the effects of breast milk and breastfeeding cannot be
separated completely from other characteristics of the mother and child.
Assuming causality, however, promoting breastfeeding has the potential to
save or delay approximately 720 postneonatal deaths in the United States
each year.

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