Heather Neil wrote: "But am I wrong in thinking that if *everything* in
the social and physical
environment  was right for a healthy mother and baby, the success of bf
would be close on 100 per cent?  Now that would be Utopia  : )"

In _The Five Standards of Safe Childbirth_, Ina May Gaskin of The Farm
community in Tennessee, USA presents a host of figures from 1200
midwife-attended births over 10+ years.  She cites a breastfeeding rate
of 99.1% and notes that the un-breastfed babies were all babies born at
The Farm and left behind by their mothers to be adopted.  I think this
figure shows what can happen with education, support, healthy birth, and
a community in which breastfeeding truly is the norm.

Penny Piercy, MA, MLS, accredited lay breastfeeding counselor
Bloomington, Indiana, USA (in the rolling autumn-colored hills of the old
midwest)
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