ATLANTA (AP) - More than 3 out of 4 new moms now breast-feed
their infants, the highest rate in the U.S. in at least 20 years,
according to a a government report released Wednesday.
About 77 percent of new mothers breast-feed, at least briefly,
up from 60 percent in 1993-1994, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention said.
"It looks like it is an all-time high" based on CDC surveys
since the mid-1980s, said Jeff Lancashire, a CDC spokesman.
Experts attributed the rise to education campaigns that
emphasize that breast milk is better than formula at protecting
babies against disease and childhood obesity. A changing culture
that accommodates nursing mothers may also be a factor.
The percentage of black infants who were breast-fed rose most
dramatically, to 65 percent. Only 36 percent were ever breast-fed
in 1993-1994, the new study found.
For whites, the figure rose to 79 percent, from 62 percent. For
Mexican-Americans, it increased to 80 percent, from 67 percent.
Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher celebrated the
report's findings, noting that black women have historically had
lower breast-feeding rates.
"It was very impressive that when it comes to beginning to
breast-feed, African-American women have had the greatest
progress," said Satcher, who is now an administrator at Atlanta's
Morehouse School of Medicine.
The new report is based on a comprehensive federal survey
involving in-person interviews as well as physical examinations.
The findings are based on information for 434 infants from the
years 2005 and 2006.
A telephone survey of thousands of families, released last year,
found that 74 percent of infants in 2004 had been breast-fed.
At least three types of CDC surveys have shown breast-feeding
rates moving upward since the early 1990s, officials said.
The latest CDC report found rates of breast-feeding were also
lowest among women who are unmarried, poor, rural, younger than 20,
and have a high school education or less.
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On the Net:
CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs

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