The percentage of US mothers who breast-feed their babies has
reached the highest level on record amid mounting evidence that it
provides many health benefits to the child, US officials said on
Thursday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 74 percent
of American women who gave birth in 2004 breast-fed their babies
for at least some period of time, continuing an upward trend since
the early 1990s.
"We've made quite a bit of progress," CDC epidemiologist Dr.
Celeste Philip, lead author of a CDC report on breast-feeding, said
in a telephone interview.
Breast-feeding rates just about reached the government's target
of 75 percent, the report showed. But many women did not stick
exclusively to breast-feeding in the first months after birth as
recommended by experts, turning instead to baby formula, the report
showed.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that women who do
not have health problems exclusively breast-feed their infants for
at least the first six months, with breast-feeding continuing at
least through the first year as other foods are introduced. The CDC
backs these recommendations, Philip said.
The CDC report found that among infants born in 2004, the rate
of exclusive breast-feeding through the first three months after
birth was 31 percent, shy of the government's goal of 60 percent,
and through six months was 11 percent, below the government target
of 25 percent.
The report detailed racial and socioeconomic disparities among
women who provide their babies exclusively breast milk in these
first months, with black, teen-age, rural, less-educated,
lower-income and unmarried mothers less likely to do so.
PROGRESS SINCE THE 1970s
Philip said she hoped the new statistics will prompt doctors to
renew efforts to persuade mothers to breast-feed their babies. She
said the CDC is working with hospitals to encourage support of
breast-feeding in the days after birth.
The 2004 breast-feeding rate of 74 percent was the highest since
such statistics were first kept for US women in the 1950s, Philip
said. The lowest rate on record was in 1971, when only 25 percent
of mothers breast-fed their infants amid major cultural shifts
occurring in the country.
By 1982, the rate had jumped to 62 percent. But it declined
again through the 1980s and slumped to 52 percent in 1990 before
increasing to 71 percent in 2000 and continuing to rise into this
decade, the CDC said.
The CDC noted that breast-feeding is associated with decreased
risk for many diseases and conditions, including ear infections,
respiratory tract infections, sudden infant death syndrome,
obesity, eczema and diarrhea.
It also is associated with health benefits to women, CDC said,
including decreased risk for the most common form of diabetes,
ovarian cancer and breast cancer. "Something I think a lot of
people may not realize is that there are benefits to the mother as
well as the child," Philip said.
(China Daily via Reuters?August 6, 2007)