December 2, 2002 (USA TODAY) -- More U.S. women are breast-feeding their babies, the highest level in nearly 50 years, according to a survey of about 400,000 mothers released today.
Seven out of 10 women nurse in the hospital and a third are still doing it six months later, according to the 2001 poll by Ross Products Division of Abbott Laboratories, makers of formula and pediatric nutrition products. The Ross questionnaires, started in 1954, have never found such high rates of breast-feeding, study leader Alan Ryan says.
"It's the best news I've heard for children in a long time," says Ruth Lawrence, a neonatologist and nutrition expert at University of Rochester (N.Y.) Medical School. The report is in Pediatrics.
Breast-fed babies are less likely than bottle-fed babies to get ear, gastrointestinal and urinary tract infections, evidence shows. Kids who are nursed for a few months also are less prone to childhood cancers, particularly leukemia, Lawrence says. Breast milk strengthens the immune system.
It greatly reduces a child's risk for diabetes, too. Childhood diabetes rates are skyrocketing in the USA, so the increase in breast-fed babies could help curb the problem, Lawrence says.
Breast-feeding is rising the most among mothers who have been least likely to do it: blacks, employed women, teenagers and first-time moms. For example, 53% of black mothers nurse in the hospital, compared with 37% in 1996. Although employment tends to usher in the bottles, 25% of full-time employed mothers still breast-feed their 6-month-olds at least some of the time, up from 15% in 1996.
The rise in nursing has been sparked by changes in the federal government's public health policies, along with new state laws and employer practices, experts say.
A federal nutrition program for low-income families changed its policies in the past few years to emphasize breast-feeding education and promotion and downplay the use of formula, Ryan says.
"Peer counselors" in the program have done the most to help black women start and continue breast-feeding, says Katherine Barber, executive director of the African-American Breastfeeding Alliance, a pro-nursing education and support group for black mothers. Former surgeon general David Satcher also vigorously campaigned for nursing in speeches to health care agencies, physicians and consumer groups, Barber says.
Over the past several years, nearly half of the states passed laws to protect a woman's right to breast-feed in public, says family law attorney Elizabeth Baldwin of Fort Lauderdale. Some states also require employers to give working mothers time and a private place to pump breast milk.
Despite the progress, "we still have a way to go," Lawrence says. Only 17% of moms exclusively breast-feed for six months, which is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. And about four out of five black women aren't nursing their 6-month-olds at all.
Copyright 2002 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
