To listen to your average sanctimonious lactivist, breastfeeding is under attack everywhere and nurses shove bottles of formula into the groggy, exhausted hands of postpartum mothers while binding their breasts to cut off milk supply.
Ain't necessarily so, at least according to the Center for Disease Control. More than three-quarters of mothers breastfeed for at least a short period, according to their annual study of breastfeeding rates.
That's an all-time high, and is being counted as a clear victory by breastfeeding promoters like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. So it would follow that most women are actually being encouraged to breastfeed by people who have a lot of influence at the time they have to make that decision, and it's working.
All mothers are breastfeeding more, although rates remain lower among some populations. African-American women now breastfeed at a rate of 65 percent, up from 36 percent in 1993 and 1994. Rates for Mexican American mothers and non-Hispanic white mothers were highest, 80 percent and 79 percent respectively.
Sadly, the babies who would most benefit from breastfeeding aren’t getting it as much. he Only 57 percent of poor mothers and 43 percent of mothers under 20 breast-fed their babies.
Here's where I’d like someone smarter than me to weigh in — why is this? Formula costs like a million dollars, and the health benefits of breastfeeding could really help poorer people who likely struggle to pay for health care and might find the antibodies that come with breastfeeding help keep their babies healthier. Why? Are there misconceptions about breastfeeding, or not enough encouragement? I don’t get it, that the people who have to struggle the hardest to pay for formula breastfeed the least.
