Said the Breast to the Mom, "Please don't give up on me!"

The American Academy of Pediatric's recommendation that babies be breastfed for a year isn't being taken to heart.

A report in the August issue of the Journal of Human Lactation shows that three out of four new moms choose to breastfeed over bottle feed, but 64 percent have quit by the time the baby is six months old. Researchers from Brigham Young University used data from the National Immunizations Surveys of over 60,000 children and concluded that children who were more likely to be breast fed for over six months generally had mothers with higher levels of education and income. They also found that women who were married, living in Western states, Hispanic, or born in other countries were also more likely to breastfeed. Women who return to work, are smokers or live in the Northeast decreases the likelihood of long-term breastfeeding. Most interestingly, women who participated in the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) program, which provides food, milk and formula to mothers and young children, were also more likely to stop breastfeeding sooner. Sadly, WIC only does a cursory job of promoting breastfeeding; the population who utilizes WIC would greatly benefit, not only from the health perks, but economically as well. Not enough attention is paid to this group. Renata Forste, one of the authors of the report states, “Breastfeeding promotion programs encourage women to start but don’t provide the support to continue."

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