Low breast feeding numbers "pathetic," say doctors

By Sheilah Downey

Recent research showing the benefits of baby formula enriched with an omega-three fatty acid has breast-feeding advocates crying "foul," accusing the food industry of stacking the deck in its pro-formula campaigns.

"The marketing has actually dissuaded mothers from choosing exclusive breast-feeding, which is preferred from all the outcomes that we understand," said Dr. Lori Feldman-Winter, of Cooper University Hospital in Camden, N.J., in an ABC news story.

But health officials, disappointed in the low numbers of women who breast feed for the optimum amount of time, say the issue is more complex than marketing games.

In a meeting last month at the Centers for Disease Control, officials said they plan to issue a "Call to Action" to address the surprisingly low numbers of women who breast feed, calling it "an urgent public health priority."

According to CDC statistics, almost 74 percent of women in 2005 breast-fed in the days right after birth. But just 12.3 percent of those women  exclusively breast fed for the first six months of life.

"We have come a long way in helping moms start, but those are still pathetic numbers," said Dr. Sheela Geraghty, of the Center for Breastfeeding Medicine at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

The World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that mothers exclusively breast feed for the first six months of the baby's life.

For a variety of reasons, said health professionals, women are not able to breast feed long enough to meet the recommended health standards even though benefits to the baby and mother have long been established.

"Helping women breast-feed is a no-brainer in the health and well-being of mother and baby," said Geraghty. "It's a completely cost-effective mechanism to improve maternal and infant health in the U.S."

Breast-fed babies have a lower risk for sudden infant death syndrome, diabetes, obesity and asthma. Women who breast feed can reduce their risk for ovarian and breast cancer along with osteoporosis later in life.

Since the U.S. Surgeon General issued its "Blueprint for Action on Breast feeding," in October of 2000, some gains have been made, say experts, but socio-economic problems are standing in the way of most women.

One of the biggest obstacles keeping women from breast feeding is the "culture of maternal-infant separation," said Geraghty.

Most women in the United States return to work after they give birth and usually return to their jobs six weeks after childbirth. That interferes with the process, says Geraghty, because "it can take a month to six weeks just to establish breast-feeding."

Additionally, said Geraghty, many women were not breast fed as babies so they have few role models.

"Women are just starting from scratch," she said, "and that's very hard. You add all of that together and women are having such a challenging time."