ATLANTA - More than 3 out of 4 new moms now breast-feed their infants, the highest rate in the U.S. in at least 20 years, according to a a government report released Wednesday. About 77 per cent of new mothers breast-feed, at least briefly, up from 60 per cent in 1993-1994, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
"It looks like it is an all-time high" based on CDC surveys since the mid-1980s, said Jeff Lancashire, a CDC spokesman.
Experts attributed the rise to education campaigns that emphasize that breast milk is better than formula at protecting babies against disease and childhood obesity. A changing culture that accommodates nursing mothers may also be a factor.
The percentage of black infants who were breast-fed rose most dramatically, to 65 per cent. Only 36 per cent were ever breast-fed in 1993-1994, the new study found.
For whites, the figure rose to 79 per cent, from 62 per cent. For Mexican-Americans, it increased to 80 per cent, from 67 per cent.
Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher celebrated the report's findings, noting that black women have historically had lower breast-feeding rates.
"It was very impressive that when it comes to beginning to breast-feed, African-American women have had the greatest progress," said Satcher, who is now an administrator at Atlanta's Morehouse School of Medicine.
The new report is based on a comprehensive federal survey involving in-person interviews as well as physical examinations. The findings are based on information for 434 infants from the years 2005 and 2006.
A telephone survey of thousands of families, released last year, found that 74 per cent of infants in 2004 had been breast-fed.
At least three types of CDC surveys have shown breast-feeding rates moving upward since the early 1990s, officials said.
The latest CDC report found rates of breast-feeding were also lowest among women who are unmarried, poor, rural, younger than 20, and have a high school education or less.
