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Breast-feeding: How Are We Doing?
“The United States has one of the lowest breast-feeding rates of all industrialized nations and one of the highest rates of infant mortality.”
—Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (in an address as keynote speaker at the United States Breast-feeding Committee congressional luncheon and briefing, August 2, 2001)
 Number of babies who died in 1998 as a result of unsafe bottle-feeding(1): 1.5 million
Number of babies out of every 1,000 who will die in the U.S. from formula-feeding(2): 4
Percentage of newborns in the U.S. who were breast-fed in 1950(3): close to 100
Percentage of newborns in the U.S. currently being breast-fed(4): 64
Percentage of 6-month-old babies in the U.S. currently being breast-fed(4): 29
Percentage of 12-month-old babies in the U.S. currently being breast-fed(4): 16
Minimum duration of breast-feeding recommended by the American Association of Pediatrics, the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses, and the American Academy of Family Physicians(5): 1 year
Estimate of a recent USDA study on how much money could be saved if the prevalence of breast-feeding increased from current levels to the modest proposals of the U.S. surgeon general (75 percent of newborns, 50 percent of 6-month-old babies, and 25 percent of 12-month-old babies)(3): $3.6 billion
Number of states where fewer than 20 percent of 6-month-old infants are consuming human mother’s milk: 3 (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi)
Number of states where more than 50 percent of 6-month-old infants are consuming human mother’s milk: 4 (Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Vermont)
(1) W.H.O./UNICEF Estimates, 1996
(2) Study by U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
(3) Weimer, J. The Economic Benefits of Breast-feeding: A Review and Analysis, Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Report No. 13. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, March 2001.
(4) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Health, United States, 1999. Hyattsville, Md.: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999.
(5) American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Work Group on Breast-feeding. “Breast-feeding and the Use of Human Milk.” Pediatrics 100 (6):1035-1039, 1997.
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