The percentage of mothers who start and continue breastfeeding is rising, a trend officials say is good for public health.
According to a report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mothers who started breastfeeding increased more than 4 percentage points from 2000 to 2008. During that same time, the number of mothers still breastfeeding at six months jumped nearly 10 percentage points, from 35 percent in 2000 to nearly 45 percent in 2008.
In addition to increases among all groups, gaps in breastfeeding rates between African American and white mothers are narrowing, the CDC says. The gap narrowed from 24 percentage points in 2000 to 16 percentage points in 2008.
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"Breastfeeding is good for the mother and for the infant—and the striking news here is, hundreds of thousands more babies are being breastfed than in past years, and this increase has been seen across most racial and ethnic groups," CDC Director Tom Frieden said in a statement.
Frieden also said that despite the good numbers, there still needs to be more targeted strategies to increase breastfeeding support.
"Many mothers who want to breastfeed are still not getting the support they need from hospitals, doctors, or employers," he said. "We must redouble our efforts to support mothers who want to breastfeed."
To address this, CDC is funding Best-Fed Beginnings, a project that provides support to 89 hospitals, many serving minority and low income populations, to improve hospital practices that support breastfeeding mothers. CDC also has awarded funds to six state health departments to develop community breastfeeding support systems in communities of color.
Additionally, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act addresses breastfeeding support. The PPACA provision states that employers shall provide reasonable, unpaid break time and a private, non-bathroom location for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for up to one year after the child's birth. Employers with less than 50 employees are not subject to the requirement if it would cause "undue hardship."
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