Evidence about the benefits of breast-feeding for both babies and mothers continues to mount.
For example, low birth-weight infants who are breast-fed or given breast milk appear to have slightly higher IQs at ages 7 and 8 compared with similar children who do not receive breast milk, according to a new study.
Researchers at Christchurch School of Medicine in New Zealand tested 413 children — 37 percent who had been breast-fed for four months or longer and 73 percent who had been given expressed breast milk.
The longer the duration of breast-feeding, the greater the impact on IQ scores, according to the researchers, who tried to take into account other factors affecting the child’s IQ, such as the mother’s education and family income. They concluded these findings “add to a growing body of evidence to suggest that breast milk feeding may have small long-term benefits for child cognitive development.”
Currently, 64 percent of American women try breast-feeding their newborn, but only 29 percent are still breast-feeding six months later. The rates are particularly low among poor women and African-American mothers.
The reasons many women choose not to breast-feed their infants are surprising.
A study recently published in the medical journal Pediatrics surveyed 245 new mothers at a Pennsylvania hospital. The main reason mothers there stopped breast-feeding their babies was their perception that husbands did not like it, because it’s unappealing and desexualizes the breast. The second-biggest reason was the influence of the women’s mothers, who might not have breast-fed their own babies.
On the other hand, media images were cited as a deterrent to breast-feeding in Great Britain, according to a study from Brunel University in London.
Bottle feeding was shown on television and in newspapers more often than breast-feeding and was presented as less problematic.
A survey of more than 200 TV and newspaper mentions showed that bottle feeding was associated with “ordinary” families, while breast-feeding was associated with middle class or celebrity women.
The health benefits of breast-feeding and risks of giving a baby formula milk were rarely mentioned.
For information about some of the many programs and services promoting and supporting breast-feeding, visit www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding, a site developed by a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
