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About 85% of new moms at Sutter Health’s Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley, Calif., breastfeed. Sarah Patrick (right) gets off to a good start nourishing her 3-day-old baby, receiving support from Roxann Zarchin, RN, one of seven certified lactation consultants at the facility.

When new mothers who are working tell pediatric nurse Mary Hagedorn that they have a difficult time breastfeeding, she can relate.

As a new mother who worked 12-hour shifts on a busy pediatric intensive care unit, she sometimes had trouble finding the time and privacy to pump breast milk. As a nurse, she knew the benefits of breastfeeding outweighed the difficulties, and she was determined to keep breastfeeding her baby.

“I think it took a lot of perseverance, and I was a health practitioner,” said Hagedorn, RN, PhD, CNS, CPN.

Many new mothers start off breastfeeding, but pressures from work and family can derail efforts to meet what the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action calls The Gold Standard — exclusive breastfeeding from birth to 6 months. That is the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics and was the theme of World Breastfeeding Week (Aug. 1-7). The campaign aims to encourage more women to breastfeed their babies.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, about 70% of U.S. mothers initiate breastfeeding when their babies are born, but only 33% are still at it six months later. The numbers are up only slightly since 1998, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated 69% of new moms breastfed and 29% continued after six months. The agency has set a goal of raising those percentages by 2010 to 75% at birth, 50% at 6 months, and 25% at 12 months.

Numerous studies have shown a connection between breastfeeding and baby health: fewer bouts of respiratory ailments, diarrhea, and ear infections and a lower risk of SIDS. But recent research is finding that breastfeeding is a factor in long-term health benefits in later life.

A 1998 study of Pima Indians attributed lower risk of diabetes in adults who were breastfed two months or longer. In a study published in May, researchers from the Institute of Child Health in London found a 14% lower ratio of LDL to HDL cholesterol in teenagers who had been breastfed.

A 2002 study from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology discovered that children who had been breastfed exclusively scored 11 points higher on IQ tests. Yet despite the scientific research, breastfeeding rates seem to have reached a plateau in the last decade.

Parental concerns

At the Pediatric Academic Societies’ annual meeting in May, researchers presented new studies that focus on two serious parental concerns: infant mortality and obesity. Breastfeeding advocates see this latest research as a way to persuade more families to view breastfeeding as the preferred method of nourishing their babies.

According to researchers from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, breastfed babies in the United States have a 20% lower risk of dying in the first year than children who are not breastfed.

Researchers examined CDC records of 1,204 children who died between 28 days and 1 year, excluding those with cancer or congenital anomalies since those conditions may have prevented breastfeeding. They compared those babies with 7,740 children who were still alive at 1 year.

Most studies examining the relationship between breastfeeding and infant mortality focus on developing nations and infectious disease. This study, published in the May issue of Pediatrics, is the first using U.S. statistics that shows a lower risk of mortality among babies.

Epidemiologist Walter Rogan, MD, one of the researchers, estimates that breastfeeding could potentially save the lives of 720 babies a year in the United States.

“Breastfeeding isn’t thought of as a public health issue,” Rogan said. “I think it is.”