What percentage of college-educated moms...

[RomanGoddess]

breastfeed exclusively for six months? Friend of mine swears that the majority of college-educated mothers in the States breastfeed their babes exclusively for six months. Is this really the case? If it is, I'm surprised. I know that educated women tend to breastfeed longer, but I had always been under the impression that nowhere near the majority made it to six months. Has any study been done to show around what percentage breastfeed for six months, according to socio-economic class?

[kriket]

http://www.breastfeeding.com/all_abo...bf_rates2.html

there you go!

[RomanGoddess]

Originally Posted by kriket

http://www.breastfeeding.com/all_abo...bf_rates2.html

there you go!

Thanks! Are there any more recent statistics (these ones come from 1998) and do we know what percentage exclusively breastfeed (as opposed to mix breastfeed and formula feed?).

[krystyn33]

Here's a bunch of info from 2005:

http://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/data/NIS_data/

Scroll down and you can click on socio-demographic factors for exclusive breastfeeding

[fruitfulmomma]

Scroll down and you can click on socio-economic factors for exclusive breastfeeding

Interesting, but I see that by exclusive** bf'ing they mean no solids or water either. By that definition (and no I am not a college grad so I don't count for that particular stat) none of my babies were exclusively bf'ed at 6 months, even though not one of them has ever had a bottle or formula and they were all bf'ed until 2-4 yo.

With so many doctors pushing solids early, even for bf'ed babies I can imagine how such a definition would skew the results. KWIM?

**Yes, I know that is the accepted definition, but if we're talking about exclusive in terms of no formula, then the stats still don't tell the whole story.

[MaryJaneLouise]

Yeah, but look at the 3 mo stats. Even in college graduates, there is only 43.0 % exclusive BFing at 3 mos. So "most" college grads are not even exclusively BFIng at 3 mos.

[StoriesInTheSoil]

Originally Posted by MaryJaneLouise

Yeah, but look at the 3 mo stats. Even in college graduates, there is only 43.0 % exclusive BFing at 3 mos. So "most" college grads are not even exclusively BFIng at 3 mos.

That.

Those statistics all made me feel very lonely

[fruitfulmomma]

Yeah, but look at the 3 mo stats. Even in college graduates, there is only 43.0 % exclusive BFing at 3 mos. So "most" college grads are not even exclusively BFIng at 3 mos.

Okay, true enough. Still it would be nice if they differentiated.

Those statistics all made me feel very lonely

Me too.