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. 2003 Dec;93(12):2000-10.
doi: 10.2105/ajph.93.12.2000.

Low breastfeeding rates and public health in the United States

Jacqueline H Wolf  1
Affiliations

Low breastfeeding rates and public health in the United States

Jacqueline H Wolf. Am J Public Health. 2003 Dec.

Abstract

The medical community has orchestrated breastfeeding campaigns in response to low breastfeeding rates twice in US history. The first campaigns occurred in the early 20th century after reformers linked diarrhea, which caused the majority of infant deaths, to the use of cows' milk as an infant food. Today, given studies showing that numerous diseases and conditions can be prevented or limited in severity by prolonged breastfeeding, a practice shunned by most American mothers, the medical community is again inaugurating efforts to endorse breastfeeding as a preventive health measure. This article describes infant feeding practices and resulting public health campaigns in the early 20th and 21st centuries and finds lessons in the original campaigns for the promoters of breastfeeding today.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Far left: A Chicago Infant Welfare Society nurse talks with mothers of infants in 1911. Photo courtesy of Chicago Historical Society.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Typical dairy barn with filthy floor, walls, and ceiling, circa 1900. "This is the kitchen where baby's breakfast is prepared," complained one doctor. Source: Milk and Its Relation to the Public Health. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office; 1908.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Top: This Chicago Department of Health poster urged mothers to breastfeed and traced the perilous path of cows' milk from rural dairy farm to urban consumer. Source: Bulletin: Chicago School of Sanitary Instruction (June 3, 1911). Bottom: A Chicago Department of Health poster explains to mothers how to make cows' milk safer for bottle-fed babies. Source: Bulletin: Chicago School of Sanitary Instruction (August 31, 1912).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Top: This Chicago Department of Health poster urged mothers to breastfeed and traced the perilous path of cows' milk from rural dairy farm to urban consumer. Source: Bulletin: Chicago School of Sanitary Instruction (June 3, 1911). Bottom: A Chicago Department of Health poster explains to mothers how to make cows' milk safer for bottle-fed babies. Source: Bulletin: Chicago School of Sanitary Instruction (August 31, 1912).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

  • Breastfeeding and the weanling's dilemma.
    Grandjean P, Jensen AA. Grandjean P, et al. Am J Public Health. 2004 Jul;94(7):1075; author reply 1075-6. doi: 10.2105/ajph.94.7.1075. Am J Public Health. 2004. PMID: 15226118 Free PMC article. Review. No abstract available.

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References

    1. Bulletin: Chicago School of Sanitary Instruction 14 (3June1911): back page.
    1. Bulletin: Chicago School of Sanitary Instruction 15 (31August1912): 140.
    1. In this era before access to ice and refrigeration, breastfeeding was especially important during hot weather. Therefore, mothers never weaned during the summer and customarily breastfed their babies through at least 2 summers. Marylynn Salmon, “The Cultural Significance of Breastfeeding and Infant Care in Early Modern England and America,” Journal of Social History 28 (Winter 1994): 247–269.
    1. “The Care of Infants Historical Data,” Journal of the American Medical Association 59 (1912): 542–543.
    1. Letter from Martha Luey Parish to Lestern, Annie and Father, November 2, 1884, Parish Family Letters, Newberry Library, Chicago.

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