Contemporary breast-feeding patterns: Focus on disadvantaged women

The last decade has seen a steady increase in breast-feeding, predominantly among middle- and upper-income, educated, white women, as reported by the Surgeon General's Workshop on Breast-feeding and Human Lactation in 1984. The need is to identify and reduce the barriers that interfere with breast-feeding, particularly in those population groups with a low prevalance of breast-feeding. One of the 'Health Promotion/Disease Prevention Objectives for the Nation' is that by the year 1990 the proportion of women who breast-feed their babies should be increased to 75% at hospital discharge and to 35% when the infants are 6 months old. To this end, we will review contemporary breast-feeding patterns with a particular focus on disadvantaged women.