According to 2001 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research, while "breastfeeding initiation has increased from 54% to 65% over the last decade," only 27% of mothers were breastfeeding at six months and only 12.3% at one year. The drop-off in exclusive breastfeeding was even more dramatic: "At 7 days, 59.3% of children were exclusively breastfed; at 6 months, this figure was 7.9%."

(Sources: Ruowei Li et al., "Prevalence of Breastfeeding in the United States: The 2001 National Immunization Survey," Pediatrics 111[2003]: 1198-1201; Virginia R. Galton Bachrach, Eleanor Schwartz, Lela Rose Bachrach, "Breastfeeding and the Risk of Hospitalization for Respiratory Disease in Infancy," Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 157[2003] 237-243.)

"The moment it is born, the cord is cut or clamped, the child is exhibited to its mother, and then it is taken away by a nurse to a babyroom called the nursery, so called presumably because the one thing that is not done in it is the nursing of the baby.

We live in the logical denouement of the Machine Age, when not only are things increasingly produced by machine but also human beings are turned out to be as machine-like as we can make them, and who therefore see little wrong in dealing with others in a similarly mechanical manner; an age in which it is considered a mark of progress when whatever was formerly done by human beings is taken out of their hands and done by machine. It is reckoned an advance when a bottle of formula can be made to substitute for the contents of the human breast and the experience of the human infant at it...

The benefits to the mother of immediate breastfeeding are innumerable, not the least of which after the weariness of labor and birth is the emotional gratification, the feeling of strength, the composure, and the sense of fulfillment that comes with the handling and suckling of the baby."

(Source:  Ashley Montagu, Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin, Harper & Row 1978; quoted at http://www.breastfeedingonline.com/28.html.)

Recent research has led to the conclusion that newborn children do, in fact, experience pain. Even the healthiest of children faces a multitude of tests and screenings, complete with all the attendant sticks, pricks, jabs, and needles. In an effort to find effective pain management for these most vulnerable of humans, five physicians from Poissy-Saint Germain Hospital in Poissy, France, sought to see if breast feeding could take some of the sting out of these painful procedures.

Two specially trained observers were engaged to evaluate the amount of pain and discomfiture that each infant experienced when subjected to venepuncture for a blood sample.

The French researchers found no reduction in pain response for those infants who were only held by their mother, but significant reductions in pain response for both the breast feeding and glucose-pacifier groups.

Most remarkably, 16 of the 44 children in the breastfeeding group exhibited no indication of pain whatsoever or that the venepuncture procedure and blood sampling had even taken place. Moreover, as the authors point out, of the 44 breastfed infants, "35 had a DAN pain score =3, which can be considered as reflecting minimal or no pain."

The researchers conclude: "We have shown that breast feeding is at least as effective as that observed with 30% glucose plus sucking a pacifier. We believe that breast feeding is an excellent natural alternative to prevent or reduce pain during minor daily procedures undergone by neonates." One might add that, as breastfeeding has so many other positive effects for both mother and child, it seems that it would be the treatment of choice-even more than pacifiers and sugar solutions.