ECOLOGY OF BREAST-FEEDING IN THE UNITED-STATES - AN APPLIED PERSPECTIVE

Breastfeeding initiation and duration have followed distinct cycles in the United States. Despite recent increases, breastfeeding rates stil l fall short of public health goals. This paper takes an applied persp ective to examine the potential role of human biologists in enhancing the promotion of breastfeeding in the United States. The conceptual mo del of breastfeeding held by policy makers and public health professio nals is distinguished from that of human biologists. An integrated mod el is proposed that incorporates the sociodemographic factors of the p ublic health model with the components of breastfeeding structure and early mother-infant interaction of the human biology model. It is sugg ested that human biologists can contribute to the more effective promo tion of breastfeeding by promoting inclusion of a wide range of anthro pological research on infant feeding, clarifying the vocabulary of inf ant feeding, and expanding their own research to include participation in the development and testing of breastfeeding interventions. (C) 19 98 Wiley-Liss, Inc.