Reduced breastfeeding support, cuts in public health funding, negative attitude towards breastfeeding in public and a lack of knowledge of the health benefits of breast milk all contribute to the situation.

Rwanda
Exclusive breastfeeding (% of children under 6 months) – Country Ranking

The UK remains one of the countries with the lowest breastfeeding rate in the world. And as well as, negative attitudes towards breastfeeding in public and the workplace, limited awareness about the benefits of breastfeeding, as well as cuts in public health funding have all been highlighted as contributing factors.

Utah
Utah reported the highest breastfeeding rate — 94 percent — while just over half of Mississippi mothers said they had tried to breastfeed their children. Three states — Vermont, Washington and Tennessee — slipped slightly.

Although most infants born in 2017 started breastfeeding (84.1%), only 58.3% of infants were breastfeeding at 6 months (Table 1)….

The World Health Organization recommends that all babies be exclusively breastfed for 6 months, then gradually introduced to appropriate foods after 6 months while continuing to breastfeed for 2 years or beyond. Stopping breastfeeding is called weaning. It is up to you and your baby to decide when the time is right.

Encouragingly, U.S. breastfeeding rates have been on the rise over the past decade, with an increase of nearly 10% nationally and in most states between 2007 and 2016. For U.S. babies born in 2016: 83.8% were breastfed at some point. 47.5% were exclusively breastfed for 3 months.

The fact is, although the vast majority of new mothers are able to breastfeed, about 2 percent of all women can’t produce enough milk, regardless of their physical or emotional condition.

Breastfeeding duration rates are lower still. Although the AAP counsels mothers to breastfeed babies for at least a year (and the WHO recommends at least 2 years), fewer than 5% of American mothers are still breastfeeding when they celebrate their babies’ first birthday.

Although the rate of breastfeeding initiation in the United States is near the national goal of 75%, at 6 and 12 months postpartum the rates of breastfeeding duration are still considerably below the national goals of 50% and 25%, respectively.

Breastfeeding Trends. Despite the many benefits of breastfeeding, only 64 percent of mothers in the United States initiate breastfeeding, with 29 percent still breastfeeding six months after birth. The U.S. goals for 2000 were to increase to 75 percent the proportion of women who initiate breastfeeding,…

Breastfeeding in public is finally legal in all 50 US states. Most countries have not needed laws to allow women to feed nursing infants. Breastfeeding in public is now finally legal in all 50 US states.

Breastfeeding, also called nursing, is the process of feeding a mother’s breast milk to her infant, usually directly from the breast.