Breast feeding gains support

More than 75 percent of U.S. citizens support breast feeding and about two thirds feel positive or neutral about seeing a women breast feed in public, according to a survey conducted for the Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition.

"This is very encouraging and means that this country can reach our national health objective to increase the number of women who are breast feeding sooner than our target of 1990," Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, M.D., said in releasing the results.

More than seven out of 10 women say they would breast feed if they had a baby and more than eight out of 10 men support their partner's decision to breast feed. The only group in which support for breast feeding was less than 70 percent was among those aged 18 to 24 years, 65 percent of whom signified their support.

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