Metro Source (National) - Text Transcript

Metro Source: It's no secret that this month's National Breastfeeding Awareness Month. A lot is going on surrounding that. First and foremost, what are you trying to get across?

SG: What we're trying to do is increase the knowledge base for all moms and families, and all those who have the responsibility for raising healthy babies to become healthy children. Breastfeeding is extremely important for a lot of reasons. Socially, for the bond between the mother and baby, but also medically. Science has demonstrated that babies who are breastfed have less infections like diarrhea, ear infections, respiratory infections and also there's less of a tendency to become overweight or obese later in life and that's a very big problem for us now, because we are plagued by an epidemic of childhood obesity. So for all those reasons we need to increase the awareness and encourage moms to breastfeed, as much as possible.

Metro Source: And speaking of awareness, for all of those who are really not up to par to having information surrounding breastfeeding. What exactly are some things we can do in order to increase awareness?

SG: Well, to increase awareness, all of us, not just the docs who are primarily responsible for taking care of babies or the family members who are immediately involved, but all of us as a society need to understand how important it is that moms are encouraged and provided support to be able to breastfeed. Moms who work, moms who need to travel, and so on because babies who are breastfed have less chance of infection and more chance of growing up healthy.

Metro Source: Well alright, sir I really appreciate the comment this morning. You've really been a big help.

Content last updated August 15, 2005.