WBZ-AM, Boston - Text Transcript

SG: Deb Lawler has joined the call now, you may proceed.

WBZ: Hello good morning

SG: Good Morning! Hello, this is Rich Carmona.

WBZ: Hi, nice to meet you on the phone this morning, thank you very much.

SG: My pleasure.

WBZ: And with your permission here, we'll put you right on the record to talk about breast feeding and the benefits thereof.

SG: Ready to go!

WBZ: Very good sir, thank you very much. Why is it that breastfeeding is better they say than say cow's milk? What are the benefits?

SG: Well, there's really many benefits. First of all there's the whole culturization process of the mom bonding with the new baby and it's a special kind of closeness that develops between them. Then there's the medical issues. The fact that studies have shown that children who are breastfed have less incidence of infections like respiratory infections, ear infections, things like that. So there's generally an enhanced immune response. So for the growth and development of your child, the risk of infections that impede that during their growth and development are reduced when moWBZ breastfeed.

WBZ: Dr. Carmona, you've certainly heard the controversy before about breastfeeding in public. It comes up every now and then. And we've recently had it as an issue here in Massachusetts about actually breastfeeding at football games. We're talking about thousands and thousands of people. What do you say about that?

SG: Well, it's interesting. It's one of the things that early on when the scientific community tried to start educating moWBZ as to the importance of this that it was one of those unanticipated consequences that “well what if a moWBZ in the subway, or a baseball game or a football game?” And, I think that it's important that we make every effort to accommodate mothers to allow them to breastfeed their babies wherever they are. Of course this is going to be driven by local policy and procedure and culture, but I think the underlying concern should be the health and growth and development of the babies, and we should do everything possible to allow moWBZ to breastfeed their children.

WBZ: As a whole, would you say that the United States is doing well by its children?

SG: Well, I think it's doing well. Well, when you look at the numbers. Back up until about 1950, almost all mothers, virtually 100 percent breastfed. And then with the society changing post World War II, more moWBZ working, the advent of different formulas, and different types of feedings for babies, we saw that drop to 25 percent in 1967. During that time, you saw an increase in ear infections and respiratory infections and diarrhea, quite a bit of diarrhea. And now the numbers are improving, but we still find that six months after it's still down to about 27 percent. Although it starts off a little higher for the first few weeks. We're doing better than the low but we still have a lot of room for improvement.

WBZ: Very good sir, a pleasure to meet you this morning. Thank you.

SG: Thanks so much.

WBZ: Bye bye!

Content last updated August 15, 2005.