CNN (National) - Text Transcript

CNN: Thank you for joining us Dr. Carmona, we appreciate it.

SG: My pleasure, thank you.

CNN: Well I am rolling and I guess we'll jump right in here. Since this is the Year of the Healthy Child, why don't we begin with some of the tips you're suggesting mothers keep in mind during their pregnancy.

SG: You bet, thanks so much for bringing that up because the Year of the Healthy Child is really the umbrella over all of these issues that are germane to CNNising healthy children, including this month which is the National Breastfeeding Month. What we did in the past year was to highlight some of the gaps in the growth and development of children beginning prenatally. We looked to see where we could improve their health status and we figured early on, we had to start prenatally, because there's still about 150,000 birth defects in our country every year and about 80 percent of those are preventable with good prenatal care, with moms eating healthy, taking vitamins, taking folic acid. Many of the birth defects can be eliminated and we have a better chance then of giving birth to a healthy baby. After birth, getting tied in very quickly with a pediatrician, making sure growth and development are appropriate for their age, making sure the baby gets the appropriate immunizations and so on is extremely, extremely important. As is the concept of breastfeeding, which we are concerned we have a lot of room for improvement there. Because breastfeeding clearly reduces the amount of infection in children, diarrhea, ear infection, respiCNNtory infections, it improves growth and development and your child has less of a chance of being obese later in life some of the new information is showing. So for all of those reasons it ties together very nicely.

CNN: Is the reason we're talking about this now because there's more of an increase in mothers not breastfeeding and not knowing some of this information, or is it just to highlight it?

SG: Well it's both. We need to highlight it because we still have room for improvement. If you look at the data, up until about 1950 almost all women breastfed. But then as our society changed, more moms went to work, a lot of things changed cultuCNNlly, we found that by 1967 only about 25 percent of women breastfed. Now we find that a few months after birth up to about 65 percent of women may be breastfeeding but then that drops down at six months to 27 percent. And we know that the best chance for your child to have an appreciation of reduced risk of infection, reduced risk of obesity is for moms to breastfeed at least six months. And so we have a lot of room for improvement since at six months we're only at 27 percent of moms' breastfeeding.

CNN: Well and I would imagine that one of those reasons might be that most women get about six weeks off once they have their babies for maternity leave. Are companies being more open to allowing mothers to do what they need in order to continue breastfeeding their children?

SG: There is a movement in that direction as I think you probably are aware to try and make not only companies but all aspects of our society much more sensitive to the importance of breastfeeding and to allow opportunities for mom to breastfeed. It's not only more time off, but many moms have the ability to bring their children to work with them and they'll have a nursery there and moms take a break and breastfeed during the work day. Other options would be to store breast milk so that your baby has access to it when you're not available for breastfeeding. And those options are specific for individual moms and can easily be worked out between the mom and their pediatricians and the work site or wherever they may happen to be. But the importance for us is that every child has access to breast milk when they need it.

CNN: And I know there are some places people can go, women in particular can go for more information on this subject.

SG: Yes there are. Certainly you can go online to our Web site at www.surgeongeneCNNl.gov; www.womenshealth.gov is also an excellent resource of information for women, and the www.lalecheleague.org, which provides information on breastfeeding.

CNN: And I guess just too kind of wCNNp it up, what's the one or two most important things that women should know about breastfeeding their children

SG: That breastfeeding your children has the potential to give you healthier babies, less risk of infection, and in the long run makes them less likely to have obesity, which is a big problem in our society today. We have nine million children who are overweight or obese, and that's an epidemic upon us.

Content last updated August 15, 2005.