useless meaningless definitions
CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality report March 26 2010 Racial and Ethnic Differences in Breastfeeding Initiation and Duration, by State is seriously flawed.
Basic epidemiology requires one to define what one is measuring. To define breastfeeding as”:ever” is unacceptable. Furthermore this is all recall data and there is no evidence of external validity. How can one attempt to use “ever breastfed” as a measure of initiation by using a loose definition of breastfeeding as ever or within an hour after delivery .
Initiation is more than “ever” putting the baby to the breast. As far as I’m concerned its getting breastfeeding established. Any way is this information CDC is collecting and analysing of any use for program planning or evaluation or what’s its use. It looks like Ross data. They’.d be better collecting information on one month exclusive breastfeeding which would reflect establishment of breastfeeding.