The obstetrician's opportunity: translating "breast is best" from theory to practice.

The superiority of breast-feeding to artificial feeding of infants has been well established for nutritional, biochemical, antiinfective, psychological, economic, and contraceptive reasons. The promotion of breast-feeding should, therefore, be a high-priority concern of health workers. Both provision of information and support to expectant mothers and changes in hospital routines in the perinatal period have been shown capable of dramatically increasing the incidence and duration of breast-feeding in populations studied. Moreover, these interventions are interventions are quite specific, effective, manageable, and affordable. Obstetricians have a special responsibility and capacity to promote breast-feeding given their contact with women throughout pregnancy and their influence on hospital birth routines. A greater commitment on the part of obstetricians to promote breast-feeding could accelerate and extend the current shift back to breast-feeding, to the benefit of mothers and their babies in all socioeconomic groups.