To assess the impact of breastfeeding on later social status, British researchers compared two groups of individuals that included 17,400 children born in 1958 and 16,700 born in 1970. When the children reached the ages of 5 or 7, their mothers were asked if they had been breastfed. Researchers found that while 68 percent of the mothers breastfed children born in 1958 only 36 percent of the mothers who gave birth in 1970 breastfed their babies. The children in the study were grouped into three categories: never breastfed, breastfed for less than four weeks, and breastfed for four weeks or more. In addition, researchers compared the participant’s social class – based on the father’s standing...
↧
