We know that increasing the number of women who breastfeed and reducing the number of women who smoke during pregnancy both produce substantial improvements in child health and reduce the risk of illness.
One explanation could be that women who breastfeed may lead healthier lifestyles than women who don't, but we don't know the mechanisms that would explain this fully, and not enough work has been done in this area.
There were angry reactions from mothers, according to Storyful, which aggregates news analysis and social media reactions to events, many worrying that Time's coverage will make it harder for women to breastfeed in public.
Less than 1% of women actually breastfeed their baby exclusively for this long, and NHS research suggests a significant number experience problems in the first few weeks - with insufficient milk supply and baby's failure to suckle properly cited as the main problems.
It will also give women the right to breastfeed in public and outlaw "homophobic bullying" in the workplace.
By the 1970s fewer than 25% of American women even tried to breastfeed and experiential knowledge had been lost.
In 2005 Scotland became one of the few countries in the world to legally protect the rights of women who want to breastfeed in public.
Her research shows that only about a third of women in the UK breastfeed exclusively, while half use formula at least some of the time.
Breastfeeding advocates raised legitimate concerns about breast milk alternatives (corn syrups for babies?) and many women who decided to breastfeed and practice attachment parenting genuinely believed that going natural was the better route.
Certainly women who can't breastfeed for whatever reason, and who live in countries with a decent standard of health care, shouldn't waste too much time worrying that they are causing long-term damage to their baby's health.
But Anne Merewood, director of the breastfeeding centre at Boston Medical Center, says that women deserve to be given every opportunity to breastfeed if they want to, and hospitals should be proactive in helping women get started.
Women who return to work can continue to breastfeed at night and in the morning while giving their baby formula milk during the day.
It wasn't until weeks later, in another doctor's office, that she happened upon an article that calmed her: some women, it said, can't breastfeed, for physical reasons.
Until doctors and nurses are properly trained to help, women like Kelly will experience all of the pressure to breastfeed, with none of the support to figure out how.
"We just give women a pat on the head and tell them their kids will be fine, " if they don't breastfeed, says Dr. Alison Stuebe, an OB who treats breast-feeding problems in North Carolina.
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