Trends in Breastfeeding In a Dozen Developing Countries

Summary Although it is commonly believed that breasffeeding has declined throughout the developing world, little systematic evidence has been marshalled either to support or to contradict this impression. Evidence concerning breasffeeding trends in 12 developing countries is assembled in this article for the first time. The patterns of change that are documented vary greatly across countries, ranging from clear decline in some cases to clear increase in others, and there are a number of instances of apparent stability in levels of breasffeeding. Where it is possible to compare trends for the same country across different time periods, further variability is apparont.