I have four kids from 13 down to 5.  I breastfed each one until they were about 2 years old.  I had great examples of watching my mom breastfeed my much younger (by 17 years) brother and my aunt with her three girls.  My babies were so healthy and happy; I think we only had one ear infection during their combined baby-hoods.  It wasn't always easy or convenient.  While breastfeeding my oldest, I had to stay away from all dairy products--my favorite food group!  I lost my milk supply twice due to medication but was always able to re-establish it by constant nursing.  Frustrating for the babe and painful for me but I was (and still am) so committed to breast feeding that it was worth it.

I have been breastfeeding my son since he was born a month ago, and even though it hurts sometimes, I am planning on doing it until either I can't take it anymore, or until my son gets teeth, or until he is a year old, whichever comes first. But I never knew about the childhood obesity ratios, that is quite interesting. But so far I have learned that it is definitely something that you want to do at home, and so I think it is better if you are a stay at home mom, because to me, I think it is more personal and you get the bonding time with your child as opposed to sitting at work taking a break and pumping for some time. 

I was just reading in the news paper the other week that breast feeding is actually up, the numbers have nearly doubled among black women who have reportedly been less likely to breastfed in the past. Unfortunately, I'm crap with numbers...they all tend to run together after so many hours of them at work...so I don't remember percentages. Blah.

I do think working outside the home is mostly to blame. My current boss would probably find an excuse to fire me if I was running to the bathroom too often to pump and change out pads and imagine how embarassing it would be to get busy and not be able to leave your station to change pads, resulting in a soaked shirt.

I also think it's the amount of teenage mothers we have now, too. It's nothing against them, they're just not as comfortable with the idea. If you would have asked me if I planned on breastfeeding my future babies eight years ago? I probably would have said "no, thankyouverymuch" and changed the subject quickly. I think it was MamaFox that recently blogged that she wasn't comfortable enough with her first two babies to breast feed, but finally was able to with the third.

I plan to breastfed and we'll go as long as possible...without crossing into that weird 'Desperate Housewives' nursing a 5-year-old business. Though I have considered the idea of pumping extendedly. Time will tell, I suppose.

If the health benefits weren't reason enough, go check out the price tags on formula! Yowza.  (We won't mention that the gas to drive to the store for the formula may soon also become a factor...)

I could not breastfeet either of my children because my milk glands do not work in either of my breast :( But you cannot say I didn't try and when I get pregnant again I'll take out my piercings and try yet again. :)

I agree with @TornadoChaser - support is a huge factor.  Many women having babies today were not breastfed themselves, meaning they don't have mothers who went through it to help them out (and in fact many of them get pressure from their moms to formula feed).

So many hospitals don't push breastfeeding, either.  They starts supplementing with formula before mom's milk has had a chance to come in, etc.  Honestly, as I've written here before if I hadn't been such a big breastfeeding advocate I probably would have given up myself in the beginning, but I knew it would get better and that I had to give it a shot. Now, at almost 6 months, it's going wonderfully and I'm so glad I stuck with it (and plan to till at least his 1st birthday).

Working outside the home is a big issue, too.  My sister is a teacher, and thinking ahead to when she has kids there's almost no way she'll be able to pump at work short of donning a nursing cover and pumping as she teaches (I can imagine all the parent complaints now!).  That is sad. 

The US has this weird culture where we're promoting breastfeeding more, but it has to be behind closed doors-- no pumping at work, no breastfeeding in public, etc.  How are mothers supposed to succeed under that sort of a system??

@filtered_sunlight@xanga - I think the number of teen pregnancies has actually gone down over the years.  It just gets more coverage now (esp with Jamie Lynn) so it seems more common.

I think working outside the home is one of the biggest factors. It is plain difficult to pump enough if you are working a full-time job. And pumping is a chore - it's nothing like the pleasant experience of actually nursing your child. It's definitely hard enough to carve out enough time at your job to pump enough to keep the supply up.

@mamahippo - It's definitely getting a lot of press time lately. I actually haven't heard anything about the other Spears' girl in a while. But I did catch a write-up about the new tv show with Molly Ringwald as the mom of the pregnant teen. And there was 'Juno', of course. In the real world, they just uncovered the gang of teen girls with a "pregnancy pact".

My grandmother got married and had my eldest uncle at 16, but she'd dropped out of school after 6th grade and worked on her parents' farm for a few years by that point...she was already in an adult role. It seems like the 16 year olds that are getting pregnant in the present times are still completely dependant upon their parents, popping gum and going to cheerleading practice sort-of-thing. Grandma was also from BFE Wisconsin, on a dairy farm in the 1940's, more the "norm" back then than it is today. It's just pure speculation on my part, but I think someone in that situation would have a different comfort level with breastfeeding and bodily functions in general than today's common suburban teenage girl that you can find at the annual Strawberry Festival under the 4-H tent shrieking, "EW! NOOOO!!" when offered the chance to milk a real, live cow. I wish there were a way to gauge not just number of birthdays one has celebrated, but the amount of real-world experience that they have and the individual's mentality and then compare those rates over the years. I think, if it were possible, it would give us a much better idea of our standing in those statisics.

@saraxqt@xanga - Yeah that's hard. It took me 3 weeks just to get my son to latch on at all. (Nurses at the hospital didn't help me much even when I asked them too.) I'm glad that my mom got me a small hand pump so I was pumping in between trying to get him on. If I wasn't so stubborn I would have just quit. I'm really glad I stuck with it.  

Breastfeeding also is good for a mama!  It helps the uterus contract back after birth, helps you lose the baby weight and also dramatically reduces your risk of breast cancer.

I've been a proud breastfeeding mama for quite a while now...  I breastfed my first child for 15 months, my second for 22 months and my third is still going strong at 16 months.

I have a 10 and 1/2 month old and I am still breastfeeding.  I work 8 hours a week outside the home, but I am getting ready to start a part-time job teaching.  He is down to 4 feedings during waking hours, but it took a long time to get him to sleep through the night, even after solids were introduced.  I think that's because of the breastfeeding, which would be a drawback, but the benefits definitely outweigh that.  It was tough at first...I won't lie.  It was about 6 weeks before the rawness was gone and I was 100% at ease with it.  When he was 8 weeks old, I noticed that he was breaking out with eczema and there was blood in his stool.  After many trips to the Dr., including a pediatric gastroenterologist, we discovered that he had a milk allergy.  So I stopped dairy all together and everything cleared up.  I've been able to introduce more dairy into my diet, but I tried drinking milk a while back and his eczema flared up again.  He's only been sick 2 times, and those have been coughing/allergy/breathing issues.  This week we had allergy testing done and it turns out he's allergic to a lot of outdoor things, and some indoor things, including our dog.  He's also allergic to peanuts, tree nuts and eggs.  We took him for a blood test yesterday to see how allergic he is to the foods and if any others show up, like milk.  All that to say, if I hadn't breastfed my son, I am convinced that he would have been a lot more sick with all of these issues going on.  He has been so healthy and has gained the appropriate amount of weight.
With that being said, I am counting down the days until his 1st birthday and I can start the weaning process.  Mostly because I'm 13 weeks along with #2 and it's taking a toll on my energy!  I plan on breastfeeding #2 as well, with some pumping for the 3 hours a day I'm at school.

I have breastfed all of my babies.  But all of my five children have breastfed for different times.  I seem to decrease the age of weening each time I have a baby.  For example, my firstborn was breastfed until he was 13 months old.  My youngest only was breastfed until she was 7 months old.  I do regret not breastfeeding my youngest longer and I hope to nurse my next baby until he/she is a year old. 
I did think that the way I chose to feed them had affected their long term health (they are all in the "normal" range for weitght), but I thought it was due to the fact that I fed on a schedule, not on demand.  I was surprised to find that breastfeeding alone helps reduce the risk of childhood obesity.