[Breast feeding in Puerto Rico: traditional patterns, national trends and future strategies]

The Puerto Rican society has gone through profound transformations during the past 50 years. Industrialization and the incorporation of women into the labor force have been accompanied by medicalization of the reproductive process and a progressive reduction in the prevalence of breastfeeding as the cultural norm for nutrition of infants. The data base for 1990 places Puerto Rico significantly below Latin America and the United States in the percentage of breastfed infants. The authors report their experience in the promotion of breastfeeding during the last 5 years. The principal negative factors which hinder the beginning and maintenance of successful breastfeeding are of a social nature. The orientation of physicians towards technology underrates the benefits of breastfeeding. The marketing strategies of the corporations which manufacture artificial milk continuously violate the International Code for Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes and disfigure the community's perception on the benefits of breastfeeding. The lack of social and legal support for the breastfeeding working mother frequently prevents her from carrying out successful breastfeeding for the recommended period of time. Strategies are presented for the overturn of the existent barriers which have reduced breastfeeding in Puerto Rico to the present precarious levels.