Oregon Dubbed Best State for Babies

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Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Fit Pregnancy magazine just finished analyzing data from 50 major U.S. cities to figure out which ones where the best for raising babies. Cheers to all your Northwestern moms and babies! Apparently, Portland is the number one city in the country for birthing, breastfeeding and raising babies. The findings were based on issues including breastfeeding rates, birthing options, stroller friendliness and child health risks.

Portland was one of just five cities to get an "A" rating in the breastfeeding friendliness category. The breastfeeding criteria included:

• Access to lactation consultants


• Access to breastfeeding-support stores


• Proximity to baby-friendly hospital (those that meet UNICEF/WHO standards for supporting breastfeeding)


• Laws supporting a mother’s right to breastfeed or pump in public, including workplaces; laws excusing breastfeeding mothers from jury service


• Percentage of mothers who initiate breastfeeding


• Percentage of mothers breastfeeding infant at least six months of age

In fact, it seems that Oregon has the best breastfeeding rates in the country. Cool. :)

Some other findings... my own town of Columbus, Ohio managed to rank "better" in the overall, affordability and safety sections, but scored fair or worse for everything else.

There's a cool interactive map at Fit Pregnancy that will let you see the ratings by category. Any surprises out there? Columbus seemed to be pretty accurate from what I see on a daily basis...

Labels: Lactivism

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