New York Officials: Breast Milk May Be Best 'Formula'

http://www.npr.org/2012/08/03/158097386/new-york-officials-breast-milk-may-be-best-formula

Audio: http://www.npr.org/2012/08/03/158097386/new-york-officials-breast-milk-may-be-best-formula

Starting next month, dozens of hospitals will participate in "Latch on NYC," an initiative aimed at encouraging new moms to breast-feed instead of using baby formula.

Health care professionals say breast-feeding is better for both mother and baby.

But critics — many of them mothers — say the city is inserting itself where it doesn't belong.

The maternity ward at North Central Bronx Hospital sees about 1,700 births a year. Long before those babies arrive, their mothers have heard about the benefits of breast-feeding.