A NEW RECOMMENDATION FROM the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) urges primary care physicians to do more to encourage mothers to breastfeed their infants. Citing strong evidence that breastfeeding provides health benefits for children, and moderate evidence that it benefits women as well, the USPSTF evaluated the literature on breastfeeding support interventions to determine whether such efforts are effective. The organization found sufficient evidence that supportive interventions increase rates of breastfeeding initiation as well as the duration and exclusivity of breastfeeding (US Preventive Services Task Force. Ann Intern Med. 2008;149[8]:560-564). Most of the breastfeeding interventions that have been studied include multiple components, such as formal breastfeeding instruction by a clinician in a classroom setting, office-based interventions by a clinician, hospitalbased interventions, and postdischarge professional or lay support, according to Mei Chung, MPH, of Tufts Medical Center in Boston, who along with colleagues conducted the literature review for the USPSTF (Chung M et al. Ann Intern Med. 2008;149[8]:565582). Chung and her colleagues found that such interventions have a beneficial effect on breastfeeding when compared with usual care. The researchers also tried to tease out the specific strategies that are most effective. They found that it is important to provide support to women both during pregnancy and after delivery, said Chung. Additionally, initiatives that include lay support for breastfeeding mothers appear to be more effective than those that offer only professional support. Chung said this finding may be related to the timing of these forms of support. Lay support, she explained, is most commonly offered after a woman has left the hospital,