The longer David Satcher remains Surgeon General of The United States, the more convinced I am of his sincerity and integrity. His most recent act of which I am extremely proud is his public encouragement of mothers � especially Black mothers � to extend the breast-feeding of their infants beyond the usual few weeks. Speaking at La Leche League International�s 17th annual conference, held here in Chicago last week, Dr. Satcher pointed out that, despite the known health benefits of breast- feeding, only 19 percent of Black women are still breast-feeding at six months after giving birth, compared with 31 percent of white women. This was according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services� "Blueprint for Action on Breast-Feeding", which urges women to breast-feed for a full year � a program reportedly followed by only 17 percent of white women and only 9 percent of Black.

This is in complete accord with the instructions given to me by The Honorable Elijah Muhammad just before the birth of my first son, more than forty years ago. He half-jokingly told me that "If you nurse the baby on cow�s milk, the baby will grow up more in love with the cow than with the Mother." Dr. Satcher added that breast-feeding "should not only be allowed (by family and community) it should be encouraged."

Doctor Satcher has delivered this message within the past year to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Another participant in the program was Katherine Barber, founder of the African-American Breast-feeding Alliance, which obviously has a more specific target than the La Leche group, which she felt was not meeting certain specific needs of Black mothers. One of her contentions � a quite valid one � was that some Black women connect breast-feeding with slavery. Dr. Satcher agreed:

"During slavery," he pointed out, "women were required to nurse babies who were not their own, and to some extent that is part of the problem. We have to overcome that." Prior to that, according to Ms. Barber, "We were a breast-feeding culture; we have the tradition from Africa."

The Tribune writer, Julie Deardorff, points out, "The advantages of breast feeding are well documented.

"Breast milk is considered perfect nutritional food for babies, and studies suggest breast-fed children may be less likely to develop diarrhea, pneumonia and even diabetes, childhood cancer and asthma. Breast-fed infants, compared with formula-fed infants, seem to have stronger immune systems, and evidence suggests there is less obesity among children who were breast-fed."

She further notes that, "Mothers can benefit, too, by dropping pregnancy pounds more quickly. It may reduce the risk of certain cancers, such as breast and ovarian. And economically speaking, it�s impossible to beat the price."