这里是美国之音慢速英语健康报告。
This is World Breastfeeding Week. The celebration is now in its nineteenth year. It grew out of a meeting organized by UNICEF to find ways to support breastfeeding.
本周是世界母乳喂养周，该活动现在已经进入第19个年头。诞生于联合国儿童基金会举办的一个寻求支持母乳喂养途径的会议。
Jill Hall supports breastfeeding. In fact, she could be feeding her son right now.
吉尔·霍尔（Jill Hall）支持母乳喂养。事实上，她现在可能给她的儿子哺乳。
She gave birth to Thomas -- or Tiggy, as his parents call him -- at a hospital in Washington. They live in nearby McLean, Virginia.
她在华盛顿医院生下了托马斯，父母给他取的昵称是Tiggy。他们一家住在弗吉尼亚州麦克莱恩附近。
Mother's milk is all Tiggy has eaten since he was born six weeks ago. And it will be all he eats for the first six months. His mother plans to follow the advice of the World Health Organization.
从6周前出生起，Tiggy就只吃过母乳，而且他出生后的头6个月都将只吃母乳。他的母亲计划遵循世界卫生组织的建议。
JILL HALL: "As you can see I can't tell right now whether he wants to eat more or whether he needs to burp, so we might try the burping.
吉尔：“你看，我现在不知道他是否还想吃，也不知道他是否要打嗝。所以我们可以尝试让他打个嗝。
Six-week-old babies generally breastfeed seven to nine times in a twenty-four-hour period.
6周大的婴儿24小时内一般需要喂养母乳7至9次。
Jill Hall has two stepdaughters, but Thomas is her first experience with breastfeeding. And, in her words, "It's going great."
吉尔有两个继女，但托马斯是她首次母乳喂养经验。用她的话来说，“一切顺利。”
JILL HALL: "It's pretty natural. You kind of learn from each other, mom and baby, how it's all going to work. And that can take a little bit of trial and error."Josie Tullo knows all about that. She works for a lactation consulting group in Fairfax, Virginia. She has more than twenty years of experience advising mothers. But she says babies themselves are great guides to nursing.
吉尔：“这非常自然，妈妈和婴儿之间有点互相学习如何进行母乳喂养。这需要一点尝试，当然也会发生失误。”乔西·塔洛（Josie Tullo）熟知所有这一切。她在弗吉尼亚州费尔法克斯郡一个哺乳咨询组织工作。她拥有超过20年的为妈妈提供咨询的经验。但她说婴儿自己就是最好的护理指导。
JOSIE TULLO: "When babies are born, babies have an instinctive need, they're hard-wired to breastfeed. So basically, if we were to place a baby on the mother's abdomen, the baby would actually crawl up the mother's chest and choose which breast it would like to latch on to. The baby will open its mouth twice, the second time with a nice wide mouth, and lean in to grasp the breast. That's the mother's cue to hug the baby to the breast."
乔西：“婴儿一出生就有一种本能的需要，他们与母乳喂养有一种自然联系。因此基本上，如果我们把婴儿放到妈妈腹部，婴儿就会爬上妈妈的胸部并选择一个乳房，然后将嘴张大2倍，当张至合适大小时含住乳头吮吸。这就是给妈妈将婴儿抱至胸前哺乳的暗示。“
Doctor Bernadette Daelmans is an expert on newborn and child health development for the World Health Organization. She offers estimates from the WHO and UNICEF about how many young lives could be saved through breastfeeding.
Bernadette Daelman医生是世界卫生组织新生儿和儿童健康成长专家。她提供了世界卫生组织和联合国儿童基金会关于母乳喂养能挽救多少幼小生命的评估。
BERNADETTE DAELMANS: "If children were exclusively breastfed for six months, continued to breastfeed up to two years, with appropriate additional food from six months onwards, we could save 1.5 million children under five years of age out the 8.8 million that we estimate to die currently every year."
Bernadette Daelmans：“如果孩子头6个月仅喂养母乳，然后在2岁前继续喂养母乳，并从6月起适当补充食物，我们可以在目前估计的每年死亡的880万名5岁以下儿童中，挽救其中的150万名儿童。
Breastfeeding reduces the chances of infections in the first few hours of life. Later, it reduces the chances of stomach and intestinal infections in babies.
母乳喂养能够减少婴儿头几个小时感染的几率。过后，它能减少婴儿胃肠道感染的几率。
Researchers say babies who are breastfed often grow up to have lower blood pressure and cholesterol as adults. They are less likely to be overweight and have type two diabetes.
研究人员说，婴儿时期经常喂养母乳的成年人血压和胆固醇更低。他们也更少患肥胖症和2型糖尿病。
Health studies also point to other benefits for the baby and the mother.
健康报告同时还指出了母乳喂养对婴儿和妈妈的其他好处。