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Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Have Your Baby In Portland, OR

We are well past the age of having offspring - and with what we know about how this world really operates wouldn't bring a new life into it anyway - but Portland, Oregon, seems to be the place to have a baby.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — FitPregnancy Magazine has listed Portland as the top city in the nation for having a baby.

The magazine cites Oregon's low infant and maternal mortality rates and says babies in Portland are 34% less likely than the national average to be born below normal birth weight and 21% less likely to be born premature.

Portland gets high marks for breast feeding, with the magazine concluding that 88% of the city's mothers try it against a national average of 75%.

The magazine praised Oregon laws allowing breast feeding in public.

It said 19.9% of Portland's mothers breast feed exclusively for six months or longer, as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The average for the cities surveyed was 12%.