NEW YORK --- Breast-feeding advocates boarded an A train on Friday for a ride from the Bronx to Brooklyn to call attention to a mother's right to nurse her baby.

The activists want New York lawmakers to pass legislation that would require health care providers to tell pregnant women about the benefits of breast-feeding before and after delivery.

State Sen. Liz Krueger's office says the bill also would ban commercial interests from pressuring new mothers into using formula.

Among the nursing mothers was 41-year-old Valerie Roman, who says she has breast-fed all three of her children, ages 17, 10 and 7 1/2 months.

Roman says the goal of Friday's demonstration is to "heighten awareness that it's very important to nurture our children with breast milk. It's the healthy way to go."

Breast-feeding is considered beneficial to both mothers and their babies.

But a recent survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that most U.S. hospitals don't do very well when it comes to promoting breast-feeding.

About a quarter of hospitals reported giving formula or some other supplement to more than half of their healthy, full-term newborns.

The practice was common even when mothers were able and willing to breast-feed.