How to encourage longer breastfeeding?
Wednesday January 27th, 2010
Britain needs a rethink on how to improve the low rates of breast-feeding among its new mothers, researchers warn today.
White women with small families are the least likely to persist in feeding a baby from the breast, according to a new study.
By the time a woman reaches her third child, she is much more likely to keep on breast-feeding, the study found.
Dr
Arpana Verma of Manchester University, UK, and colleagues investigated
the effects of maternal factors and hospital practices on breast-feeding
rates. They used figures from 2,107 mothers in Eastern Lancashire who
began breast-feeding while in hospital. All were supported by "Little
Angels", a community organisation that provides peer-support for
breast-feeding mothers.
The government recommends that infants should be exclusively breast-fed for the first six months of life - but in 2000, the UK ranked the second lowest among 32 countries in a WHO report. Its breastfeeding rate at six months was just 21 per cent.
The team believes that the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative which focuses on policy and training may encourage women to begin breast-feeding. But they question whether it can affect the length of using the breast.
"Other strategies are therefore required to encourage UK mothers to breastfeed for the recommended duration," they write in the journal BMC Pediatrics.
Their study found that white mothers were 69 per cent more likely to stop breast-feeding compared with non-white mothers.
Longer breast-feeding was associated with having a third or subsequent baby, and being encouraged to start breastfeeding within an hour of giving birth.
However, there were no significant links to marital status, mode of delivery, timing of breast-feeding initiation and socio-economic deprivation.
Co-author Dr Gabriel Agboado said: "Peer support programmes, particularly those in multi-ethnic settings, will need to identify the needs of their various client groups in order to appropriately support them to breastfeed longer."
Agboado, G. et al. Factors associated with breastfeeding cessation in nursing mothers in a peer support programme in Eastern Lancashire. BMC Pediatrics (in press).
Tags: Childbirth and Pregnancy | Nursing & Midwifery | UK News | Women’s Health & Gynaecology
Printer friendly page