Breastfeeding weekBreastfeeding rates among certain groups of women in Ireland are low to non-existent even though studies show that its benefits practically eliminate other health inequalities between socio-economic groups, the State's national breastfeeding co-ordinator said.
Speaking at the start of National Breastfeeding Week today, Maureen Fallon said the latest campaigns in the US were now emphasising "the risks of not breastfeeding" as opposed to its benefits alone.
"The data we have, such as it is, strongly suggests a bias in favour of breastfeeding among the higher socio-economic groups," she said. Ms Fallon said that in the Traveller community, for example, it was "unusual" to breastfeed. Travellers sometimes cited the question of privacy when breastfeeding, she said.
"A practice like breastfeeding relies on support within families and it goes out of experience within one or two generations," she said.
Latest figures available from maternity hospitals suggest breastfeeding among women in Ireland is about 41 per cent on discharge from maternity care, although definitive statistics are not available and the Government strategy, announced today, aims to address this.
Ireland's breastfeeding rate, at just over one in four women, is the lowest in Europe. In Norway and Germany respectively, some 99 per cent and 96 per cent of women breastfeed. In Britain, it is 71 per cent. France has the second lowest rate at 65 per cent.
Ms Fallon cited a study published in the journal Pediatrics last year, which showed babies who are breastfed have a 21 per cent lower risk of death in the first year compared with babies never breastfed. The reduction in risk rises to 38 per cent if babies are breastfed for three months or more. A study in Dundee shows that children who were breastfed for 15 weeks have lower cholesterol rates and lower rates of infection in childhood than their counterparts in controlled tests.
The Department of Health aims to encourage more women to breastfeed and to ensure they have support to continue breastfeeding when they leave hospital.
Ms Fallon said the issue of breastfeeding was one for society as a whole. "We know that parents make infant feeding decisions before they book a maternity hospital and, in that case, it seems they are making the decision based on 'societal norms' rather than on information. We would emphasise that breast is best and that it is the biological norm," she said.
The national breastfeeding co-ordinator also said there was an entitlement to breastfeeding breaks in the workplace since October 2004. In other countries, it had been recognised by companies that to give women such facilities had economic benefits.
The theme for National Breastfeeding Week this year is 'Breastfeeding: Perfectly Natural. Its objectives include the collation of "comprehensive, accurate and timely" data on breastfeeding. The strategy also aims to increase breastfeeding rates by 1-2 per cent each year for the next five years through the creation of a supportive culture.
The plan has been developed by the multidisciplinary National Committee on Breastfeeding and will be formally announced by the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney today at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin.