Aussie babies skip breast milk

[Michaelangelica]

Persuading Gen Ys to opt for breast over bottle

Future parents admit they know very little about the benefits of breastfeeding with most perceiving the act as "embarrassing" when performed in public, a new study by Queensland University of Technology has found.

Associate Professor Rebekah Russell-Bennett, from QUT's School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations, said an online survey of Gen Ys aged 18 to 29 revealed more than 75 per cent were unlikely to exclusively breastfeed their children until six months - as recommended as ideal by the World Health Organisation.

"In Australia less than half of Australian infants (48 per cent) receive any breast milk at six months and only 18 per cent were being exclusively breastfed," she said.

"The responses of the survey indicated that both young men and women did not understand the benefits of breastfeeding, perceived breastfeeding in public as embarrassing and bottle-feeding as more convenient and easier.

"There was also a high proportion of people who indicated they did not know the answers to questions such as: 'At what age should infants be introduced to other foods or fluids apart from breast milk or formula?' and 'Does breastfeeding help to prevent allergies and infections in infants?'"

The answers are: "six months" and "yes".

Professor Russell-Bennett said the study targeted people likely to have their first child within the next five to 10 years.

"The intentions of people before birth have been shown to be a good predictor of actual behaviour," she said.

"The study found while 34.5 per cent had been exclusively breastfed for at least four to six months, only 22.6 per cent were considering exclusively breastfeeding until at least six months."

Professor Russell-Bennett said the key to increasing the number of women who breastfeed their infants was about promoting "loyalty" to breastfeeding.

"One of the things that is needed to increase loyalty is a change in what is culturally accepted," she said.

"For example it should be considered 'OK' in our culture for women to breastfeed in public."

Professor Russell-Bennett said the research also supported the recent Federal Government national breastfeeding strategy which focuses less on guilt-inducing messages and more on changing cultural norms.

The study was jointly conducted by Professor Russell-Bennett and Danielle Gallegos from QUT's School of Public Health.

[eco4560]

Nice article - but I'm wondering why it is under "Breeding-Raising-Feeding-and-Caring-for-Animals". Am I supposed to breast feed the goats too?

[Michaelangelica]

You have never had kids?
kids=animals?

Very sad report really especially as the country has a well organised and active support group like the Nursing Mothers' Association.

[Tegs]

I agree that report is disappointing. I only hope that maybe the target group of people "likely to have their first child within the next five to 10 years" was maybe a little off. I know that before I had my kids I knew that I wanted to breast feed them but as far as knowing details about how long they should be exclusively breast fed and the many benefits, I knew nothing. It is probably not ideal, but I think a lot of the education begins once the deed is done and bubs is on the way. Midwives are on the front line of breastfeeding education I think.

[eco4560]

They don't turn into animals until adolescence, and even I as a prolonged breast feeder didn't manage to keep them on the breast that long....

Did anyone see the breastfeeding scene in Gourmet Farmer las night? A toddler being fed at the dinner table while Mum ate freshly killed turkey roasted in a wood fired stove. Go SBS for showing that breastfeeding is as organic as organic turkey!

[Michaelangelica]

I recently read somewhere that breast milks chemical composition changes as the baby gets older.
The mum seems to adjust the formula to suit precisely the needs of the child at that particular time and stage of development. Amazing!

When I had my little creatures the routine at the hospital was to tube feed all new-borns to "give the mother a rest".
Blissfully ignorant of the first milk being the all important Colostrum that sets up the babies immune system for life
AND the fact that suckling at the breast made the Mum produce hormones that started to put all her stretched bits back together.
O yes, there is some bonding going on and the baby is getting comforted by the sound and smell of the mother.
But the powers to be had decreed 'the mum needed a rest'. Needless to say, i had many fights with sisters and the Admin. in the hospital. As both my kids were premmie, I also had a fight over them not allowing me to touch them whilst they were in humidi-cribs (for many weeks). No one had seen the work of the psychologist John Bowlby on maternal deprivation in monkeys obviously. (If you watch the experiments on Youtube note that this sort of experiment would not get past an ethics committee these days-- but I guess, in a way, it was happening in real time with humans in many Institutions)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahxHfxXbjLY
Thankfully all those medieval Institutional practices have now gone (?)

A resident doctor at the hospital said to me that he a had a theory about all the milk allergies these days. He said a new-born babies' stomach was set up to absorb totally its first Colostrum meal. When that meal is cow's milk the foreign protein sets the babies immune system to attack milk protein. Hence a milk allergy.

A young friend refuses to buy any Nestle products, as she says they promote the use of baby-formulas in the poor Third World Counties. This is a disaster in many ways, but as the water is often contaminated, many babies die who should not die.

[helenlee]

My daughter recently told me that her friend (a young teen mum) stopped breast feeding at 3 months so she could resume her recreational drug taking regime! I wonder how common this scenario is?

I think another obstacle for lots of mums is the necessity of leaving baby in childcare to service the mortgage. There is no way I could have managed to express enough milk for baby for a day let alone a year - can ANYONE use those awful breast pumps?

[Grahame]

Sometimes I wonder why people even have kids.

[pebble]

Go SBS for showing that breastfeeding is as organic as organic turkey!

Technically, the breast milk would only be organic if the mother ate organic

[Michaelangelica]

Unfortunately with the amount of chlorinated hydrocarbons etc in breast milk--in fact all mammals milk--it would probably not get organic certification.
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/con...7640375&db=all

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...6afc2efba08fc7

http://www.deathcaps.com/page5/page8/page8.html

http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/con...ract/150/9/981