Poorer women less likely to breastfeed babes

Sep 1 2008

According to a new study by Australian researchers, poorer women are less likely to breastfeed than they were a decade ago.

The study by researchers from La Trobe University in Melbourne is a large-scale review of national health data and surveys in the nine years to 2004 and has revealed that while there was no significant change overall in the number of mothers who breastfed, in the lowest socio-economic group, the figure dropped from 38% to 37%, down by 0.6%.

The researchers say this increases the chance of these babies becoming ill and being hospitalised.

The research looked at the relationship between socio-economic status and breastfeeding in infants at 3, 6 and 12 months and they say the broad figures mask an increasing divide between the richest and the poorest Australians.

In the highest socio-economic group the percentage of breastfed infants rose from 53 per cent to 66 per cent, up by 13% and more than half the babies in the highest socio-economic group are still breastfed at six months while in the lowest socio-economic group it is about a third.

Although overall duration of breastfeeding remained fairly constant in Australia between 1995 and 2004–05, the gap between the most disadvantaged and least disadvantaged families has widened considerably over this period.

Researcher Dr. Lisa Amir says richer parents often adopted healthier behaviour, but poorer women struggled because of less family support, less ability to seek help with breastfeeding problems, and work arrangements and commitments.

Dr. Amir warns of increasing health inequalities in Australian children and she is calling for broader education campaigns to also address workplace attitudes and public acceptance of breastfeeding.

The research is published in the Medical Journal of Australia.