"Too few women" breastfeeding

The number of mothers who breastfed their babies within the first 30 minutes of delivery declined by 28 per cent in the first three months of this year, when compared to same period last year, Department of Health Information statistics show.

The National Obstetric Information System within the department showed that in the first quarter of this year just 20 per cent of all the mothers who gave birth breastfed in the first 30 minutes of giving birth.

This figure rose slightly to 38 per cent on the mothers' discharge from hospital, though it is still a marked decrease of nine per cent over the same period last year when 47 per cent of mothers breastfed on discharge.

Malta lags far behind the US where 67 per cent of infants are breastfed on discharge, and the UK which has a rate of 66 per cent.

However, recent studies in the UK show that a fifth of British mothers who started breastfeeding stopped within the first two weeks.

This could also be the case in Malta because there are no statistics available on whether or not Maltese mothers followed the recommendations of the World Health Organisation, and continued to breastfeed exclusively for the first six months, once they left hospital.

These figures belie the immense benefits of breastfeeding for both the mother and the child and expose a gaping lack of information that would empower women to stick by their decision to breastfeed, according to Association of Breastfeeding Counsellors secretary Christine Borg.

Mrs Borg feels that these low figures were mostly due to the fact that mothers were receiving conflicting advice in the first 24 hours of giving birth.

"From the feedback we receive, midwives are resorting to giving the baby powdered formula at the first sign of any slight complication, leaving the mother confused and in the process undermining her decision to breastfeed," she said.

Mrs Borg also said that numerous mothers had informed the association that several nurses at the different hospitals were promoting the use of baby powered formula, over breast milk.

"Some mothers claim that some nurses are receiving incentives to promote powdered milk," she said.

"It seems very few midwives and nurses have a conscience to heavily promote breastfeeding once a baby is born and apart from that not many mothers are equipped with the right mentality towards this beneficial way of feeding a baby," she said.

Many mothers underscore the benefits of breastfeeding from reducing the risk of childhood obesity by a third, to optimal intellectual development and protection against disease.

The benefits have prompted the US Surgeon General to aim for a 75 per cent breastfeeding rate by 2010.

The benefits of breastfeeding were last month given an additional boost after Cancer Research UK analysts released research which showed that a woman's risk of breast cancer dropped by 4.3 per cent for every year of her life spent breastfeeding.

This was over and above of seven per cent reduction in risk that the mother enjoyed for every baby to which she gave birth, the research showed.

Mrs Borg said that despite such welcome research too few women in Malta were breastfeeding and this was partly due to the lack of support available.

"If mothers are provided with adequate support at hospital there is a good chance that the mother will continue to breastfeed longer," she said.

"At the moment the majority of mothers are not empowered with the adequate information so at the slightest doubt they change their mind and opt for powdered formula.

"I also feel that there should be more accountability in hospitals to reduce the conflicting messages being communicated to the mother," she added.