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Irish Wedding News

07/08/2014

More Support For Breastfeeding Mums Needed

There have been fresh calls for more support to be made available to mums who breastfeed.

According to Dr Amy Brown, Programme Director for the MSc Child Public Health from Swansea University's College of Human and Health Sciences, while breastfeeding is known to protect the health of both mums and babies worldwide, breastfeeding rates in the UK remain low.

Around four in five new mums start breastfeeding, but many stop within the first few days and weeks following the birth of their child. Around one fifth continue to breastfeed at all by six months.

Some of the reasons for this are said to be that some mums find it difficult, while others are not confident, others said their friends and family who feel excluded and want to feed the baby can lead to them stopping. For many mothers, however, they felt they did not have enough support to continue breastfeeding, with others blaming the often negative attitude towards breastfeeding, especially when in a public place.

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Dr Brown said: "Babies who are breastfed have a lower risk of gastrointestinal and respiratory illnesses, ear infections and obesity whilst mums reduce their risk of reproductive cancers, osteoporosis and heart disease. In the UK, the Department of Health recommends that babies have nothing but breast milk for the first six months of their lives, with continued breastfeeding until the first year and beyond."

"Finding ways to supporting breastfeeding is important not only for the health of new mums and babies but because of the savings it can bring through reducing illnesses. Recent statistics show that if more babies were breastfed the NHS, and therefore tax payers would save millions of pounds," she continued. "Many mums also report feeling guilty or upset if they cannot breastfeed and negative experiences or lack of support can exacerbate this. Breastfeeding protects babies and therefore we should be protecting and supporting new mums to breastfeed."

(JP/IT)

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"There have been fresh calls for more support to be made available to mums who breastfeed."