A new study has reported that breastfeeding could save the lives of thousands of children worldwide. It could prevent over 800,000 children from dying and could also prevent an extra 22,000 deaths from breast cancer each year.
The study also looked at the reasons why many women do not breastfeed and these include: little support from the mother’s own community, particular government policies, and the marketing practices of the formula milk manufacturers.
Worldwide, the rates for breastfeeding appear high: 80% but drops to just 37% in low and middle income countries. In high income countries such as the UK, under 1% of babies were breastfed up until their first birthday. This figure was approximately 2% in Ireland. The study authors concluded that more work needs to be done to improve government breastfeeding policies and support within the general community.
Breastfeeding in the UK Black community has been investigated in a previous study. Figures showed that over 90% of Black African and Black Caribbean mothers start breastfeeding compared to just 67% of white mothers. Black African mothers in particular were 5 times more likely to breastfeed than white mothers. Any new government breastfeeding policy should also specifically look at maintaining and improving breastfeeding rates within the UK Black community.
