Nursing confidential

Breastfeeding can be one of the biggest challenges of new motherhood. Now 7,000 Today's Parent readers tell us why

John Hoffman,

Originally published on TodaysParent.com October 01, 2006

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Any mother who gives birth in the Western world gets the message that she should breastfeed her baby. American health promoters recently upped the ante with a new publicity campaign designed to make mothers aware of the risks of not breastfeeding. One ad likens the risk to riding a mechanical bull when pregnant. It’s an eye-catching message — if you assume that a woman’s attitude is the critical factor determining whether she’ll succeed or fail at breastfeeding.

We at Today’s Parent have long felt that pointing fingers at mothers is not only unfair, it doesn’t address the real problems in breastfeeding. Readers and professionals we trust have told us for years that unsolved problems, bad advice and lack of support were the true culprits. Now we’ve got data to prove it.

In May, Today’s Parent undertook a large-scale survey on breastfeeding. We wanted to find out what determines whether a mother is able to breastfeed successfully. We asked what problems women experienced, who they went to for help, what information and support they received and what they thought of the help they got.

The first thing we learned was how passionate mothers are about breastfeeding (as if we didn’t already know). Over 7,000 answered the survey! Some 400 followed up with emails. Our survey is not a random sample; it’s a self-selected but very large group of mothers, mostly well informed and committed, who nursed their babies longer than average — breastfeeding enthusiasts, you might say.

However, some faced enormous challenges. Their insights and experiences speak volumes to anyone who cares about breastfeeding.

We looked at outcomes in several ways: duration of breastfeeding, whether a woman breastfed as long as she wanted to, and her satisfaction with the experience.

Our sample includes numerous successful breastfeeders. They were less than half as likely to stop nursing before three months as mothers polled in the 2003 Toronto Perinatal and Child Health Survey (10.5% vs. 23.4%). Also, more moms who answered our poll breastfed longer than 12 months (37.5% vs. 25.6% in the Toronto survey).

However, if we look only at women who were not currently breastfeeding, almost one-third said they stopped before they wanted to. Plus, our survey asked mothers to report about their most recent baby, which in many cases was not the first. Some women told us that, though they had succeeded with baby two or three (the experience reflected in our numbers), they had not succeeded with baby number one. Stopping earlier than intended is clearly a significant problem, and most likely even more prevalent than our data indicate.

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