Breastfeeding Trends Research Articles

Breast feeding practices in Qatar.

Medical staff at the neonatal outpatient clinic of the Women's Hospital in Doha, Qatar randomly distributed a questionnaire about breast feeding and socioeconomic characteristics to 340 women (53.5% Qataris and 46.5% other Arabic speaking women) from February-August 1988. Only 32% of the mothers exclusively breast fed at birth. This low incidence could be due to excessive advertising by formula manufacturers and the increasing purchasing power of the Qataris. 5l5% used both breast milk and formula. 13% only bottle fed their infants. 50% of the mothers from the below average income group (5000 Qatar Riyals) breast fed their infants, while only 12% of those from the high income group (10,000 Qatar Riyals) did. Further, 55% of the mothers with less than secondary school education exclusively breast fed whereas 25% of those with secondary school and above breast fed. This result confirmed the downward trend for breast feeding in Qatar as identified in the early 1980s. Even though most mothers decided themselves not to breast feed, 31% reported that their physician suggested feeding formula to their infants. The longer infants stayed in the neonatal intensive care unit the less likely their mothers would breast feed them. For example, 72% were breast fed if discharged 1 week after admission while none were breast fed if discharged 3 weeks after admission. The leading reasons for bottle feeding included that the infant was still hungry (634%), night feeding (12%), mother worked (11%), and maternal diseases (5%). Regardless of the reasons for the downward trend in breast feeding in Qatar, public health professionals and health practitioners must begin direct and specific health education efforts about the benefits of breast feeding.

Trends in Infant Feeding in Developing Countries

In recent years, interest in breast-feeding and infant-supplementation practices in the developing world has been growing. Numerous community, regional, and national studies have described the patterns of breast-feeding and, to a lesser extent, of supplementation in a wide range of low-income countries. Nevertheless, adequate documentation of national trends in breast-feeding is available for only a small number of developing countries, and trends in supplementation remain to be described. The apparent decline in breast-feeding in the developing world has been the subject of numerous articles describing the impact of this trend on infant morbidity and mortality, fertility levels, and family finances. Frequently, the examples used to illustrate the decrease in breast-feeding are methedologically flawed; they use nonrepresentative or noncomparable samples, for example, or make implicit assumptions about past breast-feeding practices. In spite of such shortcomings, the consistent reports of important declines appear to indicate that some basic changes are taking place in breast-feeding practices in certain areas of the developing world. The fact that these changes seem to be following the general pattern of breast-feeding decline that occurred at earlier times in developed countries adds to their plausibility. Although a general awareness of changes in lactation in the developing world now prevails, the documentation of this trend is far from complete. Even for those countries in which trends have been appropriately measured, the amount and pattern of change may vary widely from country to country. In most of the countries with information on breast-feeding trends, recent declines have occurred, although the decreases range from sharp to moderate.

Trends in Breast-Feeding

Starting from very high levels in the 1940s, breast-feeding declined steadily to low levels in the early 1970s, and then began an upward trend which has apparently continued until the present (Fig. 1). In the 1940s, breast-feeding was more common among disadvantaged women. The subsequent decline was also more rapid among the disadvantaged, however, so that by the early 1970s, disadvantaged women were considerably less likely than others to breast-feed. Because the increase since the early 1970s has not been so pronounced among the disadvantaged, they continue to have relatively low levels of breast-feeding. The causes of these trends and differentials are not well understood. These are the principal conclusions drawn from a review of statistical studies of trends and differentials in breast-feeding in the United States. The studies included national health surveys conducted by the federal government, market research surveys conducted by infant formula manufacturers, and infant feeding surveys conducted by medical researchers. The studies differed markedly in their methods—a fact that affects their validity, reliability, and comparability. The first section of this paper discusses these data sources and their limitations. The next two sections discuss the downward trend in breast-feeding from the 1940s to the early 1970s, and the upward trend since. Each of these sections examines demographic differences in these trends. A short section that addresses possible causes of the trends and differentials follows those two sections. SOURCES AND LIMITATIONS OF THE DATA The principal sources of data on trends and differentials in breast-feeding are national fertility surveys, market research surveys, and special purpose infant-feeding surveys.

Practices and Attitudes Toward Breast-Feeding Among Medical Professionals

The results of a mail survey conducted among pediatricians, obstetricians, family practitioners, and nurses, and results of an adjunct survey conducted among hospital administrators are presented. According to the findings, breast-feeding is advocated by physicians; however, the topic is not always initiated, so the mother is influenced by other sources. Supplementary foods and vitamins are advocated to varying degrees and not necessarily in keeping with present knowledge about nutrition. Physicians are willing to counsel mothers regarding problems with breast-feeding and feel that further physician encouragement is necessary for more breast-feeding or longer breast-feeding. Mothers should have an opportunity during pregnancy, while they are in the hospital, and postnatally to learn as much as they can about feeding methods. The obstetrician can initiate earlier discussion with the mother on feeding methods and can assume a more aggressive role in initiating this discussion. In the hospital, a mother who chooses to breast-feed can be assisted in having a successful breast-feeding experience by spending as much time as possible with her infant starting with the period immediately following birth. Postnatally, physicians can encourage successful breast-feeding and breast-feeding of longer duration by not encouraging the early initiation of supplements and solid foods. The increasing trend in breast-feeding can best be facilitated by these positive actions taken by physicians, nurses, and health care facilities.

Feeding pattern of infants in Devangere.

The feeding pattern of 1500 children (640 rural, 840 urban) between 3 and 24 months of age, in and around Davangere, were studied. There was no decreasing trend in breast feeding irrespective of urban or rural setting. Children (48 per cent) were frequently breastfed upto 2 years of age. Semisolids were introduced in about half the children (42 per cent) between 6 to 12 months. By 18 months most of them were getting semisolids. Rice was commonly introduced first. Proprietory preparations of milk and weaning foods were not in general use. Dilution of natural milk and improper preparation were common irrespective of domicile, education and financial status. Parents infrequently sought advice regarding nutrition from the doctor, and the physicians also infrequently gave nutrition health education.

Trends and Differentials in Breast Feeding: An Update

Analysis of the 1973 National Survey of Family Growth shows a continued downward trend in breast feeding by successive cohorts of American mothers. The downward trend is evident in both measures of incidence (ever-breast feeding) and duration of breast feeding for first and higher-order births. For all cohorts higher-order births are less likely to be breast fed than first births. However, breast feeding of higher-order births is typically of a longer duration. Differentials in breast feeding reveal strong associations with indicators of social class; women who are college graduates, who work as professionals, and who are married to professional husbands are most likely to breast-feed their infants. Differentials in average duration of breast feeding are often reversed from differentials in ever-breast feeding.

1980 Update: The Recent Trend in Breast-feeding

This study presents results of surveys conducted on a continuous basis over a period of years to determine the trend in the incidence of breast-feeding. Questionnaires were mailed to large samples of mothers, representative of the national distribution of births, asking them what type of milk they fed their infants over a period of time. Demographic characteristics of mothers who breast-fed were also obtained. From 1955 to 1971, there was a progressive decline in breast-feeding, followed by a resurgence of its incidence through 1979. Not only are more mothers breast-feeding, more are continuing to do so for a longer period of time throughout the months of their infants' most rapid growth and high nutritional requirements. It is also apparent that the increased incidence of breast-feeding has not been limited to higher income, better educated mothers.

Trends in breastfeeding

There has been strong, official encouragement of breast‐feeding since 1974 when the Department of Health published a report on Present‐day practice in infant feeding. Results from studies carried out in previous years, and reviewed in the 1974 report, indicated a general decline in the incidence of breast‐feeding, at least until the early 1970s. It appeared that at that time the majority of mothers made no attempt to breast‐feed. In addition most mothers introduced solid food into the infant's diet before the age of three months. Infant feeding practices thus did not conform with the official recommendation to breast‐feed for the first four to six months, and to discourage the introduction of cereals or other solid foods to the diet of babies before the age of four months.

Present trends in breast feeding

SummarySome recent trends in breast feeding in industrialized countries are summarized and exemplified mainly by research findings of different Swedish studies. In particular, the causes of early termination of breast feeding are discussed, and examples are given of how attempts have been made to promote breastfeeding in such countries.

Breast‐feeding in New Zealand

Developmental Medicine & Child NeurologyVolume 3, Issue 3 p. 213-213 Free Access Breast-feeding in New Zealand R. W. Smithells, R. W. SmithellsSearch for more papers by this author R. W. Smithells, R. W. SmithellsSearch for more papers by this author First published: June 1961 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8749.1961.tb10368.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. References 1 Deem, H. and McGeorge, Murray. Breast-feeding. N.Z. med. J., 1958, 57, 539. 2 McGeorge, M. Current trends in breast-feeding. N.Z. med. J., 1960, 59, 31. Volume3, Issue3June 1961Pages 213-213 ReferencesRelatedInformation