DRAFT Australian Dietary Guidelines - Eat For Health

improved mother and infant bonding and attachment [897].
Additional health benefits to women who breastfeed may include:
promotion of maternal recovery from childbirth through accelerated uterine involution and
reduced risk of haemorrhage [898]
accelerated weight loss and return to pre-pregnancy body weight [866, 882]
reduced risk of pre-menopausal breast cancer [891]
reduced risk of ovarian cancer [891]
improved bone mineralisation and thereby decreased risk of post-menopausal hip fracture
[899, 900].
5.3 Practical considerations: Encourage and
support breastfeeding
Further information is included in the Infant Feeding Guidelines for Health Workers [133].
5.3.1 Breastfeeding initiation and duration
It is estimated that in Australia 90–92% of mothers initiate breastfeeding and approximately 50%
are still breastfeeding at six months. Few infants are exclusively breastfed until six months in
Australia [901]. However reliable national data on breastfeeding rates is difficult to obtain for
several reasons, including inconsistent use of definitions of breastfeeding [902] [864].
5.3.1.1 Early interaction
Mothers should have contact with their babies as soon after birth and for as long as they wish
[874]. Interventions aimed at either delaying or speeding up the length of the first feed should be
avoided. Hospitals can encourage ‘rooming-in’ to facilitate frequent mother and child contact
[903].
5.3.1.2 Adolescent mothers
Breastfeeding initiation and duration rates are below recommended levels among adolescent
mothers [14]. Specific breastfeeding education programs in USA, UK and Australia targeted at
pregnant adolescents have been somewhat effective in increasing breastfeeding initiation in
adolescent mothers [904, 905]. Adolescent mothers identify emotional and network support as
well as self-esteem as being crucial to breastfeeding success [904].
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