More French mothers are breastfeeding their babies, and for longer periods of time

2024-07-23 18:27:25
On July 7, 2018, a mother was feeding her child in a hospital in Nantes.

Young French mothers tend to breastfeed their babies for longer and in greater quantities, according to a large study released by France’s public health agency on Tuesday, July 23. “In 2021, half of mothers who breastfeed their children will breastfeed for 20 weeks, compared with 15 weeks in 2012”summarizes the study, which surveyed about 3,500 mothers.

“If in 2012 less than a quarter of newborns were breastfed at 6 months of age, by 2021 this will be more than a third.”, join the author of this work. These figures include mixed breastfeeding, that is, drinking artificial milk from a bottle at the same time. Progress is also significant starting some time after birth. In the delivery room, 77% of women breastfed their children in 2021, compared with 74% a decade ago.

However, France remains one of the least breast-feeding countries in Europe, a situation lamented by public health agencies that have long campaigned to promote breastfeeding. This position is consistent with that of the World Health Organization (WHO) and leading medical journals, e.g. lancet.

It is difficult to balance employment and breastfeeding

In theory, breastfeeding does have benefits for baby’s health, especially in terms of immunity. However, the extent of these benefits remains a subject of debate, particularly in developed countries where the risk of infectious diseases is low and where the tap water used to prepare artificial milk is safe.

Furthermore, other highlighted benefits, such as reduced risk of obesity and diabetes, are not necessarily the result of causal mechanisms. The authors of the French public health study also highlighted the difficulties of reconciling employment and breastfeeding.

“Half of mothers who are still breastfeeding at 6 months of age feed their children at least 6 times a day, so their situation is difficult to reconcile with the peaceful resumption of professional activities”they wrote, citing the length of maternity leave as leverage for taking action. They also pointed out ‘Health professionals and employers are poorly trained in supporting women who wish to breastfeed’or “Conflicting information about breastfeeding and feeding young children”.

In addition, the study noted that recommendations for initiating dietary diversification (i.e., introducing a non-dairy diet) were well tracked. « 2021, (…)More than nine in 10 children start eating a diverse diet within the recommended time frame (4 to 6 months), compared with 80% in 2012″points to the study.

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