Official advice on breastfeeding is branded unhelpful and unrealistic

ADVICE that suggests women should breastfeed exclusively for the first six months of a baby’s life can be “unhelpful” and idealistic, according to a study of new mothers.

The World Health Organisation recommends mothers breastfeed their babies for the first half-year, without other liquids or solids.

However, a study by researchers at the universities of Aberdeen and the University of Stirling concluded more realistic and achievable goals should be set.

The study involved 220 interviews with 36 women, 26 partners, eight mothers, one sister and two health professionals.

They discovered a “mismatch” between the ideal of six months of exclusive breastfeeding, with support from family and healthcare professionals, and the women’s experience. The authors said their findings showed health services were not providing the right help to women following birth to enable breastfeeding.

The report, led by Dr Pat Hoddinot at Aberdeen, said: “By promoting six months of exclusive breastfeeding, policymakers are encouraging idealistic expectations and goals in pregnancy, but health services are not providing the skilled help required to establish breastfeeding after birth.”

All the women intended to breastfeed, but the researchers found a range of views emerged, including that families saw sharing feeding as an opportunity for fathers and grandparents to bond with baby.

Some found expressing milk difficult, time-consuming and distasteful; others said breastfeeding in public was difficult.

Many ended up with a combination of bottle and breastfeeding.

Some families felt that delaying giving the baby solids went against their intuition.

Care of women who want to breastfeed was seen as “highly variable and determined to some extent by luck”.

The authors, writing in BMJ Open, concluded: “Adopting idealistic global policy goals, like exclusive breastfeeding until six months as individual goals for women is unhelpful. More achievable incremental goals are recommended.

“Unanimously, families would prefer the balance to shift from antenatal theory towards more help immediately after birth and at three to four months when solids are being considered.”

Gail Johnson, adviser at the Royal College of Midwives, said: “Breastfeeding should not be seen as an idealistic target, it should be part of the continuum of care for babies.”