Initiation rate and duration of breast-feeding in the Melbourne Aboriginal community

Breast-feeding is important for child health and helps to protect the child against infections. The objective of this study was to determine baseline breast-feeding rates in the Melbourne Aboriginal community prior to a breast-feeding promotion project. A brief questionnaire was administered to 116 mothers of infants up to two years of age with a Melbourne metropolitan address. During their pregnancies, 99 (85.3 per cent) of the women had planned to breast-feed. and 98 (84.5 per cent, 95 per cent confidence interval (CI) 77.9 to 91.1 per cent) initiated breast-feeding. However 10 (8.6 per cent) stopped within the first week, and seven (6 per cent) more stopped within the first four weeks. Only 50 per cent of the babies (CI 40.9 to 59.1 per cent) were still being breast-fed at three months of age and 32 per cent were still being breast-fed at six months of age (CI 23.5 to 40.5 per cent). Younger mothers were less likely to choose to breast-feed (73 per cent) than women 20 years and over (87 per cent) and were also more likely to stop breast-feeding within three months. A total of 45 (51.1 per cent) of the babies received food other than breast milk or formula earlier than the recommended minimum age of four months. These results are similar to those for the general Victorian population. They show that while most Aboriginal women choose to breast-feed, man, cease breast-feeding before they had intended.