Belfast - New mothers can feel set up to fail by “unhelpful” advice telling them to breastfeed for six months, researchers have said.
Recommendations that babies are breastfed for six months, without introducing solid food or other liquids, are considered “unrealistic” by many families, they argued.
Promoting this ideal - as set out by the World Health Organisation and the Department of Health - is “perceived as setting parents up to fail”.
Experts from the University of Aberdeen and the University of Sterling based their findings on 220 interviews with 36 women, 26 partners, eight of the women's mothers, one sister and two health professionals.
They said their findings also showed health services were not providing the right help after birth to enable breastfeeding.
“By promoting six months 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.”
The experts found the “mismatch between idealism and realism” could mean mothers feel pressurised into breastfeeding.
All the women in the study intended to breastfeed but the researchers found a range of views emerged, including that families saw sharing the responsibility of feeding as an opportunity for fathers and grandparents to bond with the baby.
Some found expressing milk difficult while others said breastfeeding in public was difficult. Some families felt that delaying giving the baby solids went against their intuition.
Antenatal care was also found to paint an “unrealistic picture” of breastfeeding, while NHS staff were not always available to help with feeding in the early stages. - Belfast Telegraph