Plunket challenge to support breastfeeding

Media Release
July 30 2010
For immediate release

Plunket challenges communities to support breastfeeding

With World Breastfeeding Week approaching (1 – 7 August), Plunket would like to challenge New Zealanders to give breastfeeding greater support in their communities.

Latest figures from The New Zealand Breastfeeding Authority show the average rate of babies being exclusively breastfed on discharge from *baby friendly hospitals as 89 per cent.

By the time babies are six weeks old that figure has dropped to 54 per cent.
Plunket would like to see more communities support breastfeeding, and one way of doing this is for more health services to sign up to be part of the Baby Friendly Community Initiative.

The Baby Friendly Community Initiative (BFCI) aims to protect, promote and support breastfeeding for healthy mothers and babies. A Baby Friendly Community Service is a health service in the community which has practices which support breastfeeding to enable mothers to initiate and sustain breastfeeding their babies.

Plunket Clinical Advisor Allison Jamieson says, “Breastfeeding is a very clear way to give children the best possible start in life because of the benefit to the health and development of babies. By providing mothers with a supportive environment, we are helping to break down the barriers that many new mothers face when choosing to breastfeed.”

This year, World Breastfeeding Week draws attention to the ten steps to successful breastfeeding, and the key message remains the same – breast is best.

Breastfeeding gives babies a great start in life and Plunket, along with other organisations, recommends that babies are fed only breast milk for the first six months. After six months other foods can be added to a baby’s diet, but breast milk remains the ideal milk drink for children up to two years and beyond.

For more information about World Breastfeeding Week or to see the ten steps to successful breastfeeding videos go to www.worldbreastfeedingweek.org

For more information on the Baby Friendly Community Initiative go to www.babyfriendly.org.nz

For support, information or advice about breastfeeding contact your local Plunket nurse or call PlunketLine 0800 933 922 - 24 hours, 7 days a week.

*The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) was launched by WHO and UNICEF to encourage hospitals, health care facilities, and particularly maternity wards, to adopt practices that fully protect, promote and support exclusive breastfeeding from birth.

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