Helping Kiwi babies thrive

For years, mothers have been told that “breast is best” when it comes to feeding their newborns.

UNICEF recommends breastfeeding babies exclusively – without other foods or liquids – for the first six months and that mothers continue to supplement a child’s diet with breastfeeding until two years of age. On top of this official advice, media portrayals of mothers and their babies also frequently fixate on breastfeeding as a blissful bonding experience between mother and child.

The reality can be very different for many mothers. While about 80% of Kiwi babies are fed exclusively on breastmilk in the first days of life, this drops to 49% six weeks after birth and to 17% at six months. For some mothers, breastfeeding never becomes established for all sorts of reasons, including difficulties with latching, painful feeding, nipple damage and insufficient milk supply.

Given the emphasis on the health and bonding benefits, difficulties establishing breastfeeding can be very distressing for mothers.

To make things more complicated, breastfeeding support services vary across the country. Public funding for lactation support is available for six to nine months in some regions but ends after six weeks in other areas – just when issues such as insufficient baby weight-gain begin to emerge.

Abby says she’s acutely aware that, for every woman she helps, many more are unable to pay for the support they need and can face waiting lists for publicly funded services, assuming they exist in their area at all.

These inequities motivated her to pursue a research grant from the MAS Foundation.

“I want all mothers to receive the same level of care, particularly those from lower-income families who stand to gain the biggest benefits from breastfeeding,” she says.

Boosting breastfeeding education

Part of Abby’s research focuses on breastfeeding education in relevant health science degrees an area where she is pressing for change.

“GPs are often the first port of call for mothers with breastfeeding issues, but unless they have a special interest, their training in this area is minimal. Most midwives can deal with basic breastfeeding issues, but not all of them are qualified lactation consultants.

Problems arise when next-level support is needed for more complicated issues,” she says.

“What’s needed is a publicly funded specialist breastfeeding service that GPs and midwives can refer mothers to, which provides regular clinics for mothers and babies regardless of their postcode. This would also create an opportunity to centralise breastfeeding knowledge and deliver a consistent standard of education.”

Research underway

But first a review of what’s currently available is needed. Third-year University of Auckland medical students Rachel Baker and Carolyn Matthew are working with Abby to establish the current state of lactation support training and services in New Zealand.

As part of the university’s Summer Internship Research Programme, which gives students the chance to spend 10 weeks working on a research project aligned to their studies, Rachel and Carolyn have been helping Abby with two main research questions.

One question focused on what sort of breastfeeding training was provided as part of broader medical, nursing and midwifery courses at institutions around the country.

The other part of the research looked at the nature of publicly funded breastfeeding support services available to women via district health boards around New Zealand as well as exploring the services available for babies with tongue tie.