What we know
What information do we have about the Eastern Board area?
What is the result of this on our health locally?
Policies
What is happening in the Eastern Board area?

"Breastfeeding has been widely acknowledged as the best means of giving infants a healthy start to life. Breast milk is age specific and is produced at the correct temperature and without any need for preparation. It not only provides the correct amount and balance of nutrients for optimal growth and development it also protects against illness". (Breastfeeding Strategy for Northern Ireland - DHSS 1999).

Breastfeeding benefits infants by providing protection against;

	gastro-enteritis
	infections of the middle ear
	respiratory system and urinary tract infections

Breast milk promotes development of the nervous system and reduces the risk of necrotising enter-colitis, which has a mortality of at least 25%.

Older Children who have been breastfeed have a reduced risk of:

	diseases of the respiratory system
	allergic disorders
	insulin dependent diabetes
	raised blood pressure
	obesity

Breastfeeding Mothers have:

	enhanced weight loss following pregnancy
	delayed return to fertility
	lower risk of cancer of the ovary and breast
	lower risk of post menopausal hip fracture

Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for the first six months of life by the World Health Organisation and the DHSSPS.

Increased breastfeeding rates have the potential for great health gain in lower socio-economic groups who have a particularly low rate of breastfeeding and have higher incidence of low birth weight infants and infectious diseases in childhood.

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The breastfeeding rate in the EHSSB has slowly but steadily increased during the last decade, rising from 29.6% of babies being breastfed at discharge from hospital in 1993 to 42.6% in 2005 (Child Health System - EHSSB).

The percentage of mothers breastfeeding their baby by Local Health and Social Care Group (LHSCG) area shows particularly low levels of breastfeeding in North and West Belfast. In 2005 26.2% of mothers were breastfeeding their baby at discharge from hospital in North and West Belfast, as compared to 51.4% in South and East Belfast.  There has been a continuing rise in the numbers breastfeeding at the early stages of the babies’ lives over the past 10 years.  In 2005, 42.6% of mothers in the Eastern Board area breastfeed their babies at the time of discharge from hospital. (Figures from the Child Health System)

The Infant Feeding Survey, a UK wide survey, shows that, while Northern Ireland has lower rates of breastfeeding than the rest of the UK, rates have risen encouragingly since 1990.  In 2005, 63% of mothers in Northern Ireland brestfeed their babies, compared with 54% in 2000, 45% in 1995 and 36% in 1990.  In 2005, 76% of mothers in the UK breastfed their babies.  In Northern Ireland the increases in breastfeeding were broadly the same across all occupational groups.

The Infant Feeding Surveys have shown mothers from lower socio-economic backgrounds and of low educational attainment to be least likely to breastfeed. Breastfeeding rates in Northern Ireland are the lowest in Europe. Several factors make the initiation and maintenance of breastfeeding particularly difficult; these include cultural attitudes where artificial feeding is the norm and breasts are considered to be obscene or dirty, mothers have few role models for breastfeeding and believe the skill is too difficult to acquire and the promotion of formula and artificial feeding equipment is common.

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Even modest increases in breastfeeding rates could result in major financial savings to the health service and reduced emotional and financial costs for families and children.

The cost of in-patient treatment of gastro-enteritis associated with artificial feeding has been calculated to be over £1 million per annum (Breastfeeding Strategy for Northern Ireland 1999). In the USA where breastfeeding is more prevalent, it is estimated that $1 billion are spent per year on the management of otitis media (middle ear disease) related to artificial feeding.

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