Director of Nursing at UBC's Okanagan campus Marie Tarrant and her research team recently finished compiling the information gathered from studying the infant feeding practices of more than 2,000 moms living in Hong Kong.
The study found that new mothers are increasingly using expressed breast milk either pumped or expressed by hand instead of directly breastfeeding their babies.
“Breast feeding is the unequalled method for feeding infants,” said Tarrant.
“It has been previously determined that breastfeeding is important for the nutrition, immunology, growth and development of infants and toddlers. Anything that contributes to shortening the recommended six months of exclusive breastfeeding is a concern.”
The study also found that moms who use expressed breast milk typically transition their babies to infant formula feeding sooner than their breastfeeding peers, a trend that may impact the health of our next generation.
“Although expressed breast-milk feeding provides greater benefits than infant formula, bottle-feeding may increase the risk of respiratory issues, asthma, rapid weight gain and oral diseases,” said Tarrant.
According to Stats Canada, there were more than 350,000 Canadian babies born in 2015/2016. In 2012, 89 per cent of women initially breastfed their babies, and only 26 per cent were doing so six months later. Difficulty with breastfeeding is the most common reasons for not continuing with the practice.
The study, recently published in Public Health Nutrition was funded by the Health and Medical Research Fund, Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
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