Despite a number of public health and policy‐based initiatives, Ireland's national
breastfeeding rates are among the lowest globally. Regionally, the Mid‐West of Ireland
has historically had low breastfeeding initiation rates, and parts of its major urban area
such as Limerick City suffer the highest levels of economic deprivation in the country. In
that context, this repeated cross‐sectional study analysed breastfeeding initiation trends
in the Mid‐West of Ireland for two decades, from 2001 to 2020 inclusively. Statistical
analysis revealed persistently low percentages of women initiating breastfeeding in the
region. Time series analyses of the data demonstrated that overall breastfeeding rates
are increasing, but continue to be lower than Irish national averages. From these
findings and a narrative review of published research, we determined 10 plausible
reasons for these consistently low breastfeeding rates. Arising from these, we propose
‘10 Priorities’ to increase the breastfeeding initiation rates in Ireland.
Item Type:
Article (Published)
Refereed:
Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:
breastfeeding; health promotion; infant feeding; infant formula; lactation; policy making; population health