Baby of the family most likely to miss out on breast

A woman's education level and the number of children she has affects breast feeding, with the "baby of the family" most likely to miss out, University of Queensland research shows. UQ School of Public Health PhD candidate Natalie Holowko analysed data reported by more than 4700 mothers in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health to determine relationships between socioeconomic factors, birth order and breastfeeding rates. "Breastfeeding reduces a child's risk of being overweight or obese, making it one of the first lines of defence against the emerging obesity epidemic," Ms Holowko said. "Breastfeeding was started with 83 per cent of newborns, but only 59 per cent of six-month-olds were still being breastfed." The study found that compared to women with only high-school education, university-educated women were almost twice as likely to initiate breastfeeding or to breastfeed for the recommended six months. "Interestingly, women with a parent who had fewer than 10 years of education were about one-and-a-half times as likely to not breastfeed," Ms Holowko said. However, there was a paradox when it came to the "baby of the family". "We discovered that women — particularly those with a higher level of education - were less likely to breastfeed their youngest child," she said.