Urgent action is needed to raise awareness among Māori about the benefits of breastfeeding, a support group says.
Low breastfeeding rates contribute to health disparities, the chair of the New Zealand Breastfeeding Alliance says. Photo: 123RF
It follows research showing that Māori have the highest and earliest rates of formula feeding of any ethnic group in the country.
The New Zealand Breastfeeding Alliance reported last year that 463 Māori babies - double the national average - leave New Zealand's hospital and community maternity clinics every year having received no breast milk at all from their mothers.
By six months nearly half of Māori infants are on formula.
The group's chair, Debra Fenton, said breastfeeding helped reduce rates of obesity and asthma among Māori children.
"An infant that's formula fed for a start - their gut flora changes and so they're prone to picking up infections or having diarrhoea or being overfed. Asthma or diabetes is the same.
"But if you put a baby to a breast when they're crying your body will regulate how much milk that baby actually needs."
Ms Fenton said low breastfeeding rates contributed to health disparities and a broader national discussion was needed.
"They have put out targets around healthy babies and healthy eating but at a systemic, national level we need to get messages out there that yes, breastfeeding is actually the first step in improving those health targets."
Briaane Davis, a Māori mother to a 2-year-old, said she had been determined to breastfeed her baby despite ongoing complications.
She said there were wider health benefits to breastfeeding, including fostering closeness between mother and baby.
"My body's designed to do this and so was his. It was quite a primal and spiritual thing, like a really powerful connection, and I guess I was just so strong in my belief that I wanted to keep trying."
Hamilton lactation consultant and former midwife Alys Brown said bottle feeding had become standard for many Māori.
She attributed this situation to a lack of Māori midwives and a sense of disconnection from traditional Māori values.
"To have Māori lactation consultants out there, midwives who are Māori, is a great place to start. Breastfeeding is a part of our culture, a part of our whakapapa, it's who we are, and we were brought up breastfed.
"That's had a big impact in our ability to help influence our own children ... but also other women around us."
Raeleen De Joux, chair of Te Rōpu Whakaruruhau, an advisory committee to the alliance, said Māori have the lowest attendance rates at antenatal classes, but other positive initiatives were encouraging breastfeeding among Maori.
"We have the hapū wananga and I think these are the programmes that get Māori women involved.
"They're based under kaupapa Māori initiatives, they're based on tikanga [and] they're using cultural values."
