Danish mothers yearning for better breastfeeding guidance

33 percent of all new mothers unsure of how to breastfeed their new-born babies

Mar 17, 2016

The number of new Danish mothers who don’t feel adequately prepared to handle the difficulties involved in breastfeeding their babies is on the rise.

According to a new survey conducted in the nation’s five regions, 33 percent of all new Danish mothers were unsure of how to properly breastfeed their new- borns when returning home from the maternity wards in 2015. That’s a 5 percentage point increase compared to the year before.

“When you have such little time to prepare for the births and to establish a good contact with the mothers, then it’s one of the consequences,” Lilliam Bondo, the head of the midwife association Jordemoderforeningen, told DR Nyheder.

More time = more confidence
The survey, which questioned 7,300 mothers in 2015, revealed that complaints tended to concern unclear guidelines from nurses, short stays in hospitals and insecurities about what to do.

The survey also showed the mothers who spent longer than two days in the hospital generally felt they acquired the needed help to get to grips with breastfeeding, as did mothers who had tried it before.

The news comes in the wake of data released by the children’s database Børnedatabasen, which showed that fewer Danish mothers breastfeed their infants.

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