Fewer Swedish babies breastfed, still way more Swedish babies breastfed than American babies

Every so often...okay, not often, but once in a blue moon...my Swedish skills come in handy. And today I got the chance to put them to use, reading this report from the Swedish government on changes in breastfeeding rates from 2004 to 2008. While their recent decreases in breastfeeding are a problem (drops of more than 4% for some indicators) I was also struck by how insanely high most of their numbers seem to someone from the U.S.:

Exclusive breastfeeding at 1 week: 85% (down 4.3% from 2004)
Partial breastfeeding at 1 week: 12% (up 3.5% from 2004 - so there seems to be more early supplementation going on)
Adding these up, only about 3% of babies at one week are exclusively formula fed

Contrast this to the U.S. where over a quarter of infants are supplemented with formula before 2 days.

The drop becomes more pronounced the older children are (makes sense with an increase in early supplementation). At 6 months, 66.5% children are still exclusively or partially breastfed, down 6% from 2004. (But still, compare to 43% in the U.S.)

The one data point I found contradicting this pattern was breastfeeding to a year. While this report doesn't give national numbers, it notes that any breastfeeding at 12 months ranged from 11-22% in different regions of the country. That actually compares favorably in the U.S. with about 22% of babies being breastfed at 12 months here. It seems counterintuitive, given that one of the great supports Sweden gives to nursing mothers is their year of "mammaledig" - maternity leave. It makes me want to ask my Swedish friends more about how long they planned to breastfeed and when the cultural expectation is that they'll wean.

The researchers note that they don't know why breastfeeding is decreasing, because it hasn't been studied yet in relation to social and demographic factors. I've heard that "pappaledig" - paternity leave - has been increasing in popularity and fathers are increasingly taking a larger share of the time off. Could this be a contributor? Again, I'll have to investigate...

New protections for nursing mothers in Senate health bill

From the Wall Street Journal Health Blog:

Here’s a detail in the Senate health-care bill we hadn’t noticed until now: Employers would be required to give nursing mothers “a reasonable break time” to express breast milk during work.

Employers would also have to provide “a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from co-workers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk,” the bill says.

Companies with fewer than 50 workers would be exempted from the requirements if the rules imposed “an undue hardship.” You can read the provision yourself on page 1239 of the Senate health-care bill. Similar legislation has been introduced in Congress for years, but has never become law.

More than 20 states already have laws in place to protect nursing mothers in the workplace, according to a Kaiser Health News story that highlights several provisions in the Senate bill that haven’t drawn much attention.

There's plenty to say about ignoring extended maternity leaves in favor of lukewarm pumping protection, but at least this would extend some extra protections to women working in states that don't currently protect their right to express milk. It also shows there's at least one prevention-minded initiative in the health care bill!

Thanks for the link go to Adriane, my classmate and policy guru extraodinaire!

P.S. I just realized this is my 200th post to Public Health Doula. Wow! Thank you for reading, commenting, and sharing.