Breastfeeding Length in Canada

The Globe and Mail's talented reporter Andre Pickard wrote the excellent article Most Mother's Quite Breastfeeding Far Too Soon.

The single most effective way of giving a baby a healthy start in life is breastfeeding.

As a public-health measure, breastfeeding is unparalleled. It is cheap, easy to understand, has no negative side effects and the method is tried and true -- as old as motherhood itself.

Yet, Canada fails abysmally when it comes to providing babies with mother's milk.

Things look good at first: Eighty-five per cent of Canadian women breastfeed their newborn babies, according to Statistics Canada. However, in the weeks after birth, that rate falls off precipitously.

Every major health group, including the World Health Organization, the Canadian Paediatric Society and the Public Health Agency of Canada, recommends that babies be fed breast milk exclusively for the first six months of life, and that breastfeeding should continue as long as possible after the introduction of solid foods. The reasons for this are clear: Breast milk provides all the nutrients, growth factors and immunological factors a baby needs for optimal growth and development (physical and neurological).

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