Abstract
Background
Despite a steady increase in the rate of breastfeeding in Ireland over the period 2004–2010 (from 46.8 % in 2004 to 55.7 % in 2010), Irish rates of breastfeeding are still low by international standards. Over this period, the characteristics of mothers and babies changed, with mothers increasingly older, having fewer children and increasingly born outside the Republic of Ireland.
Aims
The purpose of this paper is to understand the extent to which changing maternal and birth characteristics explained the increase in the breastfeeding rate in Ireland over the period 2004–2010.
Methods
We apply non-linear decomposition techniques to micro-data from the 2004–2010 Irish National Perinatal Reporting System to examine this issue. The technique allows us to quantify the extent to which the increase in the breastfeeding rate over the period 2004–2010 is due to changing maternal and birth characteristics.
Results
We find that between 55 and 74 % of the increase over the period can be explained by changing characteristics, with the increasing share of mothers from Eastern Europe, and increasing maternal age the most important contributors.
Conclusions
These findings suggest that the existing policy initiatives have been relatively ineffective in increasing breastfeeding rates in Ireland, i.e. most of the observed increase occurred simply because the characteristics of mothers were changing in ways that made them increasingly likely to breastfeed.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the National Perinatal Reporting System (NPRS) team in the Health Research and Information Division at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) for access to the NPRS data, as well as Dr Genevieve Becker [National Co-ordinator for WHO/UNICEF Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) in Ireland] for access to data on the BFHI. The authors would also like to thank seminar participants at the ESRI and ECHE 2012 for helpful comments.
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Brick, A., Nolan, A. Explaining the increase in breastfeeding at hospital discharge in Ireland, 2004–2010. Ir J Med Sci 183, 333–339 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-013-1012-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-013-1012-0