Australian breastfeeding rates: the challenge of monitoring

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has published national breastfeeding summary data collected in the 1989-90 National Health Survey. Despite expectations that these data would give, for the first time ever, national age-specific breastfeeding rates and would allow monitoring towards national breastfeeding targets, they did not. Secondary analysis has been conducted to expand the usefulness of these data. The results, presented in this paper, suggest that breastfeeding rates have fallen since the mid-1980s, and if confirmed, suggest that the national targets set for the year 2000 may be out of reach. Limitations of the 1989-90 National Health Survey breastfeeding questions and published results are highlighted and suggestions for future national breastfeeding surveys are given.