Bottle-Feeding Moms Ignored
Many feel pressured to breast-feed and are ill-informed about alternatives, researchers find.
- It was common for mothers to make mistakes in bottle-feeding preparation. Incorrect preparation can increase the risk of infection, promote excessive weight gain or leave babies undernourished.
-Some mothers who bottle-fed felt that hospital midwives spent far more time with breast-feeding mothers.
The findings appear online July 14 in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.
It's important to promote breast-feeding because it's the healthiest option for both mother and baby, said the authors. But they added that it's "also necessary to ensure that the needs of bottle-feeding mothers are met ... Inadequate information and support for mothers who decide to bottle-feed may put the health of their babies at risk."
If health-care professionals don't provide correct information about bottle-feeding, mothers will seek help from family and friends, which may increase the risk of incorrect bottle-feeding practices being handed down, the researchers said.
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