For indigenous women, breastfeeding rates are far lower than they are in the rest of the community despite it being practiced traditionally for tens of thousands of years. One health service in NSW is looking to change that by offering more suitable support.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 Child care worker Kayla Price's experience of breastfeeding her newborn son will be familiar
00:07 to many mothers.
00:10 I remember just being in the hospital bed and I put him on me and I, like I said, I've
00:14 never breastfed, didn't know what I was doing, didn't even know if he was latched.
00:18 But research suggests First Nations mothers like Kayla are finding it more challenging
00:23 than most.
00:24 Less than 70% of Indigenous mothers start breastfeeding their babies, compared with
00:30 96% of non-Indigenous mothers.
00:32 At three months, 19% of Indigenous infants are still breastfed.
00:37 It's around 50% for other babies.
00:40 I didn't know who to contact.
00:42 I didn't know what services were available.
00:44 Wiradjuri elder Donna Kirby supports mothers at the local Aboriginal health centre in Wagga
00:50 Wagga.
00:51 She suspects a number of factors are involved.
00:54 The removal of children have really impacted on breastfeeding and keeping our kids safe
01:01 and healthy and respected.
01:04 Many First Nations women say culturally appropriate support in and out of hospital is lacking.
01:10 The local Aboriginal health centre is developing a 12-month pilot program here in Wagga Wagga.
01:16 It will have a focus on creating more culturally sensitive spaces and hiring more Indigenous
01:20 midwives and lactation consultants.
01:22 I think this will be a really exciting project that hopefully will be able to feed into national
01:27 policies and programs.
01:28 Our kids have needs.
01:31 We can fulfil their needs.
01:34 It's a sentiment she hopes will resonate with the current generation of mothers.
01:38 [BLANK_AUDIO]