Women breastfeed longer

1. More and more women are breastfeeding for longer. This is evident from a long-term study by TNO.

1. The percentage of mothers who breastfeed after six months has doubled compared to 2010. After six months, 39 percent of women are still breastfeeding their babies. The research results were presented Friday during a meeting on breastfeeding in The Hague. The reason women continue to breastfeed for longer and longer is probably due to more attention.

Healthy

1. Nearly three-quarters of breastfeeding women say they do so because breast milk is healthy. The main reason to stop breastfeeding is because they have too little milk or because it is very painful. The largest decrease can be seen in the first two weeks after birth. Since 2001 TNO has conducted research among more than 1,700 women into the percentage of mothers who breastfeed. The percentage of mothers who start breastfeeding immediately after birth has been on average around 80 percent for years. Highly educated mothers are more likely to start breastfeeding (nine in ten) than low-educated mothers (just under seven in ten). International figures from last year show that the number of women in the Netherlands who breastfeed is reasonably low from a European perspective. But the number of women who breastfeed their child for a long time, ie still after six months, is European average.

2. Nearly three quarters of breastfeeding women say they do so because breast milk is healthy. The main reason to stop breastfeeding is because they have too little milk or because it is very painful. The largest decrease can be seen in the first two weeks after birth. Since 2001 TNO has conducted research among more than 1,700 women into the percentage of mothers who breastfeed. The percentage of mothers who start breastfeeding immediately after birth has been around 80 percent on average for years. Highly educated mothers start breastfeeding more often (nine in ten) than low-educated mothers (just under seven in ten). International figures from last year show that the number of women in the Netherlands who breastfeed is reasonably low from a European perspective. But the number of women who breastfeed their child for a long time, ie still after six months, is European average.