Breastfeeding Initiation in Canada: Key Statistics and Graphics (2009-2010)

The  2009-2010 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) looked at how many women who had given birth in the last 5 years breastfed or tried to breastfeed their last child and their reasons for not breastfeeding.

Key statistics and graphics on breastfeeding initiation in Canada from the CCHS 2009-2010 are presented below.^{Footnote 1} In the descriptions below, a difference between two estimates is considered statistically significant when the 95% confidence intervals do not overlap.

• Breastfeeding initiation
• Breastfeeding initiation by selected socio-demographic characteristics
• Breastfeeding initiation by region
• Reasons for not breastfeeding

Breastfeeding initiation

Breastfeeding initiation refers to mothers who breastfed or tried to breastfeed their last child even if only for a short time.

Questions on breastfeeding initiation were asked of mothers between the ages of 15 and 55 who had given birth in the last 5 years.

Breastfeeding initiation in 2009-2010

• 87.3% of Canadian mothers breastfed or tried to breastfeed their last child.

Trend in breastfeeding initiation

• The percentage of mothers who reported breastfeeding or trying to breastfeed their last child increased significantly from 81.5% in 2001 to 84.9% in 2003.
• Since 2003, breastfeeding initiation rates have remained stable.

Breastfeeding initiation by selected socio-demographic characteristics

The percentage of mothers in Canada who initiated breastfeeding their last baby varied by selected socio-demographic characteristics.

Household income

• Significantly fewer mothers in the lowest income quintile (81.0%) initiated breastfeeding than mothers in all other income quintiles.^{Footnote 2}

Highest level of education attained

• Significantly more mothers who were post-secondary graduates initiated breastfeeding (90.5%) than mothers with some post-secondary education (81.4%), secondary graduation (81.9%) or less than secondary education (76.5%).

Cultural/racial background

• Significantly more mothers who were of Asian (93.5%) or Black (93.9%) cultural or racial background initiated breastfeeding their last child than did  White mothers (86.7%).^{Footnote 3, Footnote 4}

Aboriginal status

• Significantly fewer off-reserve Aboriginal mothers^{Footnote 5} initiated breastfeeding (77.8%) than did non-Aboriginal mothers (88.0%).

Immigrant status

• Significantly more non-recent immigrant^{Footnote 6} (≥ 5 years) mothers initiated breastfeeding (93.1%) than did non-immigrant mothers (85.6%).

Mother's Age

• At the national level, the percentage of mothers who breastfed or tried to breastfeed their baby was similar across mothers' age groups.

Marital status

• Significantly more married/common-law mothers (88.5%) initiated breastfeeding than mothers who were widowed/separated/divorced/single (80.6%).

Area of residence

• Overall, no significant differences in breastfeeding initiation rates existed between mothers residing in urban areas (87.5%) and mothers residing in rural areas (86.3%).^{Footnote 7}

Breastfeeding initiation by region

In 2009-2010, the percentage of mothers who breastfed or tried to breastfeed their last baby in the Atlantic Provinces and Quebec was significantly lower than the national average. The breastfeeding initiation rate in the Prairies and British Columbia was significantly higher than the national average.

Reasons for not breastfeeding

The top three reasons cited by mothers for not breastfeeding or trying to breastfeed their last child were^{Footnote 8}:

• mother has a medical condition (20.5%);
• bottle feeding is easier (19.8%); and,
• breastfeeding is unappealing (19.0%).

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