Breastfeeding, Labour Market Changes and Public Policy in New Zealand: Is Promotion of Breastfeeding Enough?

Judith Galtry

Breastfeeding is actively promoted by government-funded health agencies in New Zealand as a powerful factor positively influencing children’s wellbeing. Official targets suggest the need to increase both the initiation and duration of rates of feeding. At the same time, increasing numbers of New Zealand mothers are returning to paid work within the first year of a child’s life, sometimes within days or weeks of the birth.

This paper look at whether these two trends are in conflict, and, if so, whether there is a role for government to take some responsibility in helping to resolve such conflicts. Combining paid employment and breastfeeding appears to be particularly difficult for mothers in low-income, low-status occupations, particularly if financially compelled to resume paid employment shortly following the birth. In New Zealand this latter group includes many Māori and Pacific women. The significance of this issue is compounded by the fact that children from these groups have been identified as most “at risk” from certain conditions for which breastfeeding has a protective effect.

The paper argues that in light of recent labour market changes, government needs to consider whether it can continue to simply promote breastfeeding without actively protecting it, and discusses a number of policy options for doing this.