The contribution of parental and community ethnicity to breastfeeding practices: evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study

Abstract

Significant inequalities in breastfeeding practices remain within the UK. White women are less likely to breastfeed and, for these women, partner and community ethnicity have an important relation to starting and continuing to breastfeed. Our findings suggest that public health strategies to increase breastfeeding need to be focussed on mothers who are young at first motherhood and address support offered by partners and the communities in which women live. Measures to evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies over time and between places should take account of changes in ethnic composition of the child-bearing population.