The survey of 2,079 women also showed that most fathers are happy to take on the responsibility of looking after their children. Only 10 per cent of new mothers claimed their partners were never interested in feeding their baby, compared with 50 per cent in the 1970s and more than half these dads do their fair share of nappy changing!
It wuld seem too that women are more likely to use a mixture of breast and bottle feeding than they used to. This year, 30 per cent of mothers "combination fed" - compared with 15 per cent in the 1970s.
Vicki Scott, of Philips Avent, who carried out the survey, said: "It is an interesting social trend that combining breast and bottle feeding is increasingly popular as today's mums opt for greater flexibility.
"Expressing allows mothers to leave a bottle of their breast milk when they are not there to breastfeed. And with today's dads being more supportive and more prepared to be involved than ever before, expressing also helps partners to take an active role in feeding early on. I believe that anything that encourages women to breastfeed is a good thing for mother and baby and expressing or combination feeding help women to breastfeed for longer."
Dr Geoff Lawson, a paediatrician at Sunderland Royal Hospital, said; "No one ever says breast feeding is easy but it so very, very worthwhile because of the huge number of proven benefits."
November 2007
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