What Could Be Done To Increase Breastfeeding Rates?

What could be done to increase breastfeeding rates in the four regions we surveyed? We asked participants what they thought would help. The largest number of respondents believed that better education of healthcare providers regarding the benefits of breastfeeding and ways to help mothers succeed at breastfeeding — as well as better education on how to relate to patients in a respectful manner — was the solution in Serbia (35%), FBiH (17.8%) and Srpska (16.46%). Only 4.96% of Croatian respondents answered this way, however.

In BiH, meanwhile, 27.4% of mothers believed that better patient information about breastfeeding was the way to increase breastfeeding rates, making this the second most popular answer after better healthcare provider education. Increased social acceptance of breastfeeding was the third most prevalent answer, with 12.5% of mothers believing this to be the solution to low breastfeeding rates in FBiH.

Respondents from Croatia answered very differently: 11.57% replied that the current healthcare system was satisfactory, and that nothing needed to be changed.

Note that not one single person from any of the remaining three regions responded this way, and that there were even those, in these regions, who said that “nothing could possibly be done” or that “everything needs to be changed”.

In Croatia, most respondents rather believed that more media promotion and social activism was the way to increase breastfeeding rates, at 19.83%. Better social acceptance of breastfeeding came in second place as the perceived best way to increase breastfeeding rates, with 16.53% of Croatian respondents answering this way.