Infant feeding in babies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers

​On this page

  1. Overview
  2. Infant feeding, liveborn babies of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal mothers, NSW 2018–2022
  3. Downloads
  4. Notes
  5. Related links

Overview

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers in NSW, the percentage of babies fully breastfed at the time of discharge from hospital decreased from 61.2% to 55.8% between 2018 and 2022. By comparison, 66.6% of babies born to non-Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander mothers were fully breastfed at the time of discharge from hospital in 2022. The percentage of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander mothers who partially breastfed their baby rose from 10.3% in 2018 to 15.7% in 2022.​

Infant feeding, liveborn babies of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal mothers, NSW 2018–2022

By number of births

Aboriginal mothers

Infant feeding20182019202020212022
Full breastfeeding25952636266828412776
Partial breastfeeding438566619731782
Infant formula only10881140111012431225
Not stated116106136230189
Total42374448453350454972

Non-Aboriginal mothers

Infant feeding20182019202020212022
Full breastfeeding6612664376603256324756644
Partial breastfeeding1479716108175861934619239
Infant formula only68666700660272006888
Not stated26402539204726832227
Total9042989723865609247684998

By percentage of births

Aboriginal mothers

Infant feeding20182019202020212022
Full breastfeeding61.259.358.956.355.8
Partial breastfeeding10.312.713.714.515.7
Infant formula only25.725.624.524.624.6
Not stated2.72.43.04.63.8
Total100.0100.0100.0100.0100.0

Non-Aboriginal mothers

Infant feeding20182019202020212022
Full breastfeeding73.171.769.768.466.6
Partial breastfeeding16.418.020.320.922.6
Infant formula only7.67.57.67.88.1
Not stated2.92.82.42.92.6
Total100.0100.0100.0100.0100.0

Downloads

Notes

Source: NSW Perinatal Data Collection (SAPHaRI). Centre for Epidemiology and Evidence, NSW Ministry of Health.

Due to under-reporting of Aboriginal mothers to the Perinatal Data Collection, it is likely that the true numbers of mothers and babies are higher than shown. For more information refer to Estimated level of reporting. Table excludes 3,663 mothers where the mother’s Aboriginality was not stated.

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Current as at: Wednesday 31 July 2024
Contact page owner: Centre for Epidemiology and Evidence