I voted for Lack of Education but this lack of education starts before we even have our bubs. I (luckily) had a natural, drug free birth but I was never advised of the risks of having an epidural (if I chose to have one), induction (which was booked for the following day after I had DD as I had mild pre eclampia) or other intervention during labour and how that may affect my ability to breastfeed, which was not portrayed as that important to begin with.
After I had DD, we struggled for 6 weeks before the problems with attachment were sorted due to a great Lactation Day Stay in our closest large town which was 45 minutes away. My MCHN was (and still is) great and has always been very supportive and well informed and a member of ABA herself. However, many mothers in my little country town don't breastfeed at all due to the lack of education and support in rural areas. I had massive oversupply issues and DD was getting way too much foremilk, was gassy and cried constantly for weeks. MCHN saw me every week to help me through it and the ABA was fantastic for support and information in this area.
Thanks to the ABA, my MCHN and Day Stay DD is 18 months and still BFing.
Our ABA group is slowly dwindling as mums just aren't breastfeeding here. Many mums don't understand how their body works and makes milk and most of the time it seems to be a competiton as to whose baby gained the most weight or sleeps though at 6 weeks of age and my slow gaining poor sleeping BF bub just didn't compare. The amount of times I heard, "just put her on the bottle and get a good nights sleep" or "Just top her up with 40mls formula and she''ll sleep through" was astounding. My friends gave me bottles, packets of formula to try, and advice re bottle feeding but had no idea about breastfeeding. I was made to feed DD in seperate rooms at family functions as to not embarrass the men (and women) and still hear, "Are you still breastfeeding that child?"
If our govt wants more mothers to breastfeed they need to start increasing their funding to support the ABA, education for mums, MCHN's and GP's and offer more trained LC's, especially in rural areas. New mums should also be offered a lengthier stay in hopital after having bubs to ensure that feeding is established and offer education about breastfeeding whilst in hospital.
The more information out there and education women, MCHN and other health professionals receive the more breastfeeding rates will increase, correct information will be shared between friends, more support will be offered from all areas of our lives, including work and family.