Maternal and Child Health Breastfeeding Rates

The Victorian Government is committed to improving the health and development of children and recognises that breastfeeding plays an important role in achieving this outcome.  The Maternal and Child Health Service actively promotes breastfeeding to all new mothers and collects annual data to monitor the efficacy of this initiative.

The breastfeeding rate is calculated as the number of mother’s breastfeeding at discharge, at 2 weeks, at 3 months and at 6 months, as a percentage of the total number of registered infants aged 1-2 years (Classified as full or partial according to the World Health Organisation definitions).