Breastfeeding In Denmark

Denmark is a relatively small Nordic country with 5.5 million habitants. It's a modern country with a high standard of living and a high level of education. Breastfeeding is seen as a necessity to newborns, yet hardly appropriate in public places.

The Danish Board of Health recommends that the infant is fed milk from the mother exclusively from the mother for the first six months. 98% of all new mothers that leave the maternity ward are breastfeeding, while only 60% continue breastfeeding after four months.
Up until 2002 The Danish Board of Health recommended mothers to practice exclusive breastfeeding until the child's fourth month. While they have now changed their statement, following the trend of other leading health organizations, many mothers still in their daily lives, feel pressured into feeding their baby pap and porridge long before baby has lived a full six months.

The pressure stems from relatives, friends, misinformed health personnel and even mother-to-mother support groups. Many new mothers believe, that their milk is simply not enough to fill the tiny tummy of their infant, and others fear that a too dependent relationship to their child, will make it difficult if not impossible for them to enjoy other child-free activities. I have witnessed and witness these cultural and attitudes first hand as a new mother, and these opinions can easily be observed in current books in use about breastfeeding, and in internet forums mother-to-mother or health personnel-to-mother Q&A's.

Two bottle feeding mothers spurred a debate in the Danish media recently, when they on their website flaskebarn (bottlechild) for "women who can't, wont or can't cope with breastfeeding", started accusing the leading breastfeeding advocates in Denmark- Videncenter for Amning - for running a "campaign of fear" while encouraging breastfeeding through the Baby Friendly initiative presented by WHO and UNICEF in 1991, and for "pressuring (breastfeeding) mothers to endure long, painful course with starving children, painful breasts and massive stress".

This debate coincides with another debate about whether or not it is appropriate to breastfeed in public places. Many cafés in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, have recently prohibited breastfeeding on their premises, although this is against the law. Breastfeeding mothers often feel intimidated and humiliated and forced to stay at home in order to breastfeed their child appropriately.

A danish web forum - ammenet - for "you who loves breastfeeding", has written an online petition to members of the Danish Parliament to accept and install a law allowing mothers to breastfeed in all places where small children are allowed to be. So far only 2676 individuals have signed the petition.