Maternity - Breastfeeding status at discharge from their primary maternity care provider, maternal age group, baby ethnic group, baby neighbourhood deprivation quintile and baby DHB of residence 2017

Breastfeeding definitions according to The Ministry of Health:
Exclusive: the infant who has never, to the mother’s knowledge, had any water, formula or other liquid or solid food. Only breast milk (from the breast or expressed) and prescribed medicines (defined in the Medicines Act 1981) have been given to the baby from birth.
Fully: the infant has taken breast milk only, and no other liquids or solids except a minimal amount of water or prescribed medicines, in the past 48 hours.
Partial: the infant has taken some breast milk and some infant formula or other solid food in the past 48 hours.
Artificial: the infant has had no breast milk but has had alternative liquid such as infant formula, with or without solid food in the past 48 hours.

Breastfeeding data is only available for babies of women registered with an LMC or DHB primary maternity service. It refers to the breastfeeding status at discharge from their primary maternity care provider.

Each individual represented in the data is allocated to a single ethnic group, using the following priority system: Māori > Pacific peoples > Indian > Asian (excl. Indian) > Other > European. Individuals of European and of Other ethnicities are grouped together.

Deprivation is derived according to the residence of the individual. Numbers and rates are presented by deprivation quintile, ranging from quintile 1 (least deprived) to quintile 5 (most deprived).

District health boards (DHBs) presented are derived from the residence of the individual (instead of the facility where the woman gave birth or baby was born).

Deprivation quintiles are based on the area of residence for the woman or baby. They range from 1 (least deprived) to 5 (most deprived), according to the 2006 New Zealand Deprivation Index. Approximately equal numbers of the population reside in areas associated with each of the five deprivation quintile areas.

This publication uses prioritised ethnicity, whereby each person represented in the data is allocated to a single ethnic group using the priority system Māori > Pacific peoples > Asian > European > Other. The aim of prioritisation is to ensure that where it is necessary to assign people to a single ethnic group, ethnic groups that are small or important in terms of policy are not swamped by the European ethnic group.

While the data is collected for 'women' it is important to note that it actually includes all people who have given birth and that the data may include some transgender people.

At URL provided, select 'Report on Maternity 2017 - tables (XLSX, 347 KB)' file.

To provide annual health statistics about women giving birth, their pregnancy and childbirth experience and the characteristics of live-born babies in New Zealand.

Population data for rate calculations was provided by Stats NZ