Nutritionist and breastfeeding expert Elisabet Helsing, who founded Norwegian breastfeeding support group Ammenhjelpen, said the most recent data from Norway showed a strong correlation between paid maternity leave and breastfeeding.

A graph comparing the percentage of women aged 15-45 who were working and breastfeeding at six months with paid maternity leave showed that if 40 weeks of paid maternity leave was offered, 80 per cent of the mothers continued to breastfeed at six months. By contrast, in 1968, with just over 10 weeks of paid maternity leave offered, fewer than 10per cent of the mothers still breastfed after six months.

At a public lecture at the Australian National University yesterday, Dr Helsing spelled out the benefits of breast milk a complete food that gave the protection of a mother's immune system to her child, with which formula, a collection of homogenised nutrient chemicals could not compete.

Other experts present confirmed a correlation between higher intelligence and prolonged breastfeeding. The link between breastfeeding and maternal weight loss was more tenuous.

Three Department of Health and Ageing workers attended the lecture and one flagged an upcoming national breastfeeding survey, which is designed to get more information about breastfeeding rates and practices and to gain a greater understanding of the barriers affecting women's decisions to breastfeed.

Dr Helsing's co-presenter, Julie Smith, a research fellow at the Australian Centre for Economic Research on Health,said the audience reacted with disbelief that the question about breastfeeding ''is no longer important enough'' to be included in the National Health Survey.