Scotland's breastfeeding rates are rising at a faster rate than in England and Wales according to a report to be issued at the launch of National Breastfeeding Awareness Week on 13 May. Meanwhile, figures from UNICEF show that the proportion of births in hospitals accredited as Baby Friendly for high quality care for breastfeeding is nearly four times higher in Scotland than in the UK as a whole. 

"The Government in Scotland has led the way in addressing the problem of low breastfeeding rates", said Andrew Radford, Programme Director of UNICEF UK's Baby Friendly Initiative.  "It set targets for improvements and encouraged hospitals to adopt best practice standards long before the rest of the UK, and this proactive approach is now bearing fruit." 

The number of babies who are breastfed rose by 8% in Scotland between 1995 and 2000 compared to a rise of just 2% in England and Wales over the same period.  One in three Scottish babies is now born in a Baby Friendly Hospital compared with just 9% across the UK.

Baby Friendly Hospitals have introduced staff training programmes and adopted best practice standards drawn up by the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in order to support mothers who choose to breastfeed. Babies who are breastfed are protected against gut, ear and lung infections in infancy, and they may then have a lower risk of suffering allergies and diabetes in childhood and heart disease in later life.

A further third of all births in Scotland take place in hospitals which have introduced action plans to achieve Baby Friendly status within two years, and UNICEF is now calling on the remaining maternity units - as well as all other hospitals across the UK - to follow this example and to adopt the Baby Friendly Initiative programme.