UNICEF’ UKs Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) was delighted to hear Public health Minister Dawn Primorolo’s announcement yesterday committing the UK Government to invest an extra £2 million to help more women in England breastfeed. The extra funding, announced during World Breastfeeding Week
(1-7 August), is seen as a welcome step towards improving the UK’s breastfeeding rate that remains among the lowest in Europe. In particular, it will help improve breastfeeding rates in the most deprived areas.

Carmel Duffy, Deputy Programme Director of the Baby Friendly Initiative said, “Breastfeeding rates in the UK remain among the lowest in Europe and women living in the most deprived areas are least likely to breastfeed. It is known that deprivation is a major contributor to poor health and beastfeeding has been shown to help reduce inequalities by improving health outcomes for mothers and babies. The Primary Care Trusts in these areas need support to help increase breastfeeding rates amongst new mums in their care and its fantastic news to hear today’s announcement from the Government that they are going to invest £2m to help do this. The money is crucial to help these hospitals and community trusts improve their practice to promote, protect and support breastfeeding.”

“Babies who are breastfed are less likely to develop many illnesses in infancy, childhood and adulthood,” Duffy added. “The World Health Organisation, UNICEF and the UK Government all recommend that babies should be fed only breast milk for their first six months of life. Yet despite this, only two-thirds of UK babies are breastfed at birth and just one in five is still receiving breast milk at six months. The UNICEF UK Baby Friendly initiative works with the UK health-care system to ensure a high standard of care for pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers and babies. We provide training and support for health-care facilities that are seeking to implement best practice, and we offer an assessment and accreditation process that recognises those that have achieved the required standard. The proportion of babies breastfed at birth increases by more than 10% on average over four years when hospitals implement the Baby Friendly standards – so we know it works.”

The extra £2m investment aims to help support hospitals in disadvantaged areas to achieve Unicef Baby Friendly Status, a set of best practice standards for maternity units and community services on improving practice to promote, protect and support breastfeeding. 9.5% of hospitals in England have achieved this status already and an estimated 50% are working towards implementing Baby Friendly standards. The initiative has a proven track record of successfully supporting mothers to start breastfeeding and helping them to continue for longer through a range other grassroots initiatives, such as peer support groups to help mothers overcome breastfeeding difficulties.

The Government will monitor progress through measuring the prevalence of breastfeeding at 6 to 8 weeks in all Primary Care Trusts as a key indicator of Child Health & Wellbeing PSA target.