International Women’s Day

Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer Excerpts

Friday 10th March 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer (LD)]

My Lords, it is certainly an honour to speak in this debate and to listen to so many inspiring contributions. I will start with a tribute to a very important person who died last October: Carmen Callil, who created and founded Virago books in 1973. She was an inspiration to young women working in publishing such as me. Much more importantly, Virago has introduced generations of women to the world’s most exciting women writers, both contemporary and classic—those whose works had been allowed to lapse into obscurity, such as Willa Cather and Janet Frame, and contemporary writers such as Maya Angelou. The list would fill my entire allotted time, so I must just say thank you to Carmen Callil. She is certainly a woman to remember on International Women’s Day.

Perhaps it was the contrast from working in publishing to becoming a mother that gave me a lifelong interest in breastfeeding, the subject I will speak about. I really warmed to the comment in the excellent maiden speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Lampard, about baby sick down the jacket when in a work environment—I totally related to that.

I am talking about the subject today because the figures on women who breastfeed have plummeted during the last 40 years—and they were not great 40 years ago. That is despite all the advantages to both babies and the women who breastfeed them. I am also talking about it today because the Lancet has just published a series of studies on breastfeeding, and I would like some response from the Government to them. Today is also very exciting because Codex, established by the Food and Agriculture Organization, has concluded that it will finally open the door in being definite that infant health must trump marketing when it comes to formula promotion. Until now, the World Trade Organization has accepted challenges when Governments have tried to legislate in this area.

Let us look at some of the advantages to the baby. The milk is perfectly formulated, protects the baby against many infections, and reduces the number of hospital visits—the NHS estimates that £50 million per annum could be saved if babies were exclusively breastfed until the age of six months—and the risks of sudden infant death syndrome and of cardiovascular disease in adulthood. For women, the NHS lists the benefits as lowering the risks of ovarian and breast cancer, osteoporosis, obesity and cardiovascular disease.

In listing the advantages, I fully recognise that some babies and mothers cannot or do not take to breastfeeding. My remarks are in no way a criticism of them; it is very often hard to combine work and feeding. Physically, the baby may be tongue-tied, for which numerous studies, particularly the Channel 4 “Dispatches” investigation in 2018, have identified that there is a lack of health professional support. Tongue-tied babies may not be spotted, and this is not conducive to being able to breastfeed. Also, mothers who have had caesareans or very hard labours may find that milk does not come as easily. However, given the very clear health advantages, most of which have been known for decades, why has the UK suffered such a dramatic decline in support for mothers who wish to breastfeed?

Although 68% of mothers start breastfeeding after birth, by 12 weeks the number has fallen to 17%. By the time babies are six months old, only 1% are exclusively breastfed. We need to look at the reasons for this. That lack of support for breastfeeding mothers is one, but the other is the relentless marketing of baby formula from the manufacturers. I cannot do better than quote from the Lancet study from February:

“This three-paper Series outlines the multifaceted and highly effective strategies used by commercial formula manufacturers to target parents, health-care professionals, and policy-makers. The industry’s dubious marketing practices—in breach of the breastfeeding Code”,


to which the UK Government signed up in 1981,

“are compounded by lobbying of governments”.


Can the Minister undertake that this lobbying will no longer be listened to? Can she assure us that breastfeeding will be strongly promoted by this Government? Will her Government put some political welly behind the effort to put the health of our babies and mothers at the heart of policy?