Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what data his Department holds on breastfeeding.
Data on breastfeeding in the United Kingdom is recorded in the Maternity Services Data Set which collects and reports data from providers of maternity services, including breastfeeding initiation. Data on breastfeeding status at six to eight weeks is reported through the Children and Young People’s Health Services Data Set. In addition, Public Health England presents data on factors related to conception, pregnancy and delivery, including breastfeeding profiles in their Fingertips site; these indicators show performance against a range of indicators describing demographic, breastfeeding behaviours and health outcome data for mothers and their children.
These datasets can be accessed via the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/breastfeeding-statistics