Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking in response to the finding of the National Maternity Review that 90 per cent of women stopped breastfeeding before they wanted to.

The Government is committed to supporting breastfeeding, as the health benefits are clear for mothers and their babies. We would still like to see more mothers breastfeeding and doing so for longer.

Breastfeeding is one of the six high-impact areas for health visiting outlined in the Healthy Child Programme which mandates that all parents receive five universal health visitor checks before their child reaches two and a half years old.

Support and information is also available to parents and health professionals through NHS Choices, the National Breastfeeding Helpline, UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative, the Start4Life Information Service for parents which includes an interactive Facebook Messenger ‘chatbot’ that provides live breastfeeding support to new mums at any time of day, and local peer support parents.

Later this year, the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition will publish its report on Feeding in the First Year of Life and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence will update its guidelines on maternal and infant feeding. This will provide us with opportunities to review current actions and identify further measures.

Public Health England (PHE) is working with Yale University on a global research project that involves working with Governments to scale up their breastfeeding strategies and is supported by World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF. This work will help inform PHE’s work to improve breastfeeding rates through the Maternity Transformation Programme, the Best Start in Life programme and PHE/WHO’s Public Health Collaborating Centre.