Breastfeeding
(asked on 28th March 2017) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the NHS takes to promote the breast feeding of babies beyond the age of two months.
NHS England is supportive of improving breast feeding rates, and expects maternity providers to continue to work toward this.
The Better Births report, a review of maternity services in England, has set out some key recommendations to improve maternity services. A work stream associated with breastfeeding aims to support women to be fit for, during and after their pregnancy and to provide the best possible start for their babies. The recommendations are now being implemented and every part of England is required to have a plan in place that outlines how they will do this by October 2017.
Breastfeeding is promoted on the NHS Choices website, which also signposts links to the Breastfeeding Network and a Start4Life breastfeeding messaging board on social media.
The promotion of breast feeding is one of the six high impact areas for health visiting. The mandated contact points – antenatal, 10-14 days after birth, and six-eight weeks after birth - are opportunities for health visitors to support parents around infant feeding. Whilst health visitors are commissioned by local authorities, most such services are provided by the National Health Service.
Public Health England and the charity Unicef UK have developed a toolkit to support commissioning of evidence-based interventions to improve breastfeeding rates across England, including provision of effective professional support to mothers and their families through implementation of the Baby Friendly Initiative in every maternity unit – this is available at: