Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what comparison they have made of the percentage of women breastfeeding their babies at six months (1) currently, (2) 10 years ago, and (3) 20 years ago.
Breastfeeding at six months has been measured through the Infant Feeding Survey United Kingdom, which last ran in 2010. The results were published in 2012 and reported the breastfeeding prevalence for the UK outlined in the following table.
Breastfeeding prevalence for babies aged six months in 2000, 2005 and 2010 in the UK:
| 2000 | 2005 | 2010 |
Exclusively breastfed | Less than 1% | Less than 1% | 1% |
At all breastfed | 21% | 25% | 34% |
Notes:
The UK has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world. Data published in the Lancet shows that 0.5% of babies in the UK are being breastfed up to one year compared with 23% in Germany, 56% in Brazil and 99% in Senegal. A copy of the Lancet article, Breastfeeding in the 21st Century: epidemiology, mechanisms, and lifelong effect, is attached.