HC Deb 24 January 2000 vol 343 cc96-7W
Mr. Beith

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent steps his Department has taken to promote breast feeding. [104093]

Yvette Cooper

We are fully committed to the promotion of breastfeeding, which is uniformly accepted as the best form of nutrition for infants. We also firmly believe that it is important that women and their partners are able to make a fully informed choice on how to feed their babies based on accurate and consistent information. This means that women should have access to information about all infant feeding practices through the relevant health care professional.

Two part-time infant feeding advisers have been appointed. One is a practising health visitor and the other a midwife to act as a focus for developing and implementing strategies for promoting breastfeeding. In particular, their expertise will be utilised to increase the incidence of breastfeeding among groups where breastfeeding rates are lowest, for example, those on low income, and to ensure that all mothers have the information and support they need to make informed infant feeding choices.

The infant feeding advisers are also managing a substantial project budget that will include taking forward developmental work on a model questionnaire for collecting information locally on monitoring breastfeeding rates, administer a small grant scheme to help evaluate projects which provide best practice on increasing breastfeeding rates among mothers on low incomes, take forward initiatives on a parent friendly approach to infant feeding and develop educational resources and promotional materials to promote breastfeeding that would appeal to varying groups in the population.

We also promote breastfeeding in the following ways. The National Network of Breastfeeding Co-ordinators has been established to promote breastfeeding at a local level and to share ideas nationally with a view to increasing both the number of mothers breastfeeding and the length of time they continue to breastfeed. Each year the four UK Health Departments support National Breastfeeding Awareness Week to increase public awareness of the benefits of breastfeeding, which will this year take place between 14–20 May.

The Department provides financial support to the four main voluntary organisations in this area, the National Childbirth Trust, La Leche League, Breastfeeding Network and the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers. Close links are also kept with UNICEF's Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) which includes a Departmental observer sitting on the Steering Committee of the UK BFI. The Department offers support for research into breastfeeding through the Quinquennial Surveys of Infant Feeding Practice; a new survey will be undertaken this year. The Department also receives and publishes expert advice on breastfeeding through its advisory committees, such as COMA's Panel on Child and Maternal Nutrition.

Also, as part of the Department's research initiative on health inequalities, we are supporting a study aimed at identifying the barriers to breastfeeding in low income groups. This should also help us to understand what influences a woman's decision whether to breastfeed or not. In turn, this will help us to develop and test new policies to promote and improve the health of babies from low income families. This research will report in late 2001.