The impact of Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly

Assessing the Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly process as a sustainable policy approach to supporting, promoting and protecting breastfeeding

In a report titled Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly in Great Britain—Does implementation science work? (July 2022) a research team from Kent University found valuable breastfeeding support structures in place across Great Britain, including from the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative.

Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly was found to be effective in stimulating high-level discussions on increasing investment in breastfeeding interventions, policies and programmes.

However, the report also reveals limitations relating to political will, policy and lack of data which could prevent a repeat of the process in Great Britain:

“Implementation science can only be as effective as the evaluation of the actions implemented allow. To date, it has not been feasible to initiate the next stage of Breastfeeding Friendly in Britain, which involves repeating the process to compare the country’s scores and degree of achievement in scaling up within 5 years of Breastfeeding Friendly. It is our intention to find the means and the political will to continue the Breastfeeding Friendly process across Great Britain and to establish the health and social value of improving the environment for promoting, protecting and supporting breastfeeding.”

Key insights and positive innovations:

• There is a strong need for continued advocacy by action-orientated groups and organisations such as the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative, Breastfeeding Network, La Leche League, Baby Milk Action, IBFAN UK and World Breastfeeding Trends initiative.
• Additional funding of £50m has been agreed in England to provide wider community support and interventions for breastfeeding.
• There has been a 12-year data gap since the cancellation of the Infant Feeding Survey. Whilst there is no consensus on reinstating a UK-wide infant feeding survey at this time, plans to initiate a survey and improvements in NHS Digital operations may increase the quality and level of infant feeding data collected across the NHS in England.
• As part of the NHS’s ongoing vision to improve postnatal care, the NHS Long Term Plan includes a commitment that: ‘All maternity services that do not deliver an accredited, evidence-based infant feeding programme (such as the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative) will begin the accreditation process’ – with a view of all services achieving full accreditation by March 2024. NHS England and NHS Improvement and the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative have agreed a joint support offer for the 38 maternity services that have not yet achieved full Baby Friendly accreditation and are currently working to fulfil this.

Access the full report here.