18th July 2016
Earlier this year, the Unicef Baby Friendly Initiative launched the Call to Action, calling on government to take four key actions in order to protect, promote and support breastfeeding in the UK. The Call to Action was presented to Ben Gummer, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Care Quality, at a meeting in March.
At that meeting, it was identified that the first, key step towards creating a supportive and enabling environment for mothers to breastfeed is to establish a National Infant Feeding Strategy Board, tasked with creating a National Infant Feeding Strategy and implementation plan. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child published its concluding observations on the UK 2016. Its recommendations included a need for the UK to promote, protect and support breastfeeding in all policy areas where breastfeeding has an impact on child health.
Following this, Baby Friendly Initiative has now mapped out in more detail what a Strategy Board would look like, what it could achieve and how it would do so. This is a starting point for creating a supportive, normalised breastfeeding culture in the UK. This roadmap has been sent to Ben Gummer and Viv Bennett, Chief Nurse.
