At the start of National Breastfeeding Week, Maddie McMahon, of Doula UK’s Infant Feeding Group said,
“Breastfeeding support is vitally important to women across the UK. The vast majority of UK mothers want to breastfeed their babies and many cite the lack of knowledgable support as reason for stopping breastfeeding earlier than they wished.
Women who have access to a doula, both privately and through the increasing number of volunteer schemes across the UK, were shown in a recent Doula UK survey to be breastfeeding their babies at six weeks of age at a 25% higher rate than the national average.
It is crucial that appropriate support services are made available to all mothers and that all those who come into contact with mothers who may have breastfeeding queries, have up-to-date information to pass on. Doula UK believes that doulas have an important role to play in the postnatal period, and have recently rolled-out an Infant Feeding Guidance paper, approved by UNICEF’s Baby Friendly Initiative, to ensure our members are well placed to provide basic breastfeeding support and signpost mothers to other services where necessary.
However Doula UK is concerned by statistics showing that breastfeeding rates have fallen for the first time in 10 years. We feel strongly that breastfeeding should be a public health issue, echoing Louise Silverton’s analysis in The Guardian.
Investment in breastfeeding support services, adequate midwife provision, new initiatives that ensure women can have access to doulas without charge as well as in awareness raising activities such as National Breastfeeding week needs to be a key priority if we are to see an upturn in these statistics.”
Spokespeople are available for comment. Please contact Rebecca Schiller on 07793084945 or email pr [at] doula [dot] org [dot] uk
