Breastfeeding support in Scotland has been rated highly by an expert group looking at provision across the country.
The report from the Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly (BBF) Scottish committee assessed the effectiveness, affordability and feasibility of current support, marking it overall as ‘strong’. The group also produced eight recommendations and set out the next steps to drive further improvement. These include ensuring families have equal access to relevant information on feeding their baby, promoting a supportive return to work environment, and strengthening breastfeeding messages across Scotland.
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman discussed the recommendations of the BBF report during a visit to NHS Ayrshire & Arran’s Ayrshire Maternity Unit during Scottish Breastfeeding Awareness Week.
The health board is currently testing a model which has brought together maternity and health visiting services, infant feeding teams and peer supporters from the Breastfeeding Network to form an integrated infant feeding team.
Ms Freeman said: “I’d like to thank the BBF committee for their report and recommendations which acknowledge the fact Scotland has been working hard to improve the quality of support for breastfeeding.
“This is an important opportunity to increase our efforts and to consider whether we are all doing enough to enable breastfeeding and to consider what we could do better.
“We need to remove the barriers that cause negativity towards breastfeeding, and to promote it as a natural and healthy activity, which provides babies with the best nutritional start in life.”
Professor Hazel Borland, Nurse Director at NHS Ayrshire & Arran, said: “Our integrated infant feeding team will give mothers proactive, family-centred, one-to-one breastfeeding care from a peer supporter within 48 hours of birth.
“This will support new mothers to breastfeed for longer, beginning with those for whom we know it can be more challenging. We have a strong partnership with the Breastfeeding Network and are delighted to be working more closely with them to give breastfeeding support to local families.
“We have embraced the new national Breastfeeding Friendly Scotland Scheme and have already introduced it to one of our local breastfeeding friendly venues, Burns Cottage.
“We have also recently created and launched a guideline for our staff to make it clear that we all have a role to play in supporting mothers to breastfeed in our hospitals and buildings.”
The Scottish Government has also announced a new national Breastfeeding Friendly Scotland Scheme logo to be displayed by businesses and organisations.
The report has been welcomed by health professionals.
Mary Ross-Davie, Director for Scotland at the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), said: “This is a bold and welcome vision from the Scottish Government. It will support the progress already made around breastfeeding and point Scotland towards an even better breastfeeding future.
“It recognises that improving Scotland’s breastfeeding rates is not a quick, single action fix. It requires investment, planning, determination and the support and cooperation of many different organisations over many years to make it work.
“We have got to develop our systems and our society to support women to breastfeed so that breastfeeding for at least the first six months of a baby’s life is the norm. Most women want to breastfeed and we have to be doing all we can to help them do it.
“The more women that breastfeed and breastfeed for longer the healthier our population will be now and decades into the future. Breastfeeding can prevent illnesses in babies and children and it makes healthier adults.
“Midwives and maternity support workers play a crucial role in this. We have to ensure they have the time and resources to give women the best possible support before and in those critical first hours, days and weeks after the birth.
“Ultimately it is a woman’s choice about how she chooses to feed her baby and everyone must respect that decision. But, we have got to make sure that choosing breastfeeding is a realistic and attainable option for women. This report will hopefully take us a long way towards that.”
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