Blackpool has been awarded extra funding which it applied for under a special scheme announced during World Breastfeeding Week in August 2008. We learned last week that the bid had been successful.
An extra £2 million to help more women in England breastfeed, was announced by Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo. The extra funding - to be spread amongst the 20 PCTs with the lowest current initiation rates will help improve the UK's breastfeeding rate, which is among the lowest in Europe, and in particular help mums in deprived areas.
The funding will help support hospitals in disadvantaged areas to achieve Unicef Baby-Friendly Status, a set of best practice standards for maternity units and community services on improving practice to promote, protect and support breastfeeding.
This Unicef initiative has a proven track record in raising breastfeeding rates in many countries. It will not only support mothers to start breastfeeding, but will help them to continue for longer through a range other grassroots initiatives, such as peer support groups to help mothers overcome breastfeeding difficulties.
The Government will monitor progress through measuring the prevalence of breastfeeding at six to eight weeks in all Primary Care Trusts as a key indicator of Child Health & Wellbeing PSA target.
The extra funding and services at community level are in addition to other activities initiated in 2008 to promote breastfeeding, including the launch of the new National Breastfeeding Helpline (0844 2090 920) and the launch of *** Buddy - a campaign to encourage women, especially those who are 16-25 years and from disadvantaged groups, to initiate and continue to breastfeed.
Unicef's Baby Friendly initiative tells mothers about the benefits of breastfeeding, trains staff to help women breastfeed, helps mums and babies to stay together 24 hours a day while they are in hospital and sets standards for breastfeeding support groups.
A £75 million social marketing campaign called Change4Life is due to be launched in Autumn 2008, which will focus on helping people to make healthier choices, and breastfeeding will be integral to the campaign.