CYP Now - Analysis: Breastfeeding - England's babies are missing out

The Government has long publicised its commitment to giving children a healthy start in life, but campaigners warn that the Department of Health's failure to address England's low breastfeeding rates is undermining this agenda. Asha Goveas reports.

Giving a child the best start in life is one of the Government's favourite mantras.

But campaigners say the promotion of breastfeeding, key to building the health of babies, children and their mothers, is being neglected by the Department of Health, and claim its commitment lags far behind that in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The UK rates for breastfeeding are some of the lowest in Europe, particularly among deprived families.

But although the Government set a target to increase the rate of initiating breastfeeding in disadvantaged mothers by two per cent a year, experts have pointed out this has been undermined by methods of data collection that fail to monitor mothers' social backgrounds (Children Now, 25-31 May).

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