www.breastfeedingmanifesto.org.uk The Breastfeeding Manifesto was produced in 2006 in consultation with over twenty UK organisations working to improve awareness of the health benefits of breastfeeding and its role in reducing health inequalities.
In the UK, 9 out of 10 women who stop breastfeeding before their baby is 6 weeks old would like to have breastfed for longer. Every year more than 300,000 women are not receiving the support or information they need. If these women had received consistent, accurate information and support, the vast majority of them could have continued to breastfeed their babies.
The World Health Organisation recommends exclusive breastfeeding for six months, yet less than 2% of British babies are exclusively breastfed for this length of time. Research from the Public Health Collaborating Centre on Maternal and Child Nutrition demonstrates that breastfeeding has a major role to play in public health, promoting health in both the short and long term for baby and mother. This work concludes that breastfeeding has a key role to play in tackling the fundamental policy goal of addressing inequalities in health in the UK. Despite the overwhelming health benefits and cost savings associated with breastfeeding, UK rates remain unacceptably low.
