Breastfeeding

[bionicley]

Protecting and promoting breastfeeding.
Have you heard about the Breastfeeding Manifesto?

The growing coalition supporting the Breastfeeding Manifesto includes all of the main breastfeeding support organisations, the NCT, The Royal College of Midwives, The Royal College of General Practitioners, UNICEF, MIDIRS and the Royal College of Nursing among its 35 supporting organisations.

The coalition is aiming to improve awareness of the health benefits of breastfeeding and its role in reducing health inequalities.

The Breastfeeding Manifesto outlines seven key objectives necessary if the UK is to initiate and sustain improvements in infant feeding practice:

1. Implement the Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding.
2. Implement postnatal care guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and the Accompanying Public Health Evidence into Practice document.
3. Improve training for health professionals.
4. Work with employers to create a supportive environment for breastfeeding mothers.
5. Develop policy and practice to support breastfeeding in public places.
6. Include breastfeeding education in the curriculum.
7. Adopt the World Health Organisation Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes and subsequent relevant resolutions.

Working towards these objectives will help to ensure that women, irrespective of their socio-economic or ethnic background, are empowered to breastfeed for as long as they choose and that more babies can enjoy the benefits of their mothers? milk.

You can read the Breastfeeding Manifesto at:

www.breastfeedingmanifesto.org.uk

If you support the objectives please add your name as an individual to the manifesto. It is quick and easy to do.

Simply go to: www.breastfeedingmanifesto.org.uk

and click on ?sign up?.

Here you can add your own name to the manifesto, find out how you can ask your MP to sign and be kept in the loop. Please write to your MP if s/he hasn't signed.

The manifesto has already achieved cross-party support but to achieve the impact at Governmental level that is necessary, lots more individuals need to sign. We are aiming for around 5000.

On 16 May, individual coalition members will meet MPs who have not yet signed the manifesto to galvanise further parliamentary support.

Together we can make a wide scale real and lasting change to the health and wellbeing of future generations.

Best wishes

from the La Leche League Great Britain/BMC liaison team

Please show this to any one who might be interested!

La Leche League Great Britain is a company limited by guarantee registered in England Number 01566925.

Registered Office: 129a Middleton Boulevard, Wollaton Park, Nottingham NG8 1FW. Registered Charity Number 283771

well ... I'm not impressed.

This 'manifesto's seven points are full of jargon and mean very little.

I think that some of this should cover, in the UK at least:

1- Considering that nine in ten mothers who stopped breastfeeding within six weeks of birth said they would have liked to have breastfed for longer, there should be a very strong focus and BUDGET from the NHS to provide DIRECT support, immediatly after the birth and in the subsequent weeks;
2- Special budget and initiatives focused on helping younger mothers (under 25 years old)with breastfeeding as older mums are more likely to chose and stick with breastfeeding;
3- SureStart should provide regular Breastfeeding Support groups and one-to-one counscelling, including home visits if necessary (as the program is due to go national at some point in the future), and focus on poorer areas of the country as it is statistically demonstrated that more well-off mums tend to BF, and for longer;
4- NHS Direct should have a dedicated group of health professionals to take calls regarding BF, as now any form of telephone counscelling a breastfeeding mum can get is through organizations such as La Leche league and the NCT (I'm sure they are doing a good job, but the NHS should take responsibility for some of this!)

I'm sure there are other things that should be included, but I'll have to do a bit more thinking... Any other opinionated BF mums out there? What do you think should be included?

BPxx

BP - your ideas sound very wise, can someone pass them onto the people who wrote the manifesto?!
But do think its good to have a manifesto at all, thanks for sharing it - maybe try posting it on the Feed to World section Bionicely, there are plenty of stressed out breastfeeders there!

Blueberry Pancake. The jargon is all explained in the manifesto.
Many of your cncerns are addressed by the second objective.