The World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi) UK report was launched on Tuesday 15th November at the Houses of Parliament, hosted by MP Alison Thewliss. As well as civil servants, representatives of the main breastfeeding support organisations, researchers and MPs from all parties attended.
LCGB was the principal sponsor of the assessment work and the production and printing of the report. Additional funding was provided by IBFAN Asia, First Steps Nutrition Trust, and personal donations. All the work was carried out on a voluntary basis.
LCGB members Clare Meynell and Helen Gray were joint coordinators of the project, and numerous other members of LCGB were involved.
WBTi Team—left to right Ayala Ochert, Alison Spiro, Helen Gray, Clare Meynell, Patricia Wise and Liz McGregor.
This is the first WBTi UK report, and is the culmination of many months of determined joint effort, across the four nations of the UK, assessing all aspects of the state of support for breastfeeding in the UK—including national leadership, Unicef Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI), Implementation of the World Health Organisation (WHO) International Code, health professional training, and more. You can access the full report at ukbreastfeeding.org/wbtiuk2016/, it includes:
- Part 1 contains the full report, and can also be purchased as a hard copy for £15 via the website.
- Part 2 provides additional material, including a table of cuts to breastfeeding services.
- Summary ‘WBTi Report Cards’ are available for each of the four nations of the UK, as well as the UK as a whole.
Visit the website for further material and information.
The 2016 UK report for the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative is carefully compiled, thorough and contributes valuable knowledge to policy makers, health care workers and communities both in the UK and globally. Only with accurate reporting of these type of data can services and accountability be improved to support mothers in the UK wanting to breastfeed.
Dr Nigel Rollins, WHO
Please use this report widely, wherever you feel it will help with improving support for breastfeeding—with service commissioners, health professionals, government officials, and Members of Parliament.
Kind regards,
LCGB Committee