Mother and child smiling at each other, close-up. Photograph by Jade Reynold-Hemmings

Children's health and food

Breastfeeding in focus

4 November 2024

Insights from the sector

All children should have the opportunity to thrive, regardless of where they grow up. The key to this is making sure parents can adequately feed their babies, however they choose to do so.

Good nutrition and health in the very early years play a crucial role in a child’s development and growth and can also contribute to better child health.

To this end, Impact on Urban Health commissioned Bremner & Co to conduct a comprehensive landscape review of breastfeeding in England, aiming to provide an up-to-date picture of current policy and practice, identify barriers to breastfeeding and explore levers of influence.

I think what we've really learned over the last few years is that breastfeeding is just a big jigsaw puzzle. If you just invest in one area, it’s not going to fix things.

Amy Brown Professor of maternal and child public health, Swansea University

This report captures the perspectives of those working in and around breastfeeding and creates a policy and practice landscape of breastfeeding at local and national levels.

The research was cross-sector – it heard from representatives from a variety of organisations informing breastfeeding policies, practices, campaigning, and advocacy. It also heard from industry.

The report concludes with a series of recommendations derived from the interviewees, in the areas of

policy and leadership
advocacy
influence and coalition building
framing and communications
building an adequate evidence base
funding information provision and
funding place-based interventions.

This range of recommendations reflects how complex the area is, and that there is no single solution that is likely to dramatically change breastfeeding trends.

On 5th November 2024, we hosted a symposium, with Bremner & Co, to explore the findings and implications of the newly published report, Breastfeeding in Focus: Insights from the Sector. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the policy and practice landscape, highlighting barriers to breastfeeding and identifying key levers for change.

The symposium brought together a diverse group of stakeholders from the breastfeeding sector, including policymakers, practitioners and advocates. We were especially pleased to welcome a significant number of local authorities and health sector representatives, whose insights enriched the discussion. The symposium showcased key insights from the report and provided a platform for participants to engage in thematic workshops and discussions. These sessions aimed to delve deeper into the findings, identify policy priorities, and chart actionable steps to improve access to breastfeeding support and address inequalities in breastfeeding outcomes.

You can read a summary of the symposium discussions below.