Tag: WBTi

Ready for Disaster? Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies in the UK and Europe

Ready for Disaster? Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies in the UK and Europe

‘Breastfeeding: Not on the Agenda’ Webinar series: ‘Ready for Disaster? Infant and young child feeding in emergencies in the UK and Europe’ will be presented today by Helen Gray, WBTi Joint Coordinator.
NOTE: this presentation is now available on YouTube

This week’s topic in the “Breastfeeding: Not on the Agenda” series of webinars is the importance of planning for the protection of infant and young child feeding in emergencies, right here in the UK.

Infants, young children, pregnant and breastfeeding women are among the most vulnerable in any emergency situation, but they are almost invisible in our national resilience planning.

In the UK, the 2016 WBTi report found that while there is national guidance on the care of farm animals, pets, zoo animals and circus animals in emergencies, but there is no mention of infants or young children. There is an assumption that parents will take all responsibility for their own family – but too often there are no guidelines or recommendations to help them to prepare or handle an emergency. 

Breastfeeding is a vital element in resilience and food security for families with infants: it provides immune protection and safe nutrition and fluids at any time, while providing both mother and child with comfort and resilience against stress. Skilled breastfeeding support is essential during emergencies, to enable breastfeeding dyads to continue.

In the UK, many infants are dependent on formula, which brings its own risks in an emergency. Infants who are not breastfed have reduced immunity to infections, in a situation where pathogens may be significantly increased due to contaminated water, or the crowding of evacuated families in rest centres. These infants depend on access to clean water, to a supply of suitable formula, and to hygienic preparation facilities and feeding equipment, and suitably trained support from responders and staff.

Local emergency planning in England and Wales is devolved to Local Resilience Forums (LRF). A recent study of LRF guidance for the public on emergency “grab bags,” by WBTi team member Patricia Wise, found that out of 42 LRF websites in England and Wales, only 27 even mention infant supplies, and 18 of those give only generic information rather than specific advice on what to pack for infants in an emergency.  Northern Ireland included a generic ‘special equipment for children’ in its grab bag recommendations.

It is not difficult to include these supplies, facilities and training in every local resilience plan – there are resources and model operational guidance on the Infant Feeding in Emergencies Core Group website.

  • Contact your Local Resilience Forum (LRF) and ask them what they include in their “grab-bag” lists and their planning for rest centres in case of evacuation.

The climate crisis is contributing to increased frequency and severity of natural disasters. The Australian Government recently funded a large research project, Babies and Young Children in the Black Summer (BiBS) Study, into the impact of the Black Summer Bushfires on families with infants and young children, conducted by the Australian Breastfeeding Association, Dr Michelle Hamrosi and Dr Karleen Gribble from Western Sydney University. One of the findings from this study was that parents with young children felt that they did not have the right information in time, that they needed extra preparation and extra time to evacuate. In fact, the title of the BiBS report is “Want to help the children? Help the parents.”

The recent global COVID-19 emergency also had a disproportionate impact on families with infants and young children. Despite consistent guidance from WHO emphasising the importance of breastfeeding to infant health, and supporting mothers to maintain breastfeeding or at least their milk supply if possible, many countries routinely separated mothers and newborns, despite disrupting breastfeeding with the risks that would entail to maternal and infant health and wellbeing (Vu et al. 2020). 

In the UK, families are also experiencing long term crises of food insecurity, especially during the current cost of living crisis. UNICEF Baby Friendly UK, NIFN and First Steps Nutrition have produced important guidance for local authorities on how to support these families. First Steps Nutrition have produced several related reports on food security for families with infants and on the impact of the cost of living crisis.

ACTION! contact your local authority and ask them

  • Whether they are implementing the UNICEF BFI guidance on food insecurity for families with infants
  • Whether your Local Resilience Forum plan includes infants and young children
  • Whether local guidance follows the Operational Guidance for Emergency Relief Staff and for Programme Managers
  • Email us to tell us what you find out! wbti@ukbreastfeeding.org
  • Volunteer to help with WBTi’s research on infant feeding in emergencies for our upcoming second assessment of UK policies!
  • Ask your MP to ask questions about this in Parliament!

This webinar is part of the documentary and webinar series “Breastfeeding: Not on the Agenda” on breastfeeding, hosted by Dr Ernestine Ndzi from York St John University.

You can register for upcoming webinars here.

Previous webinars in the series and the documentary are available on YouTube.

Helen Gray is Joint Coordinator of the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi) project in the UK.

She is the Policy and Advocacy Lead for Lactation Consultants of Great Britain. She represents La Leche League of Great Britain on the UK Baby Feeding Law Group (BFLG), which works to bring the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes into UK law.

Helen’s background in anthropology and human evolution has influenced her interest in how breastfeeding, and the way we nurture our babies, are influenced by both human biology and culture.

Her current advocacy focus is the need for strong policies to protect infant feeding in emergencies. She has written several articles and chapters on the subject and served on the Advisory Panel for a London Food Resilience research project. She now represents BFLG on the global Infant Feeding in Emergencies Core Group.

World Breastfeeding Week 2023 “Enabling Breastfeeding: Making a Difference for Working Parents”

World Breastfeeding Week 2023 “Enabling Breastfeeding: Making a Difference for Working Parents”

August 1-7 will once again be World Breastfeeding Week. This year, the theme “Enabling Breastfeeding: Making a Difference for Working Parents” is all about combining working and breastfeeding.

One of the key findings from our first WBTi assessment of UK breastfeeding policies and programmes was that although the UK does provide paid maternity leave, and some paid paternity leave, and although there is some guidance on good practice from ACAS and from HSE, there is no statutory right in the UK to breastfeeding breaks or facilities in the workplace.

WABA produces regular snapshot Parents at Work reports on each country’s status on implementing International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions and recommendations on maternity protection at work, including maternity leave, paternity leave, and protected breaks for breastfeeding or expressing milk.

The ILO report Care at Work: Investing in Care Leave Policies and Care Services for a More Gender- Equal World of Work provides a global overview of national laws and policies such as maternity protection, paternity, parental and other care-related leave policies, as well as childcare and long-term care services. 

Breastfeeding-friendly workplaces provide time, income security and space to enable positive nutrition and health outcomes 

All women should have the right to paid working time for breastfeeding, as called for by ILO Convention No. 183. In 2021, 138 countries provide a right to time and income security for breastfeeding. These provisions potentially benefit 8 in 10 potential mothers across the world. Since 2011, seven countries have introduced paid nursing breaks. However, breastfeeding breaks remain unpaid in four high-income countries. In 2021, at least four pathfinder countries recognize men’s supporting role by offering breastfeeding breaks to fathers. 

Almost 5 in 10 potential mothers live in countries that grant two daily breastfeeding breaks; while 109 countries offer the right to daily nursing breaks for six months or more. This would support exclusive breastfeeding in line with World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations for 7 in 10 potential mothers across the world. However, only ten countries provide a right to breastfeeding breaks for at least two years, compromising mothers’ ability to continuing breastfeeding. 

Workplace nursing facilities are a key ingredient of breastfeeding-friendly workplaces. However, only 42 countries offer the right to workplace nursing facilities, covering roughly 6 in 10 potential mothers globally. While small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are often exempted from these requirements, research shows that the economic and well-being benefits of breastfeeding for the new-born, the mother and the employer outweigh the limited costs of these measures. Only 13 countries offer a right to workplace nursing facilities irrespective of the number and sex of workers, with only 5 in 100 potential mothers worldwide living in these countries. Conditionalities for nursing facilities based on sex are discriminatory and remain in place in 19 countries. 

WBW Action Folder

Details for campaigning for improved policies and support for breastfeeding in the workplace can be found in the World Breastfeeding Week Action Folder.

WBW Pledge Map

Organising a WBW2023 celebration? Add it to the pledge map! 

WBTi UK’s WBW outline of the week

Tuesday 1 August

Introduction

Wednesday 2nd August at 12 noon

‘Breastfeeding: Not on the Agenda’ Webinar series: ‘Ready for Disaster? Infant and young child feeding in emergencies in the UK and Europe’ by Helen Gray MPhil IBCLC, WBTi Joint Coordinator

Previous webinars in the series and the documentary are available on YouTube.

Thursday 3rd August at 1pm

‘Let’s make breastfeeding work – optimal maternity leave and workplace accommodations support an environment that enables breastfeeding’. Free webinar from the Global Breastfeeding Collective, led by WHO and UNICEF.

Register HERE 

Friday 4th August

Maternity Action’s Senior Policy Officer Annah Psarros, on their new Toolkit for Employers, including a model Breastfeeding Policy

Saturday 5th August

Dr Ernestine Ndzi on Shared Parental Leave

Sunday 6th August

LCpl Natasha Day MBE, founder of the Defense Breastfeeding Network

Monday 7th August

Final blog from Dr Ernestine Ndzi on the need for “Family-Friendly Policies at Work”, and a Call to Action

Petition

And finally, everyone is encouraged to sign and share this petition from Dr. Ernestine Ndizi, calling for the government to:

  • Embed breastfeeding in the school curriculum and relevant health professional training.
  • Provide a policy on breastfeeding in the workplace which will protect the rights of breastfeeding mothers in the workplace.
  • Mandate all large public places like shopping malls, community centres, public libraries, museums, etc to provide breastfeeding rooms or spaces.
  • Fully adopt The Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes to protect babies and their families from harmful commercial influences and undermining of breastfeeding for commercial profit; and to protect families who formula feed from the escalating costs of premium brands.
  • Provide adequate 24/7 specialist lactation support in maternity services to actively counteract the culture of formula top-ups in hospitals; and to enable human donor milk to be more accessible as an option when mother’s milk is not immediately available.
  • Guarantee a sustained funding support to breastfeeding organisations who play a key part in supporting mothers.

– Include breastfeeding support on the Net Zero Environmental Agenda.

Sign the petition HERE

Join the 2nd WBTi Assessment of the UK!

Join the 2nd WBTi Assessment of the UK!

Do YOU want to be part of driving change for our children’s future?

The second assessment is now underway. It will run throughout this year and be launched in 2024.

What is the WBTi? 

The World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi) is a human rights-based, evidence-informed, collaborative and participatory national assessment of the implementation of key policies and programmes from the WHO’s Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding, and is a project developed by the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN). Currently nearly 100 countries are taking part.

WBTI Indicators of Policy and Programmes

  1. National policy, programme, and coordination 
  2. Baby Friendly Initiative
  3. International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes
  4. Maternity protection in the workplace   
  5. Health professional training  
  6. Community based support
  7. Information support and communications
  8. Infant feeding and HIV
  9. Infant and young child feeding during emergencies     
  10. Monitoring and evaluation 

In 2016, the UK scored just 50.5/ 100 on these ten key policy indicators.

WBTi brings together the main government agencies, health professional bodies, and civil society organisations involved in infant and maternal health and nutrition in each country to work together to collect information, identify gaps and generate recommendations for action. This Core Group must be free of conflicts of interest from the baby feeding industry (all infant or toddler milks up to 3 years, baby foods, bottles or teats).

The Global Breastfeeding Collective, led by WHO and UNICEF, recommend that the WBTi process be repeated, at least every 5 years, to monitor implementation of key policies, and include this in each country’s score on the Global Breastfeeding Scorecard. 

Volunteers wanted

Many volunteers contributed to the success of the first UK WBTI assessment in 2016.

Your contribution is valuable, large or small: 

  • Writing
  • Social media
  • Graphic design
  • Advocacy
  • Freedom of Information requests.
  • Fundraising
  • Mapping infant feeding training standards
  • Auditing numbers of breastfeeding counsellors and peer supporters
  • Project management
  • Virtual assistant skills
  • Parliamentary research
  • and more

You can find the main WBTi UK 2016 Report Part 1, and Part 2 with supplementary material, with Report Cards for each of the four nations and for the UK overall,  here:  https://ukbreastfeeding.org/wbtiuk2016/

Twitter: @wbtiuk 

Facebook: Breastfeeding – WBTi

Facebook page on emergencies: Safely Fed UK – Infant Feeding in Emergencies 

Website

Contact us! wbti@ukbreastfeeding.org

#StepUpForBreastfeeding: We are the Building Blocks #WBW2022

#StepUpForBreastfeeding: We are the Building Blocks #WBW2022

It takes a village to raise a child – we all have a role to play to support breastfeeding mothers and babies. 

We all are the building blocks responsible for supporting new families: partners and family members, health workers, neighbours and community members, religious leaders, employers, academics, governments and policy makers. We can all make a difference. We need to step up to our responsibilities. Everyone needs to understand the importance of breastfeeding – for maternal and infant physical and mental health and wellbeing, for public health, for our economy, and for our planet.

For WBW this year, WABA has produced an extensive suite of materials looking at all these roles and responsibilities. They have outlined the challenges that breastfeeding families face at every stage from conception, through birth, getting breastfeeding off to a good start, and maintaining breastfeeding all the way through starting solids and going back to work, and the solutions we need in each situation – all backed up by links to the latest evidence. 

The #WBW2022 Action Folder pulls all this together: it is a useful resource for anyone using evidence to build policies and best practice. You can download it as a PDF and all the links to research and references will be live.

The UK WBTi team will be highlighting just a few of the concepts this week:

  • Health workers: the importance of relevant, evidence-based. The advertising of follow-on milks, on the media, from 6 months in the UK has led to confusion, resulting in some parents seeing formula milk as equivalent to breastmilk, or that breastfeeding should stop at 6 months.  The International Code needs to be adopted by the UK government in full, to reduce this confusion and protect breastfeeding. training for all those who work with women, infants and young children
  • UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative and the BFHI worldwide sets out ways in which healthcare staff can receive sound, evidence-based, basic training in supporting breastfeeding. 

ALSO join a special webinar from the Global Breastfeeding Collective on BFHI, with some added specialist topics on supporting small and underweight breastfeeding infants, and on infant feeding in emergencies. (7-9 AM BST and again at 4-6 PM BST). Register HERE

  • Community support: Access to skilled, integrated support for all, with a special focus in the GBC webinar on how to support breastfeeding infants who are not gaining well (NICE NG 75,2017). All parents should have easy access to trained healthcare staff- midwives, paediatricians, health visitors and GPs- breastfeeding peer supporters and specialist support (IBCLC, BFCs). Supporting breastfeeding in complex circumstances: Specialist support from IBCLCS, BFCs, or infant feeding leads, integrated with specialist healthcare teams 
  • Protecting infants and young children in emergencies. National policies should guide Local Resilience Forums but these do not exist at present. 
  • The impact of misleading marketing: The International Code. The advertising of follow-on milks, on the media, from 6 months in the UK has led to confusion, resulting in some parents seeing formula milk as equivalent to breastmilk, or that breastfeeding should stop at 6 months.  The International Code needs to be adopted by the UK government in full, to reduce this confusion and protect breastfeeding.
  • Governments with national and local policy makers need to protect all families and support them to make informed feeding decisions free of commercial influence.

What can YOU do?

It is time for a reassessment of the UK’s national infant feeding policies and programmes. YOU could help! Volunteers are welcome with knowledge in any of the ten policy areas (Indicators 1-10), or with skills such as research, writing, graphics, social media and more – feel free to contact us for a chat!

WBTi Key Indicators:

Indicator 1: National policy, programme and coordination
Indicator 2: Baby Friendly Initiative
Indicator 3: International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes

Indicator 4: Maternity protection 
Indicator 5: Health professional training
Indicator 6: Community-based support 
Indicator 7: Information support 
Indicator 8: Infant feeding and HIV 

Indicator 9: Infant and young child feeding during emergencies 

Indicator 10: Monitoring and evaluation 

Which one will YOU choose?

Contact us: wbti@ukbreastfeeding.org

Helen Gray MPhil IBCLC is Joint Coordinator of the WBTi UK Steering Group.

Infant Feeding in Emergencies – Resources for supporting families from #Ukraine #IYCFE

Infant Feeding in Emergencies – Resources for supporting families from #Ukraine #IYCFE

Our WBTi work has revealed that in the UK we have no national guidance on the support and feeding of infants and young children, or pregnant or breastfeeding mothers, during emergencies. There is currently a postcode lottery of Local Resilience Forums who include a few details in their advice to the public such as “Remember to pack formula and nappies for your baby”, but there is no national guidance for LRFs and local authorities that they should include infants and young children in their planning.

This page will serve as a repository for resources for those planning services and those providing feeding support for Ukrainian families with infants and young children.

Breastfeeding provides infants with food security, immune protection, and emotional comfort during disasters.
Basic priorities in an emergency:

1) Support new mothers to hold their babies skin to skin and begin breastfeeding within the first hour.

2) Support mothers who are breastfeeding, partially or fully breastfeeding, to continue breastfeeding and increase their milk supply if needed: provide access to skilled feeding support.

3) Protect infants who are not breastfed: Trained infant feeding / nutrition support teams from trusted NGOs like UNICEF will provide access to safe supplies of appropriate infant formula for babies that need it, and support with safe preparation under hazardous conditions.

4) Protect all infants: breastmilk substitutes and feeding equipment (infant formulas and other milks, bottles, teats, breast pumps and also donor human milk) will be provided by trusted NGOs like UNICEF; the public should AVOID sending donations of these into high risk settings, but send donations of funds to trusted NGOS instead. This will enable them to provide families with what is needed on the ground.

These organisations are members of the Infant Feeding in Emergencies Core Group and have created the international Operational Guidance on Infant Feeding in Emergencies. Please consider supporting their work with families with infants and young children.

We have collected links to infant feeding resources in Ukrainian, and also in the languages of countries housing refugee families, for breastfeeding helpers and aid workers in those countries.

Please send us any suggestions for additional resources

We have a few other resources not included here; please email us any enquiries.

NOTE: we will continue to add links and resources to this page, and these organisations are continuing to add further translations into more languages – please make sure that you clear your cache, or ‘refresh’ the page, each time you open any of these links to ensure that you find the most up to date page.

NOTE: We are providing these resources as a public service, but we cannot read the resources in other languages ourselves, so we cannot always vouch for the accuracy of the contents. Please have someone fluent in the language read it for you.

CONTACT: wbti@ukbreastfeeding.org

WHERE TO START? Watch this 4 minute introductory video from Save the Children

Aid worker or emergency planner? Short video here: how can you incorporate best practice into your support for Ukrainian families?

GET INFORMED: Read the first 25 pages of the Guidance for an overview of best practice.

Resources from the Global Breastfeeding Collective, led by WHO and UNICEF

It is important to continue breastfeeding if you are COVID positive: your milk can pass antibodies to your baby! More resources HERE.

UNICEF UK Baby Friendly resources

Guidance for local authorities on infant feeding during COVID19 (from BFI, First Steps Nutrition Trust, and NIFN). First line guidance for UK local authorities responsible for supporting families

The provision of formula in food banks (November 2020)

Statement on infant formula in food banks (November 2020) – signposting

See also the response to Question 11 on formula donations and distribution in their FAQ here

International humanitarian guidelines and operational guidance

Sphere Handbook

Operational Guidance on Infant feeding in Emergencies
for Emergency Relief Staff and Programme Managers
Available in numerous languages

Media Guide and Guide on writing/ talking about infant feeding in emergencies
These are extremely useful for humanitarian aid organisations and for the media in framing the situation

Guidance for helpers not trained in supporting infant feeding

This short leaflet was written for local authorities and those supporting Afghan refugee families but could be useful for those supporting Ukrainian refugees in the UK. It sets the context, lists some useful resources for parents, provides information about making up powdered infant formula correctly and describes useful actions in some possible scenarios.

Infant feeding support resources – multiple languages

Rapid Feeding Assessment Key Phrases in multiple languages (including Ukrainian, Russian, Romanian, Polish and English – scroll down the page)

Simple Points for Helpers – infant feeding in emergencies in multiple languages (including Ukrainian, Russian, Romanian, Polish and English – scroll down the page)


Pictorial counselling cards in many languages including Russian, adapted to include COVID19 recommendations. Some are full pictorial sets, while some are simply the translation matrix.

Infant Feeding flyer for families in transit (including English, Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, updated for COVID19). Developed by the volunteer team from Infant Feeding Support for Refugee Children/ Safely Fed

Posters and booklets in Ukrainian hosted by the Lithuanian IBCLC Association

Pictorial book about breastfeeding (no words) from La Leche League Netherlands. The PDF is free to use for all. Printing and sharing is allowed, as long as the original file (including credits) is unaltered. Price listed on website is for printed version.

Breastfeeding resources in multiple languages including Ukrainian, Romanian, Russian. (From the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, USA)

Breastfeeding Matters – A Guide to Breastfeeding for Women and their Families (from best Start, Ontario Canada) can be downloaded free in Russian and other languages

Translations of key phrases, breastfeeding infographics in many languages, and more: Safely Fed European resources

La Leche League International: Variety of resources and infographics in infant feeding in emergencies translated into multiple languages – most are directed at mothers and parents

Global Health Media: Videos on childbirth and breastfeeding topics.

Infant Feeding in Emergencies Social Media resources:

Infant Feeding Support for Refugee Children Facebook Page: Memes/ graphics in multiple languages, with appropriate captions

La Leche League International Facebook page: Memes/ graphics in multiple languages, aimed at mothers and parents

Safely Fed UK Facebook page – volunteers welcome to create graphics in Canva and to monitor the page! Contact WBTi UK: wbti@ukbreastfeeding.org

For policy makers, emergency planners, media and humanitarian aid workers

Policy resources, media guide, training materials: Infant Feeding in Emergencies Core Group

IYCFE Hub: global hub of resources

Background information on breastfeeding in Ukraine: WBTi 2015 Ukraine Assessment Report

Policy resources, translations of key phrases, and more: Safely Fed European resources

Please do contact us if you are interested in volunteering or have some useful resources to share!!

CONTACT: wbti@ukbreastfeeding.org

Helen Gray MPhil IBCLC is Joint Coordinator of the WBTI UK Steering Team, and Policy and Advocacy Lead at Lactation Consultants of Great Britain. Her research interests include human rights and infant and young child feeding in emergencies.

A winner! Working together to support families

A winner! Working together to support families

If you attended the 2015 Unicef UK Baby Friendly conference you may have noticed, or taken part, in the informal World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi) competition to guess the final assessment score. Sue Ashfield is the winner as her estimate was closest to the actual score of 50.5 out of 100 for Indicators 1-10.

The score is a measure of how the UK is performing against the implementation of key policies and programmes to support mothers who want to breastfeed and the healthcare professionals who help them.

Sue is the lead and Specialist Health Visitor (Infant Nutrition) of First Community Health and Care in East Surrey. Sue is a winner in a much bigger way than the WBTi competition because her community team was reaccredited by Baby Friendly earlier this year and they also supported 10 local children centres in achieving full BFI accreditation in one year. The formal presentation of the award was on March 14th. Sue pays tribute to the hard work of her colleagues for the achievement but it also reflects her commitment and leadership.  Read more here.

Her team is a brilliant example of what the WBTi UK report recommends for Indicator 6 (community-based support). There is close, integrated working between 0-19 public health team, breastfeeding counsellors, peer supporters and children centres at the three Baby Cafes, which have been runnning for 10 years.

Practitioners from the 0-19 team work at the Baby Cafes on a rota basis, alongside the breastfeeding counsellor. When they see mothers at home or at drop-in clinics they encourage them to attend the Baby Cafes for social support or more specialised support or just to chat to one of the peer supporters. The breastfeeding counsellors at the Baby Cafes have now trained over 200 peer supporters and this has increased the breastfeeding knowledge and skills within the local community.

Winner blog
Credit: Eleanor Stock

The photo above shows Sue holding the Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) accreditation plaque along with some members of the 0-19 team, some senior managers and their BFI Guardian. Since April, all three community services in Surrey have come together as Children and Family Health Surrey to deliver children’s services.

Sue comments that she found particularly useful the information in the WBTi report about interventions and investment offered in the past and also Report Cards and the summary gaps and recommendations. She will use the findings in the report to inform local commissioners and disseminate information to staff and other stakeholders.

An integrated service like this is needed in all areas, yet in so many places services are being cut, particularly peer support programmes and breastfeeding support drop-ins.

Many congratulations Sue.

 

Cover photo credit: Paul Carter

PW Photo for WBTi MAINN presentation

 

Patricia Wise is an NCT breastfeeding counsellor and a member of the WBTi Steering Group

Building Loving Relationships – Indicator 2: The Baby Friendly Initiative

valentine

Will you be my Valentine? Love matters to all of us.

There will be millions of Valentine celebrations taking place all over the nation on 14 February. Hearts, red roses, chocolates, gifts, expensive treats and marriage proposals will be exchanged to signal love on that day.

But… babies are born every day. People embrace each other every day. Loving relationships begin every day! Lovers kiss every day and babies are universally loved.

Affection and love shape our brains from that first kiss on day one and continually along our life course. They create that extraordinary mother and baby bond, stimulate social interactions and enable long-lasting friendships. Early loving relationships are nurtured and supported by our families, friends, health professionals and wider society. Being held closely, and responded to sensitively, by those who love you more than anyone else, has far-reaching effects on long-term emotional security and health.

The neuroscience evidence behind this is getting stronger every year. Sue Gerhardt explained that in her book Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby’s Brain in 2004. Margot Sunderland explained the impact of this knowledge for parenting in 2006, in What Every Parent Needs to Know: The incredible effects of love, nurture and play on your child’s development.

Humans are very adaptable and babies respond to how they are treated, feeling secure and appreciated if they feel loved. Francesca Entwistle explains the importance of helping the baby develop secure attachment in the 2013 Evidence and rationale for the Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative standards.

The Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative programme has been universal in changing attitudes and encouraging best practice over the last 20 years in the UK through robust accreditation. It delivers the minimum basic standards required to support new parents – no matter how they feed their babies. It aims to create the best environment for the start of every baby’s life but is not yet mandatory for all maternity facilities in England and Wales (see WBTi UK 2016 report – Part 1, Indicator 2).

The question is why isn’t it mandatory as recommended by NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) 11 years ago? The guidance states: “All maternity care providers (whether working in hospital or in primary care) should implement an externally evaluated, structured programme that encourages breastfeeding, using the Baby Friendly Initiative as a minimum standard.”

The governments of Scotland and Northern Ireland have a funded national strategy with a coordinator supporting all maternal and infant health professionals, and 100% of maternity units in Scotland and Northern Ireland are accredited, with community facilities aiming to achieve the same.

This cascade of national to local support aims to ensure all parents receive the best possible information, free from the undermining effects of commercial persuasion, with practical support to be enabled to make healthy decisions for themselves, which helps fulfil the government’s health message.

Families would benefit if England and Wales followed the best practice example of their neighbours.

What does Baby Friendly care mean for parents? Relevant information from pregnancy onwards, skin-to-skin contact immediately after birth as standard practice, and practical help with learning how to feed your baby. For more details, see You can expect the following standards of care from a Baby Friendly hospital. If all expectant parents knew about the standards, they could help press for them to be implemented universally.

The WBTi UK report points out gaps and provides recommendations to overcome the many barriers that women face in their daily lives, journeying from pregnancy through birth, the postnatal months, back to work and beyond, living in their own communities. See Part 1, Indicator 2 of the report for more information, with further details in Part 2.

Implementing the WBTi recommendations would contribute to the provision of the optimal conditions all parents need to begin raising their child in a loving and supportive society.

 

References

  1. Gerhardt S (2004) Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby’s Brain E.Sussex: Brunner-Routledge
  2. Sunderland M (2016) What Every Parent Needs to Know London: Dorling Kindersley
  3. Entwistle F (2013) Evidence and rationale for the Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative standards
  4. WBTi UK (2016) World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative UK Report 2016
  5. NICE (2006) Postnatal care up to 8 weeks after birth
  6. Unicef UK BFI Support for Parents 

Leadership and collaboration – WBTi actions, Indicator 1

The World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi) is a tool to help countries assess their implementation of key policies and programmes. These are drawn from the WHO Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding, which was adopted by the World Health Assembly, including the UK. The first UK World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative report was published in November 2016 and launched at the Houses of Parliament. Its ten policy and practice indicators address the extent to which there is an infrastructure in a country to support breastfeeding. The process brought together organisations and agencies working in maternal and infant health to monitor progress, identify gaps and generate joint recommendations for action to address those gaps.

What is Indicator 1 about?

Indicator 1 asks if there is a national infant feeding policy, supported by a government programme, with a coordinating mechanism such as a national infant feeding committee and coordinator. The UK assessment found:

key-gaps-and-recommendations

Women have autonomy over their own bodies so decide for themselves how to feed their babies but it can be very hard to carry a specific intention when the environment is unsupportive. It’s similar to the situation faced by someone who wants to avoid becoming overweight in an environment where tempting food is heavily advertised and easily available. A UK mother who wishes to breastfeed is likely to face barriers to achieving her goal throughout her breastfeeding journey.

National leadership

How can the situation be changed? An efficient way that can help to achieve consistency across the country is to have national leadership – a national coordinator with sufficient authority, a representative high level committee and a plan or strategy for change, as described in Indicator 1. Breastfeeding Policy Matters in 2015 highlighted the importance of this and the processes needed [1].

Scotland and Northern Ireland have national leadership in place but England does not. Yet the rhetoric is there. The 2016 government guidance from Public Health England, Health matters: giving every child the best start in life explains why the early years are so crucial [2]. It lists some of the health benefits and states that ‘creating the right environment to promote and support breastfeeding is crucial’. It highlights the importance of good maternal mental health so that the mother can be sensitive to the baby’s emotions and needs, helping the baby to develop secure attachment. Breastfeeding enhances a mother’s mental health while mothers who want to breastfeed but stop before they planned to are at greater risk of postnatal depression [3]. However, instead of increasing the support available to mothers, many support services were cut in 2016 because of reduced funds available. Such preventative services were not seen as a priority.

Freedom to choose how to feed one’s baby is valued in the UK and some people are concerned that mothers might feel pressured to breastfeed if it is encouraged. Ironically, advertising of follow on formula milks that might persuade mothers to switch from breastfeeding seems to cause less concern. Yet thousands of mothers make the often upsetting decision to stop breastfeeding before they wanted to. Where is the focus on these mothers and their suffering? Supporting breastfeeding is not about persuasion but about providing the infrastructure to enable them to continue; since some three quarters of mothers already opt to start breastfeeding, persuasion is irrelevant for them. If more mothers continued as long as they wished to, the proportion starting may well increase as expectant mothers will be less likely to hear negative messages.

Unicef UK’s widely endorsed Call to Action in 2016 included developing a national infant feeding strategy board in each nation [4]. What would a strategic plan encompass? The other WBTi indicators offer key points to include, such as Baby Friendly status being a universal goal, legislation in line with World Health Assembly recommendations, adequate protection for breastfeeding in the workplace, local support that is of high quality and integrated, and health professionals who have adequate training is supporting breastfeeding. If representatives of the four UK nations meet regularly they can also share ideas. Back in 2003 the World Health Organisation produced the Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding, which includes recommendations for national leadership, and this was followed in 2008 by the European Blueprint document [5,6]. Thus there are plenty of ideas available for developing a plan. The challenge is then implementation.

Alongside national leadership by governments, as described above, the breastfeeding support charities, relevant royal colleges and other similar professional bodies, campaigning organisations and interested individuals can both amplify calls for change and help to bring it about by collaborating. The infant feeding coalition meeting in June 2016, reinvigorating the idea of the former Breastfeeding Manifesto Coalition, demonstrated the keenness there is to work together [7]. Unicef UK’s Baby Friendly consultation on developing an inclusive Foundation provides an urgent opportunity to influence this – urgent because the deadline is 31 January 2017 [8].

Please read the consultation document and respond to the survey, thus helping to influence the future.

Also, check out our campaigning guidance for you to contact your MP and discuss issues highlighted in our report [9].

 

References

  1. McFadden A, Kenney-Muir N, Whitford H, Renfrew M (2015) Breastfeeding: Policy Matters London: Save the Children
    http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/resources/online-library/breastfeeding-policy-matters
  2. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-giving-every-child-the-best-start-in-life
  3. Brown A, Rance, Bennett P (2016) ‘Understanding the relationship between breastfeeding and postnatal depression: the role of pain and physical difficulties’ J Adv Nurs. 2016 Feb; 72(2): 273–282 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4738467/
  4. Unicef UK (2016) Call to action for breastfeeding in the UK.
    https://www.unicef.org.uk/babyfriendly/baby-friendly-resources/advocacy/call-to-action/
  5. WHO (2003) Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding.
    http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/global_strategy/en/
  6. European Commission, Directorate Public Health and Risk Assessment (2008) Protection, Promotion and Support of Breastfeeding in Europe: A Blueprint for Action.
    http://www.aeped.es/sites/default/files/6-newblueprintprinter.pdf
  7. Breastfeeding Manifesto The Coalition
    http://www.breastfeedingmanifesto.org.uk/the_coalition.php
  8. Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative (2016) Creating a Baby Friendly Foundation: A Consultation Document
    https://www.unicef.org.uk/babyfriendly/baby-friendly-resources/advocacy/foundation-consultation/
  9. Baby Milk Action (2017) Ask your MP to help enable mothers to breastfeed as long as they wish
    http://www.babymilkaction.org/wbtiuk-mps0117

The first World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative UK report is launched!

commonsThe launch at the House of Commons on 15 November of the first UK-wide World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi) report on infant feeding policies and programmes gave some clues to which “stepping stones” along a family’s feeding journey are missing, where families are struggling to meet their own breastfeeding goals. While most mothers in the UK (around 80%) do set out to breastfeed, breastfeeding rates plummet within weeks until fewer than 1% of babies in the UK are exclusively breastfed at 6 months.

MPs from across the political spectrum attended the parliamentary launch, hosted by Alison Thewliss MP, along with guests from Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative (who provided a screening of their new short video on their Call to Action) health professional bodies, voluntary organisations, breastfeeding experts and academic researchers. Nearly 20 organisations were involved in developing the report’s recommendations for action.

These recommendations cover the family’s whole feeding journey, and range from the fundamental importance of full Unicef UK Baby Friendly accreditation of maternity settings, to health professional training and access to skilled breastfeeding support in the community, all the way to maternity protection and the provision of breastfeeding breaks in the workplace.

Dr Amy Brown gave a keynote address demonstrating how the structure of joined up policies and programmes forms essential underpinning to the cultural change that is badly needed in the UK.

Lack of political and national leadership, uneven health professional training, formula milk marketing, poor data collection and patchy community support for mothers were identified as gaps in UK policies and programmes. The degree of variability in the minimum standards of training in infant and young child feeding training among different health professions – even those working most closely with mothers and infants – was surprising.

Eyebrows were also raised at finding that, while there is guidance on the care of zoo and circus animals in case of emergency or disaster, there is no national guidance for the care of mothers and babies in an emergency situation. Formula-fed babies would be at particular risk if access to clean water and electricity were interrupted, and it is vital that national guidance be communicated to all local authorities and emergency responders.

Scotland and Northern Ireland were found to have strong strategies and national leadership in place, but England and Wales fell short.

nicola-blackwood
Alison Thewliss MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Infant Feeding, hands the new WBTi UK Report to Nicola Blackwood MP, the Minister for Public Health

The Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative, however, was singled out as a “world leader” in its commitment to children’s rights and for the excellence of its training programmes, both in hospital settings and in the NICU and community.

The report provides the first broad-based assessment of the UK’s implementation of ten key policies and programmes to support women and babies during their feeding journey. The policies are drawn from the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding, which the UK has endorsed since 2003.

Some of the recommendations from the WBTi Core Group were actions that MPs could lead on, including the full implementation in UK law the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes as well as its full enforcement, and the protection of breaks for breastfeeding or expressing milk for mothers returning to work. Recent studies from Save the Children and WHO have also shown that political will is pivotal in driving forward improvement in key strategies across the board to support infant feeding.

One of the key drivers for the WBTi project in the UK is women’s choices. Although the majority of mothers in the UK want to breastfeed, many of them are struggling. The majority of these mothers wanted to breastfeed for longer but did not get the support they needed to meet their goals. Mothers who stop breastfeeding early due to unresolved problems have double the risk of postnatal depression.

The impact of infant feeding on child and maternal health is well documented, but the impact on the national economy is less well understood. In addition to costing the NHS more than £40 million for five common diseases alone, the long-term impact of the UK’s low breastfeeding rates on cognitive ability, human capital and productivity across the whole population is estimated to cost the economy at least 0.53% of gross national income.

Breastfeeding rates in the UK are lowest in its most-deprived communities, exacerbating health inequalities. Breastfeeding could prove to be a powerful means of combating inequality.

The environmental footprint of formula feeding amounts to nearly 22 kilograms of CO2, and 4700 litres of water, for every kilogram of milk powder produced. [12]

This first WBTi UK report provides a road map for policy makers and commissioners to target gaps in order to provide families with the support they need all the way through their feeding journey.

UN human rights bodies call for global action on breastfeeding

“Breastfeeding is a matter of human rights for both mothers and children,” say United Nations experts in an unprecedented joint statement today. Gaps identified by the UN mirror many of the gaps identified in the recently published World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi) report on the state of breastfeeding in the UK, specifically:

  • Gaps in knowledge and skills among healthcare providers (WBTi Indicator 5)
  • Lack of access to accurate information or support (WBTi Indicators 6 and 7)
  • Family, community, and cultural practices and traditions that are not necessarily pro-breastfeeding (WBTi Indicator 7)
  • Limited or non-existent maternity protection in the workplace (WBTi Indicator 4)
  • Misleading marketing of breastmilk substitutes, and the lack of corporate accountability for the adverse consequences of such marketing practices (WBTi Indicator 3)
  • In cases where a woman cannot breastfeed or is not willing to do so, even after having been duly informed about the benefits of breastfeeding, access to good quality breast milk substitutes should be regulated and affordable, without condemnation or judgment (WBTi Indicators 3, 5, 7)
  • Investments to support breastfeeding are often marginal and far from adequate (WBTi Indicator 1)

Previous UN recommendations specific to the UK also included the recommendation to systematically collect data on infant and children’s food and diet (WBTi Indicator 10).

Human rights, and the UK’s obligations under the Convention of the Rights of the Child, underpin the WBTi UK Report, which states: “The mother and the baby are a dyad, and they have rights as a dyad; [neither trumps the other]. Each has explicit rights; both mother and baby require protection and support to make successful breastfeeding a reality.”

UN Special Rapporteurs on the Right to Food, Right to Health, the Working Group on Discrimination against Women in law and in practice, and the Committee on the Rights of the Child issued the statement through the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights today.