As reported in the Guardian,the Lancet points out that UK breastfeeding rates at 12 months are the lowest in the world. Much of the coverage elsewhere focused on the need to promote breastfeeding, but what has largely been ignored is that UK women are choosing to breastfeed but are being failed. 81% of mothers start breastfeeding but the rate soon plummets. The Lancet confirmed that stopping breastfeeding early has significant health consequences in all countries. Mothers understand this but when the baby arrives, or the support isnt there.
Mothers are resentful and mad and many of those who try to support them in the face of cuts and lack of national strategy are mad too. Women must be free to make their own decisions approximately infant feeding,but the breastfeeding crisis in the UK is in fact a crisis of lack of support for those mothers who want to breastfeed.
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Source: theguardian.com