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While breastfeeding rates continue to fall across England, official figures released from Public Health England shows that Tower Hamlets bucks the trend, with 81.6% of new mothers still breastfeeding six weeks after they have given birth.
This is excellent news as medical guidance states that a mother’s breast milk protects her baby from infections and provides essential minerals and vitamins too. There are numerous additional benefits of breastfeeding as highlighted on the NHS Choices website.
Breastfeeding support and guidance is a key part of the universal offer of the GP Care Group’s Health Visiting service. Core contacts and assessments are offered to babies and young children within 14 days of birth, 6-8 weeks, 3-4 months and beyond.
These latest results, in the climate of overall falling rates of breastfeeding, is excellent news indeed. It means more than eight in 10 children in the London borough of Tower Hamlets are still breastfed after six weeks.
Jenny Gilmour, Clinical Director of Integrated 0-19 Services Health Visiting & School Health and Wellbeing at Tower Hamlets GP Care Group, said: “This great result was achieved though working in partnership with women, their babies and partners across our Health Visiting and Midwifery services. Everyone works together to deliver Baby Friendly Accredited services by promoting the benefits of breastfeeding to mums and supports them by providing infant feeding services both in hospital and in the community as well as in GP practices and children’s centres. Congratulations to everyone involved in getting this superb result, especially Tower Hamlet mums and babies.”
READ THE LIST OF WHERE THE MOST BABIES ARE BREASTFED FOR MORE THAN SIX WEEKS
- Tower Hamlets, London (81.6%)
- Lewisham, London (77.2%)
- Kingston upon Thames (76%)
- Brighton and Hove (70.2%)
- Reading (61.8%)
- Wokingham, Berkshire (61.8%)
- Oxfordshire (61%)
- Luton, Bedfordshire (58.9%)
- Leicester (58.4%)
- Herefordshire (58.10%)
Source: Public Health England