Increased breastfeeding rates could save £40m

If the UK could increase its breastfeeding rates, the NHS could see savings of £40 million a year, a leading public health academic has claimed.

Amy Brown, an associate professor in public health at Swansea University, has warned that an increasing percentage of British parents are choosing to feed their children with formula milk, despite the increased risk of gastroenteritis and respiratory illnesses. The illnesses place a burden on health service, she says.

Earlier this year, figures published in the Lancet medical journal revealed that only one in every 200 British children – 0.5 per cent – is breastfed until the age of 12 months. The UK has the lowest rate of breastfeeding in the world partly because, Brown claims, not enough is being done to support new mothers to breastfeed.

Speaking at the British Science Festival, Brown said advice given to mothers to impose a feeding regime whereby babies don’t feed frequently, contributed to why many women felt that they weren’t producing enough milk and abandoned breastfeeding.

She told the Guardian: “One of the key things about breastfeeding is that you have to feed the baby very regularly. That’s easily every two hours.

“We are told by so-called experts that you should get your baby in a feeding routine and your baby should not wake up at nights,” said Brown. “But that is really incompatible for breastfeeding. If you try and feed them less, you make less milk. You need to feed at night to make enough milk.”