Cash help will boost figures for breastfed babies (From This Is Lancashire)

Cash help will boost figures for breastfed babies

NHS Bolton is receiving a share of a £3 million fund to encourage mums to breastfeed their babies.

The Primary Care Trust is one of 32 organisations across the country to be given the boost and will get more than £86,000 from the Department of Health.

The town has been chosen because of low breastfeeding rates — only 27.8 per cent of babies are being breastfed six to eight weeks after birth, against a target of 30.5 per cent.

The money will be spent on a range of initiatives to support mothers, particularly those in deprived areas, to start breastfeeding and to do it for longer.

There are many benefits of breastfeeding for babies, including — over a lifetime — reduced hospital admissions, infections and heart disease, and their mothers reap the same benefits.

But many women do not find breastfeeding easy and need support.

NHS Bolton is welcoming the cash injection to tackle the issue in the borough.

Jan Hutchinson, director of public health, said: “We know that breastfeeding makes a big difference to the health of both mothers and babies.

“And we have struggled to achieve and maintain big improvements in the number of babies who are breastfed.

“This additional boost, alongside all the work we are already doing, should make a big difference.”

Initiatives that will be funded with the money include training staff so they can train others to support breastfeeding mums, developing better systems for collecting information on breastfeeding, which can be used to see what makes a difference, and campaigns to promote breastfeeding.

There will also be a pilot scheme using breastfeeding support workers in the community.

There is already peer support in the community — experienced mothers who help new parents — and an advertising campaign, “Be a Star”, has recently been started which portrays breastfeeding mothers in a glamorous way.

cherry.thomas@ theboltonnews.co.uk