Public Health England campaign launches in South West to improve breastfeeding rates

Start4Life has launched a BreastFeeding Friend (BFF) ChatBot to provide day and night support to mums in the South West of England.

Almost three quarters of mothers start breastfeeding (73%) but this drops to 44% at 6-8 weeks 45% of babies in the South West are breastfed after two months.

BFF is accessed through Facebook Messenger and provides personal support for mothers at any time of the day or night to help make breastfeeding a better experience.

BFF will also dispel any breastfeeding myths and help alleviate concerns mums from South West have. The bot works as a live chat tool which is able to respond to questions about breastfeeding posed by the user.

Almost three-quarters of women start breastfeeding when their child is born, but this drops to 44% after two months. However, evidence shows the right support helps mums to breastfeed for longer. PHE recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months.

A new survey of 500 mothers of young children commissioned by PHE showed that more than half were concerned that breastfeeding could mean they wouldn't be able to tell if their baby was getting too much or not enough milk.

A similar proportion of mums surveyed thought that people might assume they need a special diet to breastfeed. Nearly 3 in 10 worried that breastfeeding could mean their baby might not be getting the right nutrients, indicating why mothers may stop breastfeeding at this early point.

Breastfeeding boosts a baby’s ability to fight illness and infection. Babies who are not breastfed are more likely to get diarrhoea and respiratory infections. It also lowers a mother’s risk of ovarian and breast cancer, and also burns around 500 calories a day.

South West regional table: this table shows the number of infants breastfed at 6-8 weeks by local authority area from the latest quarter (July-Sept 2016).