Credit where credit’s due
(February 2016) On January 30, 2016, an article was published in the Lancet reporting the conclusions of a review of 28 systematic reviews and meta-analyses of studies related to the outcomes and statistics of breastfeeding. The key findings were remarkable in their significance to both infant’s and women’s health as well as the global state of health and economy. I was particularly interested to see what was said about the UK because in my experience a common defence of a trend away from breastfeeding in high income country is that the risks from formula feeding are not applicable to regions with safe water supply. In practice and when formula milk is made up appropriately this is probably correct however I don’t feel this view adequately addresses the risks of not breastfeeding. I was saddened to read that with rates of less than 1%, the UK has the lowest breastfeeding rates at 12 months in the world. This is just part of the story though. I decided t...