20 June 2011

The number of mothers breastfeeding their babies in Tower Hamlets has doubled in the past five years according to new information released today by Barts and The London NHS Trust.

The announcement came as staff at The Royal London prepared to celebrate their annual breastfeeding awareness week with new mothers and babies on the wards.

Joy Hastings, Breastfeeding Project Coordinator and midwife at Barts and the Royal London said research showed that 51.6% of mothers exclusively breastfed their babies in 2010-11 compared to 25.9% of mums in 2005-06.

“In that same period, the number of mums feeding their babies formula milk dropped from 18.8% to 9%,” Ms Hastings said.

“With approximately 4000 births at the Royal London Hospital every year these are very promising figures and prove that our range of initiatives to help new mums breastfeed are working.

“Breastfeeding can be challenging for new mums and at least 2000 mothers require the support of our midwives and breastfeeding support workers every year to help them learn.

“Research consistently shows that breast milk helps a baby’s development in multiple ways so we aim to provide the best care to help mothers breastfeed if that is their choice.”

The Royal London is working towards becoming the first ‘Baby Friendly’ hospital in central London and having already achieved the first two stages of the award hopes to become fully accredited by the end of the year. This official world wide benchmark is awarded by UNICEF and the World Health Organisation to hospitals that show a high standard of care for pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers and babies.

The hospital is also part of the Tower Hamlets wide ‘Breastfeeding Welcome Scheme’ and features quiet rooms and spaces for breastfeeding mums in the antenatal and outpatient areas. All visitors to the hospital that are breastfeeding may use these facilities.

The Breastfeeding Project provides information and support to all Tower Hamlets mothers in hospital and at home.

Local mother Xiaojing Zhang said she was determined to master the task of breastfeeding despite initially struggling to feed her nine day old son.

“I had some trouble to begin with as my son kept falling asleep while he was feeding and he even lost a bit of weight,” Ms Zhang said.

“I’m originally from China where there is a strong tradition of breastfeeding so I was very passionate about feeding my son breast milk from the start.

“The breastfeeding support team from The Royal London were fantastic and showed me exactly what to do and now my son is feeding at regular intervals and regaining weight.”

ENDS