Oct. 1, 2008 The English healthcare system is failing to
encourage breast feeding and a national strategy to promote
breast feeding is urgently needed, say experts on bmj.com. In
the UK, the women most likely to use formula milk are young,
white and from low socioeconomic backgrounds, and this has
created a major public health and inequalities challenge, write
Professor Mary Renfrew from the University of York and Professor
David Hall from the University of Sheffield. It is well known
that breast feeding improves infant health, and it has been
shown to be the single most important preventive approach to
saving children's lives. In spite of national and international
policy initiatives, 40% of women in the UK who start to breast
feed discontinue by the time their baby is 6 weeks old, and only
20% of infants are exclusively breast fed at six weeks. Yet
evidence has shown that the main reasons cited for discontinuing
breastfeeding could be easily remedied. For example, problems
getting the baby to feed, or women