Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to (a) encourage breastfeeding and (b) support mothers who choose to breastfeed.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to raising the healthiest generation of children ever and giving every child the best start in life. We know breastfeeding has significant health benefits for babies and for their mothers.
Through the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme, we are investing £18.5 million in 2025/26 to improve infant feeding support across 75 local authorities in England. We have also extended and expanded the National Breastfeeding Helpline so that more families across the United Kingdom can access breastfeeding support 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
The child health workforce is central to how we provide infant feeding support. We have committed to strengthening health visiting services so that all families can access joined-up, high quality services. We have also committed to training thousands more midwives to better support women throughout their pregnancy and beyond. By April 2025, the number of full-time equivalents had increased by 1,330 compared to April 2024.