Mother’s milk may be best when it comes to infant feeding but less than half of UK mothers breastfeed their babies after the age of six weeks. University of Huddersfield researcher Dr Abigail Locke wants to find out why this is. Hilarie Stelfox reports

THE Breast is Best message promoted to new mothers in the last few years certainly seems to have reaped positive results.

Latest figures show that nearly 80% of women in the UK begin to breastfeed their baby immediately after birth – up from 70% in 2000 – and the highest number in several decades, although still lagging behind most other European countries.

However, by the time an infant is six weeks old less than half of them are still being given mother’s milk and by the age of six months only one quarter.

Dr Abigail Locke, Reader in the Division of Psychology and Counselling at the University of Huddersfield, is now doing research to try to find out why.

She wants to discover what is happening during these crucial early weeks of a child’s life and why mothers abandon breastfeeding.

As a mother of two young daughters, Dr Locke has first hand experience of the difficulties faced by new mothers. Like the majority of women, she decided that she wanted to breastfeed.

“More than 60% of mothers-to-be choose how they want to feed their baby before it is born,” she says. “There’s a large proportion who think breastfeeding is going to be fine, then hit problems with it they weren’t expecting and then give up.”

“The thing about breastfeeding is that it is a very emotive subject. A new mum is vulnerable and it’s a big stress if she encounters lots of problems.”

Dr Locke, whose daughters are now six and three, says she was “devastated” by her own inability to breastfeed beyond the first few days.

“I had problems,’’ she said. “My eldest daughter was tongue-tied, which made it difficult and I had a lack of support in the hospital. There definitely wasn’t enough support.”

Back in 2006 Dr Locke collected material for her research by recording women talking at National Childbirth Trust antenatal classes. She noticed that concerns over pain, discomfort and problems they had were not being fully addressed and the classes focussed on the benefits of breastfeeding and the best positioning for success.

“I feel that there is an issue over the teaching of realistic breastfeeding because the teachers want everyone to have a go and don’t want to put women off by talking about the problems,” said Dr Locke.

“We used to have a culture where breastfeeding was the norm and we need to get back to that. It’s just not passed down families from mum to mum any more. It has been said that breastfeeding is being culturally bred out of us.”

Support is, she believes, critical to early success.

“Hospitals now have breastfeeding champions but there just aren’t enough of them and they are not available all the time,’’ she said. “In the middle of the night there will be no-one to help a new mum at a critical time. And when women get advice, it needs to be consistent.

“It’s all a question of how important society views breastfeeding. If it’s important, then the resources need to be there.”

To take her research further, Dr Locke will be speaking to women who have given birth in the last couple of years. She would like to hear from anyone who experienced difficulties and those who managed to overcome problems with breastfeeding. She can be contacted by email at a.locke@hud.ac.uk

WOMEN who have babies in Huddersfield and Calderdale are fortunate in being able to access immediate help with breastfeeding through trained NHS infant feeding advisors.

One of the advisors Marilyn Rogers says Calderdale Royal Hospital’s consultant-led maternity unit, which takes patients from both areas, is part of the UNICEF and World Health Organisation Baby Friendly Initiative. Huddersfield Royal Infirmary is currently awaiting accreditation.

“Only 10% of babies born in the UK are born in Baby Friendly hospitals,” said Marilyn. “It means we have to meet a strict set of criteria. All staff, including midwives, sonographers, consultants, even receptionists, receive training.

“It’s been a huge sea change in how things were done compared to when I had my first baby 30 years ago when babies were taken away from mums for up to 12 hours at night and given supplementary feeds.

“Keeping mums and babies separate for so long meant that by the time a woman left hospital her milk had practically dried up because the milk production wasn’t being stimulated.”

The Baby Friendly Initiative encourages maternity hospitals to implement the 10 Steps to Successful Breastfeeding. These range from encouraging skin-to-skin contact between newborn babies and mothers to helping mothers get positioning correct and not giving dummies or bottles to breastfed babies.

It was launched in the UK in 1994 and Calderdale acquired Baby Friendly status in 2002.

Infant feeding statistics for Calderdale and Huddersfield show that before the initiative only 64% of mums began breastfeeding compared to 80% now. Calderdale now has the highest rates of breastfeeding in the Yorkshire and Humberside region.

Marilyn herself experienced difficulties feeding her first two children. She has four ranging in age from 16 to 30.

“It was particularly difficult with my second child because he had kidney failure and I had to express milk for him,’’ she said. “I knew instinctively that he had to be breast fed but I had to defend my stance. That was in 1983 when breast feeding rates were at their lowest.

“We help women to get off to a good start in hospital because if the first few hours after birth aren’t right then everything else is going to flounder.

“But after that we have two clinics, which we call Baby Cafés, where women can get help in a relaxed environment. One is in Huddersfield and one in Halifax.”

The cafés notch up around 1,800 visits a year with up to 25 women attending each session.

Despite the good take-up of breastfeeding in the area, Marilyn and her colleagues remain concerned by the relatively high drop-out rates after a few weeks.

“The reasons why women stop are usually related to physical problems and insufficient milk supply,” said Marilyn. “The Baby Cafés were set up to try and deal with this. The Halifax café was the first in the north of England.

“In Huddersfield and Halifax we are also training mothers to help each other, to offer peer support. This is a research-based approach. It has been shown that if you have the support of a neighbour or friend who breast fed, you are more likely to be successful yourself.”

Although the ‘breast is best’ message is at the core of the Baby Friendly Initiative, Marilyn says she and her colleagues also offer help to women who are bottle feeding.

The drop-in Baby Cafés, now part of the National Childbirth Trust charity, are at Woodhouse Children’s Centre, Chestnut Street, Huddersfield, every Monday afternoon from 1pm until 3pm, and Baby Ballet, Square Road, Halifax, on Thursdays from 9am until noon.

ART TEACHER Sarah Bloom-Curtin says that without the two Baby Cafés she is not sure she would have continued breastfeeding after leaving hospital.

Her son, Ethan, now eight-weeks-old, was slow to feed and gain weight – a matter of some concern to a first-time mum.

“I had quite a lot of support in hospital, which was really good, but there is no-one in my family who breastfed a baby and I’m the first of my friends to have a baby, so I didn’t feel to really have the help I needed at home,” she said.

“My husband is supportive but there have been some worries about Ethan not putting on enough weight.

“Without the Baby Cafés I’m not sure I would have stuck to my guns.”

Sarah, 30, who teaches at ColneValley High School and lives in Brighouse, visits both the Huddersfield and Halifax cafés to access the professional help from Marilyn and her colleagues.

“I’ve had some problems with him latching on but I’m managing to feed him without giving bottles,” she said.

“You assume that you will just know how to breast feed but it’s not necessarily as easy as it looks.”

Breast milk provides babies with all the nutrients they need for the first six months of life. They are less likely to develop obesity, diabetes or childhood leukaemia. They also gain some protection from ear infections, certain types of gastroenteritis, chest infections, dermatitis and sudden infant death syndrome.

Breastfeeding mothers are less likely to get type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, ovarian cancer and post-natal depression. (Information from NHS Yorkshire and Humber).