Bottling out

Most women do not breast feed for more than a few weeks and the Unicef baby-friendly initiative, jointly run with the World Health Organisation, aims to increase breast-feeding rates. Hospitals are trying to gain baby-friendly status under the initiative and only three have achieve it so far. One is the Jessop Hospital for Women in Sheffield which has over 3,600 births a year, dealing will all types of births. The idea of breast-feeding is introducing early on and discussions take place over several weeks, backed by antenatal class which emphasizes is the benefits of breast-feeing. In 1996 65% of women were breast feeding and 52% continued to do so after four weeks, with support after discharge.