Essex Partnership University NHS Foundations Trust’s South East Essex Health Visiting team celebrated breastfeeding awareness week with display boards raising awareness of the benefits of breastfeeding, and informing mums of the support available to them.
The Health Visiting teams in Valkyrie Primary Care Centre and Leigh Primary Care Centre put together the displays to publicise where support is available to mothers and to raise awareness across the borough.
Breastfeeding provides a wide range of benefits including strengthening the baby’s immunity, providing nutrition, and helping to develop the bond between mother and baby. Despite this, research has shown that 8 out of 10 of women stop breastfeeding sooner than they would like to, with an average of only 44.4% of mothers still breastfeeding their baby at 6-8 weeks old.
The EPUT health visiting team provide support for mothers who may be struggling with breastfeeding, but wish to continue, and thanks to their hard work over 89% of the women they care for who were breastfeeding at first postnatal contact with the team (10-14 days after birth) are still breastfeeding at 6-8 weeks. This shows that the team are providing excellent support to help these women continue to breastfeed.
In total over 51% of the mothers supported by the team are breastfeeding when their baby is between 6-8 weeks old which is above the national average.