Regaining BBF momentum in England

Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly (BBF) activities are regaining momentum in England, according to an update from the BBF process implementation team just published in Maternal & Child Nutrition.

The team points to the government’s commitment to the Early Years Agenda and recent, additional funding for community support of breastfeeding with the ‘Best Start for Life programme for the First 1001 Critical Days’.

“We look forward to a refocus and action on the BBF recommendations for England. It will be an important next step to undertake a further round of the BBF process to evaluate changes and improvements in England since 2019,” they write.

Find their comments and BBF recommendations here in ‘Scaling up breastfeeding in England through the Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly initiative (BBF)’.

Despite being agreed in 2019, six key BBF recommendations to scale up national breastfeeding were stalled by successive, systemic speedbumps: the Brexit agreement and General Election in 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Those recommendations focus heavily on infant feeding data collection and reporting, and strengthened and coordinated leadership, monitoring and oversight.

FLRF is a proud joint supporter of this work, via a grant to the Yale School of Public Health. Are you interested in keeping current on this and other news? Sign up for our newsletter!