The Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) has raised its own concerns about the “extremely low rates” of breastfeeding, especially as the government cancelled the National Infant Feeding Survey (IFS) in 2015. In addition, experimental statistics from Public Health England for January to March 2016 showed that the aggregate breastfeeding rate after six to eight weeks is only 43.7 per cent and varies across the country. This compares to a figure of 47 per cent in the last IFS of 2010, although 34 per cent of babies continue to receive some breast milk at six months.²

Public Health England wants breastfeeding to be “seen as normal and supported by everyone – in our public services and in the home, out and about, and when returning to work.”³ Put more starkly, the message is: “Government advice is to breastfeed exclusively for six months and to start introducing solids from six months onwards.”⁴