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Why QI?

NHS Lanarkshire breastfeeding rates are among the lowest in the UK. There has been some improvement over time, but there are still barriers. Living in a predominantly bottle-feeding culture makes breastfeeding more difficult. Often the support network around new parents lacks knowledge and confidence in breastfeeding and normal infant behaviour.

Looking critically at how we supported infant feeding as an organisation, we recognised that to really change culture required a whole system approach to creating an environment that is supportive and enabling of normalising breastfeeding. In partnership with Scottish Government and North Lanarkshire Council (NLC), we developed and piloted the Breastfeeding Friendly Scotland (BFS) Local Authority Scheme and were the first to be awarded Gold in February 2024.

Changes Ideas Implemented

North Lanarkshire has implemented a number of changes including:

• Significantly improved employer support through a corporate breastfeeding policy.
• Established nine community breastfeeding champions of mixed gender, working with health colleagues in communities to promote and support breastfeeding.
• NHS breastfeeding awareness training, normalised play environments and embedding breastfeeding in the curriculum that resulted in all early learning establishments achieving the BFS Early Learning Award and over 80% of school establishments achieving the BFS Schools award.
• All new-build facilities have breastfeeding facilities designed in at the planning stage.
• Foster carers and social work staff completed NHS training.
• Libraries, leisure and sport facilities providing warm welcome spaces for breastfeeding.
• Road signage, public buildings and fleet vehicles having BFS signage in place.

What impact has there been?

The biggest impact is demonstrated in our local data where we have seen rises in North Lanarkshire breastfeeding rates, particularly in SIMD 1 and 2 and in mothers under 20.

These rises have not been seen in South Lanarkshire’s data where the NHS support is the same but the whole systems approach isn’t yet fully embedded.

Top Tip

The commitment, leadership and ownership of this has been, and continues to be, outstanding from North Lanarkshire Council.

This work has really demonstrated that a whole system approach leads to culture change and when people work together, great things happen!