Research on workshops that encourage healthy eating in 0 – 3-year-olds
The challenge: Sometimes new mothers need support to help breastfeed, but this can be hard to access.
What we’re doing about it
The Breastfeeding Support Project provides one-to-one support to new mothers living in the Better Start Bradford area. It aims to increase the number of mothers breastfeeding. They do this by helping mothers to breastfeed for as long as they want to.
Support is tailored to mothers’ needs and may be provided by the same support worker. The project aims to contact mothers within 48 hours of leaving hospital. After this, one-to-one support is provided to mothers in their own language (where possible). Support is provided during face-to-face home visits, telephone and video calls; and follows a care plan.
Findings
We assessed the project’s performance between November 2018 and June 2021 and found:
- Almost all of the women who were referred to the project were offered support within 48 hours of leaving hospital
- 650 women received support from the project
- Almost two-thirds of women who received support were new to breastfeeding
- The project provided 2318 telephone calls and 825 face-to-face support contacts
- At the final support contact 45% of women said that they still intended to breastfeed for at least 6 months
- Women were highly satisfied with the support they received
Future Plans
We are currently conducting qualitative research with mothers about their experiences of receiving support from the project to get an in-depth understanding of how to better support new mothers with breastfeeding.
Project summary written by Leanne Jackson
the Better Start Bradford Innovation Hub 