Why does breastfeeding matter?

Most Popular Documents

After our experience chatting with MSPs in Holyrood, here are quick links to our most popular documents for easy access!

Constituents looking for community breastfeeding support? We offer online support as well as free, internationally accredited training.

What can you do as an MSP to support breastfeeding?

Breastfeeding is also being maintained for longer. In the 2024/2025 report, 22% of babies at the 13-15 month review were still receiving breastmilk. This is a long way from the 0.1% recorded in the 2010 UK Infant Feeding Survey but yet far shorter than the 2 years and beyond as recommended by the WHO and the Scottish Government.

Baby Friendly Initiative

Scotland has made great effort and has had success qualifying all hospitals in UNICEF’s Baby Friendly Initiative. This has been shown to improve breastfeeding rates. The government must sustain momentum and maintain this certification across all maternity, community, health visitor and university services.

Whilst it’s encouraging to note that inequalities in breastfeeding rates in the most deprived areas are improving, and rates in younger mothers increasing, it will take more than a generation to equalise at the current pace assuming increased investment in line with inflation.  Breastfeeding support remains a postcode lottery and with recent government funding changes, it will be important to keep momentum if progress is to be maintained. 

The regular Scottish infant feeding survey doesn’t currently collect data on parents’ experiences with breastfeeding. Finding out why someone has stopped breastfeeding – if it was a choice or because there was an issue – would allow for more targeted interventions. 

Yet, even without that specific data, we know breastfeeding support is a low cost intervention. Investing in community-based breastfeeding support doesn’t need to be expensive but can have a large impact. As the World Bank has shown, for every US$1 invested in breastfeeding there is a US$35 return.

Low cost interventions like the peer support LLL Collective provides has been shown to increase exclusive breastfeeding rates by 58%.

In fact this 2024 study from Scotland shows that breastfeeding positively impacts childhood health outcomes and reduces costs for the NHS.

Additional studies include:

• Rollins, Nigel, C., et al., ‘Why Invest, and What it Will Take to Improve Breastfeeding Practices?’, The Lancet, 2016, vol. 387
• Temple Newhook, Julia, et al., ‘Poverty and Breastfeeding: Comparing Determinants of Early Breastfeeding Cessation Incidence in Socioeconomically Marginalized and Privileged Populations in the FiNaL Study’, Health Equity. 2017 Jun 1;1(1):96-102.

The cost of living remains too high for many in Scotland. There are additional cost of living implications of formula feeding for families, as the GP Infant Feeding Network (UK) notes:

“There are financial implications for families who are formula feeding with infant milks varying in cost around £1-4 per day for a typical infant aged 2-3 months. This does not take into account the additional cost of bottles and sterilising equipment. The impact of this may be most felt by low-income families, who in the UK are also less likely to breastfeed.”

Swansea University released a study in August 2026 showing the impact formula costs are having on UK families. Researcher and Professor Amy Brown documents that families are not safely preparing formula, leaving their homes unheated, and introducing less safe foods in response to financial pressures to afford infant formula. 

While some families must formula feed and formula is a lifesaving product, breastfeeding – and providing adequate breastfeeding support – is a tool that can be leveraged in public health to help mitigate some harms. More and more families are mixed-feeding, which is offering both breastmilk and formula milk, which can also reduce the financial burdens on young families.

When the climate crisis is on the agenda, there have been multiple studies showing how breastfeeding interacts with the environment. This is multifactorial; decarbonising infant feeding is an important part of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, protecting breastfeeding when emergency strikes means sustaining the mother and baby dyad.

Additionally, there are multiple risks posed by climate change for babies such as increased disease, displacement, and extreme heat. This document written with Scottish Government leads, explains how it is important to include climate impact as part of the antenatal conversation with parents.  This series funded by Healthcare Without Harm Europe is accessible on the Breastfeeding Network page and includes additional documents for advocating for change in breastfeeding support from a climate change perspective, which is particularly useful for policy makers. This is especially true given that infant feeding isn’t included in emergency preparedness.

We’ve seen evidence in 2026 in Scotland, and across the world, that the climate crisis is starting to hit home. World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative scores nations on their infant feeding policies. While Scotland scores generally an impressive 66.5/100, Scotland gets 0 points for emergency preparedness. The WBTi notes: Scotland has “no coordinated strategy, national planning, or preparedness for IYCFE” (Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies).

For example, the Scottish Government website instructing what to do in emergencies  offers no guidance about infants.  The related Home Emergency Plan checklist for individuals only offers “baby food” and “bottled water”.  Whereas the UK government website is more detailed but no better and offers that if there’s no water to use bottled water but bottled water cannot be used for infants. This is but one example. The Scottish Government needs a review of emergency preparedness with the inclusion of infant and young child feeding.

Additionally, spending the time now to continue to shift the culture of breastfeeding and increasing breastfeeding rates builds in added resilience and emergency preparedness infrastructure – it’s much harder to relactate than it is to maintain a milk supply.

Another important step for MSPs to advocate for is the full implementation of the WHO Code on the Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes. What does the Code do? Here’s a quick fact sheet but it primarily concerns itself with protecting young families from the marketing behaviour of industry.

Returning to the WBTi report card, the UK has not fully implemented the Code in all aspects. The next steps would include restricting marketing on all infant formulas through the age of 36 months (currently stops at 6 months), equipment (bottles and teats), and digital marketing. There also needs to be improvement in monitoring and enforcement – it’s not uncommon to find a local shop violating the limited rules in place now. 

This isn’t an anti-formula stand – formula is often needed in many circumstances! That’s ok! There is more information from First Steps Nutrition on the background of formula and the related industry, and how to protect infants when the costs of formula rises. What the Code is doing is ensuring families have access to the information they need to make informed decisions without the influence of corporate marketing for the benefit of shareholders.

Our mission statement:

La Leche League Collective works across Great Britain to support, encourage, educate and advocate for a better understanding of human milk and the relationship breastfeeding/chestfeeding develops between babies, children and their families.

Our network:

We are a member of LLL’s European Area Network. As a member, we actively engage in knowledge sharing and collaboration throughout Europe, keeping LLL Leaders in Collective up-to-date on policies, best practice and training

Our registration:

La Leche League Collective is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation, SC053899, regulated by the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR).

Photos courtsey of Hayley Fraser Photography. Read about our project together.