MPs join Baby Friendly to support breastfeeding

5 December 2017

Today MPs joined the Baby Friendly team in Parliament to pledge support for our Call to Action campaign on breastfeeding, to support all mothers to breastfeed for as long as they wish.

Our Call to Action campaign asks government to tackle the UK’s low breastfeeding rates and improve the health of children by leading action to remove the barriers – social, cultural, economic, physical and practical – that make it difficult for women to breastfeed in the UK. MPs at the event made a commitment to:

• Champion Unicef UK’s Call to Action campaign in Parliament.
• Support their local health services and communities to become Baby Friendly
• Make their workplace breastfeeding friendly

Alison Thewliss MP, who co-hosted the event, said, “I was really pleased to see interest from a cross-party group of MPs in such an important issue for all babies, their mothers and families. With strong national leadership we can tackle the UK’s low breastfeeding rates and support mothers to breastfeed for as long as they wish.”

A huge thank you to everyone who wrote to their MP asking them to attend the event – almost 2,500 of you took part and 90% of all MPs were contacted. Your support has helped raise awareness of the UK’s low breastfeeding rate as a pressing public health issue, requiring action across healthcare, government and community levels. Below are a selection of photos of MPs making their pledge – if your MP couldn’t attend they can still share a pledge on Twitter so please encourage them to get involved. See the full list of attendees (pdf).