This piece in @guardian from the weekend captures how the obsession with breastfeeding rates is out of control:

1/ https://twitter.com/guardian/status/1312751197066063875

A senior health visitor raises alarming concerns that ongoing cuts, combined with the redeployment of health visitors due to the pandemic and lack of face-to-face appointments might pose serious risks to families:

2/

‘In a worse-case scenario, infanticide figures could have increased, while more children and babies will have witnessed domestic violence…’

‘If perinatal mental health problems are not quickly identified it can have serious implications for both mother and baby…’

3/

But,

The Guardian hears this as warnings about breastfeeding rates:

4/

‘Prompting fears that breastfeeding rates will drop to new lows & a generation of babies could face a troubled future, Cheryll Adams, the chief executive of the Institute of Health Visiting, told the Guardian..some health visitors were having to care for thousands of families’
5/

‘lack of support for new mothers also risks exacerbating a long-term decline in breastfeeding rates in the UK, which are already among the lowest in the world...’

This becomes the focus of most of the piece. Adams’ grave warnings are not investigated...

6/

Instead, breastfeeding organisations are interviewed for their thoughts on how the pandemic has affected breastfeeding and what this means for breastfeeding rates…

7/

But, Francesca Entwistle of Baby Friendly is paraphrased as saying ‘there was anecdotal evidence that some mothers had found it easier to breastfeed because of a lack of visitors’

and info from PHE is reported that shows no change to known recorded breastfeeding figures...

?
8/

So, it seems that just the idea that breastfeeding rates *might* be affected by the pandemic is a concern more worthy of investigation than warnings about infanticide, domestic violence, perinatal mental health & babies not being weighed at crucial intervals.

Unbelievable!

9/