Infant Feeding workstream overview
The Family Hub and Start for Life Programme in Coventry aimed to improve breastfeeding rates, and support parents in making informed choices about feeding their baby through an enhanced antenatal offer as well as postnatal support.
This initiative provided all families - with an enhanced offer to families from black and minority ethic communities and families experiencing poverty - with crucial information on breastfeeding benefits and the importance of nurturing close, loving relationships.
By analysing health data, the Infant Feeding Team identified lower breastfeeding rates in some communities and designed targeted interventions to increase engagement in partnership with many services, including the MAMTA offer from Foleshill Women’s Training.
The Coventry Way
What made the Coventry approach unique was the extensive community outreach and inclusive service delivery. The team used a combination of multi-agency collaboration, digital engagement, and flexible scheduling to reach families wherever they were - at home, in community venues, online, or in hospitals. Collaborative involvement with MAMTA has enabled a focus to identify the barriers faced by some women and targeted intervention to help those women, leading to an increase in breastfeeding rates and confidence to continue feeding their babies with support. Methods of intervention included text reminders, virtual and in-person sessions, and incentives such as milestone badges and antenatal gift bags. Breast pumps have also been provided to loan from each Family Hub.
Headlines of progress and impact
- Increased engagement - A significant rise in attendance at city-wide level and targeted antenatal sessions.
- Improved breastfeeding rates in communities with historically low rates
- Stronger relationship with midwifery, perinatal mental health teams, Family Hubs, and migrant support organisations
- 61% of Coventry new mothers chose to breast feed their babies
- 100% of attendees said they would feel more confident after attending sessions
- 100% of attendees rated the sessions as either good or very good
- 88% had not previously discussed infant feeding with a professional before attending
- 99% said the sessions had given them more knowledge about breastfeeding