La Leche League of Ireland welcomes recommendations from the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative Report

La Leche League of Ireland welcomes recommendations from the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative Assessment Report

La Leche League of Ireland welcomes the launch of the Assessment Report for Ireland for the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi). This report gives a snapshot of Ireland’s status regarding a set of pre-defined indicators in relation to policies and programmes related to infant and young child feeding. This will provide a benchmark for future assessments to measure progress on actions'.

La Leche League is delighted to have been involved in the consultation and compilation of this Report. The findings indicate that Ireland’s good performance on some policy and programme indicators is not translating into positive scores for indicators relating to infant feeding practices.

“This is a vitally important piece of work, which can be used to track how we are doing, both nationally and internationally, as a society, in supporting those who choose to breastfeed.”  Glenda Raftery Muhametaj, National Co-Coordinator of Leaders for La Leche League of Ireland. 

La Leche League of Ireland welcomes the 10 key recommendations in this report, in particular the recommendation to fully implement the World Health Organisation Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes and its subsequent World Health Assembly Resolutions in legislation, and the recommendation that healthcare professionals encourage those pregnant to attend a local breastfeeding support group before their baby is born. It is also encouraging to see a recommendation to improve the standardisation and delivery of breastfeeding-specific training to all health professionals who may encounter breastfeeding mothers or infants/young children in their clinical practice.

“Breastfeeding is a societal issue and alongside the healthcare system, activities to protect, promote and support breastfeeding must also include the education system, the creation of supportive environments, and the dissemination of positive portrayals of

breastfeeding in the media.” (World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi) Ireland 2023)

La Leche League of Ireland calls on the government to implement the recommendations of this Report in full, so that all of those who choose to breastfeed are supported by society to do so. 

- ENDS- 



Link to full report is here