Carolyn Wilson stands in front of a thank you screen

Carolyn Wilson, ScotGov Unit Head for Maternal and Infant Wellbeing, is back to wrap up with thank yous! What a great day, thanks everyone!

We agree that equity is fundamental! We have a series called Equity in Breastfeeding which elevates the voices of those often left out of the conversation. Check out a subscription on our website. Less than a coffee a month, watchable over a lunch break

Nigel Rollins speaking at the podium with a breastfeeding logo on the screen behind him

Nigel Rollins wraps up today’s conference, noting breastfeeding is a way of showing love and that the conference’s passion is that love, that there’s a serious commitment to breastfeeding in Scotland, and that there is significant momentum. The theme of equity is fundamental

Dorothy-Ann and Michelle role playing the My Plan for Breastfeeding shown on the slide behind them

Dorothy-Ann Timoney and Michelle Cook, both with the NHS, showing the audience what ‘My Breastfeeding Plan’ sounds like

Slide that says Background There are a limited number of studies that consider the impact of a long-term health condition (LTHC) or disabilities on breastfeeding (BF). The results indicated disparities in care leading to lower initiation rates and earlier cessation of BF among this group of women. Aim: • Conduct a survey across Scottish boards with the aim of better understanding the breastfeeding experiences of women with LTHC or Disability in Scotland. • Use the findings to influence practice and improve the breastfeeding outcomes and experiences of this group of women.

Jocelyn Smith from Breast Buddies and Lesleyann Currie from the Scottish Breastfeeding Collaboratice

Jocelyn Smith from Breast Buddies discusses the survey they did with women with long term health conditions and disabilities about their feeding experiences

Tracy notes the benefits from their changes were massive for their families

NHS Lothian Formula milk rationalisation Name: Tracy McGillivray, Strategic Programme Manager slide

Tracy McGillvray at the podium

Tracy McGillivray is a strategic programme manager at NHS Lothian. She discussed the impact of the cost of formula milk for families experiencing financial hardship. NHS Lothian was spending the cost of an infant feeding advisor on formula. They did an impact assessment

Marianne White and Ali Robb speaking at a podium

The Global Challenge: Emergency Preparedness for Infant Feeding UK is unprepared to protect infants duning crises • WBTi review: UK scored 0/10 on emergency infant feeding preparedness • only 4 countries wordwide have adequate natonal strategies Global gaps include: • No national IYCF-E policies or ensis response plans • No funding or trained personnel • Mothers and infants excluded from emergency guidance

A slide noting that emergency notice about what supply saying use bottled water but bottled water can’t be used for infants

Ali Robb and Marianne White from Scottish Breastfeeding Collaborative speaking about how infant feeding is missing from much UK emergency information

Gillian MacMillan from NHS Tayside used the Action 4 Breastfeeding toolkit to increase breastfeeding rates in Arbroath sites.dundee.ac.uk/action-4-bre...

Slide outlining circles that build from direct support, NHS support that deliver support, and outlined by a supportive communities

Emma Williams also shows what universal support looks like in NHS Grampian

Slide showing that support needs to be for all and with scaffolding

Emma Williams from NHS Grampian explains that support needs to be for everyone but also with scaffolding for individuals who need it

Laurie Eyles is a professional advisor for diet and healthy weight at the Scottish government. She says the GLP-1s have provided a solution that people have been looking for.

GLP-1 RAs and pregnancy • FDA - it is unknown if GLP-1 RAs will harm your unborn baby' • Current advice - recommend to stop GLP-1 RAs one (Mounjaro) or two (Ozempic) months prior to conception • Patients should use contraception to prevent unintended pregnancy while taking GLP-1 RAs • NB OCP may be less effective

Current advice is to stop GLP-1s before becoming pregnant. Slowly getting human data in

Rebecca speaking in front of a slide that says Maternal health and weight in the GLP1 era

Rebecca Reynolds is speaking about maternal health and weight in the GLP1 era.

Mary standing in front of her slide that says NHS GGC Maternity Services The key ingredients to supporting women with their feeding choices Dr Mary Ross-Davie Director of Midwifery

Mary Ross-Davie speaks from her experience as director of midwifery in Glasgow. She says that big moment is when society took its role in promoting breastfeeding. They have ambitions to reduce inequality at NHS GCC

Three LLL Collective volunteers stand together at a table with a banner attached to the table

Come say hi to us at Scotland’s National Breastfeeding Conference today!

Our Journey in Infant Feeding A Decade of Collective Progress and Privilege Key Messages: • Working alongside outstanding people: midwives, health visitors, neonatal teams, peer supporters, and families • Infant feeding: everyone's responsibility, not just specialists • Driven by strong leadership, system change, partnerships, and family voices • Centring equity, evidence, and compassion in a diverse, deprived population

Jamie Redfern, Dir of Women and Children, is speaking towards the work they’re doing in Glasgow. He notes that it’s important to relentlessly listen to families. Infant feeding is everyone’s responsibility. It’s pivotal to get it right for families and makes the work rewarding

Mike Burn’s slide in part reads Just under half 44% live in the most deprived 20% of areas And notes Breastfeeding is a leveller -improving outcomes regardless of socio-economic circumstance

Mike Burns, Programme Director Child Poverty and Prevention, says poverty in imposed on the child. Breastfeeding is a leveller

2nd Antenatal contact (~35w gestation) • Home visit or clinic appointment to discuss: • Hand expressing and its value • Practical BF with doll & model breast (inc. settling techniques) • Colostrum harvesting • Issues that could affect exclusive BF • Overcoming BF challenges • Donor Milk and their thoughts about this Antenatal Expressing • When expressing BM can be useful • Provide pump & demonstrate correct use Advised breast pump for postnatal period only

Infant Feeding Advisor Janice Moodie discusses how she supports HIV folks to feed. Some of the conversation is about what’s normal and the option of donor milk. Janice always has her weighted doll and woolly boob too!

Factors associated with increased HIV transmission through breastfeeding • Detectable HIV viral load • Lower maternal CD4 count • Longer BF duration • Mixed feeding (particularly solids) • Breast health issues (e.g. mastitis, nipple bleeding) • Infant mouth or gut infection/inflammation Most important intervention to prevent HIV transmission is ART few data do af transmission risk in high-income settings and from those on lifelong ART

The Safer Triangle means: No virus + healthy breasts/chest+ healthy tummies

Ruth Bland, a consultant paediatrician, discusses breastfeeding and HIV. Also notes that more data is needed. She also notes that BHIVA says there’s a need for support.

Being honest about the challenges -There is still a steep drop-off and by age 6 weeks fewer than 50% of babies are receiving any breastmilk at all. World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative Report UK, 2024

Shereen Fisher says that there’s still work to do! It takes persistence and holding the line on the standard takes commitment and energy

The first baby friendly hospital was in Perth in 1998

A map showing the baby friendly certification across Scotland

A slide with stats showing which parts of Scotland have achieved gold standard

Shereen Fisher shows how deeply imbedded UNICEF baby friendly is in Scotland

Shereen Fisher discussing a slide that says SCOTLAND'S NORTH STAR Every baby has the right to the best possible start in life

Now Shereen Fisher is discussing Scotland’s implementation of UNICEF’s Baby Friendly Initiative. She says that this has been Scotland’s North Star

Lynda Fenton presenting a slide showing breastfeeding progress with improvements across Scotland but highest by percentage for least deprived areas

Lynda Fisher from Public Health Scotland shows the growth in exclusive breastfeeding at 6-8 weeks rate, with least deprived areas improving but with still room to improve

'... they track the percentage of what they call 'share of stomach', that is breast milk, so they are aware of rates of breastfeeding in a country." http://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-020-00597-w

Nigel Rollins also discusses the commercial formula industry, highlighting this quote “... they track the percentage of what they call 'share of stomach', that is breast milk, so they are aware of rates of breastfeeding in a country."

doi.org/10.1186/s129...

A slide showing risk reduction breastfeeding has on childhood obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease

Breastfeeding risk reduction on maternal health for breast and ovarian cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. The red asterisk means that the longer the parent breastfeeds, the lower the risk of getting these cancers or cardiovascular disease

Nigel Rollins also outlined the risk reduction breastfeeding has on obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease for children. AND the risk reduction for breastfeeding parents for ovarian and breast cancers, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes

A photo of Nigel Rollins presenting statistics from the Lancet series

Nigel Rollins points out that breastfeeding remains proportionally as protective no matter where the baby lives

A graph depicting a rise in breastfeeding rates from 2017-2026 presented at the Golden Jubilee Conference Centre Glasgow

Celebrating successful breastfeeding numbers at Scotland’s National Breastfeeding Conference today!

@jessbrownfullermp.bsky.social please let them know which particular areas you would like to hear more about in 2026

That's it from this meeting, thanks for reading to the end!

@jessbrownfullermp.bsky.social: the role of the APPGIFI is to bring members from different parties, work to get infant feeding higher on the agenda relies on building relationships in parliament. She is raising infant feeding wherever she can

Thanks Jess! 🙏