NORTH Cumbria’s NHS has been praised for its work to provide new mums with the best possible advice on breastfeeding.

Health visitors at the Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust have been awarded UNICEF’s Stage 2 Baby Friendly Initiative accreditation.

This is an evidence-based standard, promoting breastfeeding and safe formula feeding practices.

It comes as staff at the Cumbria Partnership and North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust mark Breastfeeding Celebration Awareness Week with various initiatives to help raise awareness of breastfeeding and the benefits.

Diane Clark and Fiona Sim, infant feeding coordinators, have been leading the implementation of the UNICEF initiative since 2016, achieving the first stage of accreditation the in 2017. Since then, they have helped increase the breastfeeding rates by more than 10 per cent.

Fiona said: “We are delighted to have achieved the second stage of the award. We’ve been working really hard, ensuing our health visiting staff have received the right training to provide the best support to parents and babies to match their needs.

“We’ve also been working with children centres and public health teams in Cumbria to train people to become volunteer breastfeeding peer supporters as well as setting up breastfeeding support groups.”

Diane added: “All the health visiting teams worked incredibly hard to prepare for the assessment, which involved UNICEF assessors visiting Cumbria for two days in April and interviewing a random selection of staff by intensively assessing them on their individual knowledge and skills of breastfeeding.

“Since 2016,the breastfeeding rates in Cumbria have risen from 29 per cent to 40 per cent in 2019 for six to eight-week-old babies, which is something we are really proud of.”