4. Will the Welsh Government provide an update on the all-Wales breastfeeding plan? OQ61390

Public Health Wales is delivering the all-Wales breastfeeding action plan, and the plan is reaching key targets, including a continued increase in breastfeeding rates. The strategic leads are working with other UK nations and health boards across Wales to share best practice and identify key data measurement points for future benchmarking.

Thank you for that response. Constituents in the Vale of Glamorgan who currently receive breastfeeding support services are very concerned to hear that the health board intends to close one breastfeeding support group and withdraw specialist health visitor support from another group, meaning that anyone who needs specialist breastfeeding support will need to ask for a referral to an appointment-only system, which will be available in Llanedeyrn, or through a home visit.

The expectation now is that mothers will have to travel from the Vale of Glamorgan to Cardiff with young babies, and perhaps older siblings too. This isn't practical for people who don't drive or who, of course, aren't allowed to drive having gone through an operation during childbirth. I have written to the health board and am awaiting their response. But I heard of one mother who had taken advantage of specialist support in a group environment, and she'd not only been supported with feeding, but also emotionally supported. Getting expert advice at home wouldn't lead to this kind of support.

You will know that Wales has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the UK, and the UK has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world, so this kind of support is essential. Can the Minister address this issue with Cardiff and Vale health board and provide an assurance that parents everywhere in South Wales Central will be able to receive specialist help in a timely manner and in a supportive environment?

Diolch yn fawr. I am aware that there have been changes to the breastfeeding support group provision in Cardiff and Vale. Now, officials are assured that the alternative arrangements meet the needs of women and family. I'm really pleased to note the upward trend of babies in Wales being breastfed at 10 days and six weeks during 2022 and continuing through all the quarters of 2023. In fact, Cardiff has one of the highest rates of breastfeeding within Wales, but, obviously, we're very keen to increase that. At birth, the breastfeeding rate for Wales is 65 per cent. That's the second highest on record, and at 10 weeks, we can see that it was 56 per cent—sorry, 10 days, 56 per cent. That's the highest on record again. Just under a third of Welsh babies are breastfed at six months. I'm really keen for this to go up, to continue to go up and up and up, but we are absolutely on the right track in relation to breastfeeding.

There's some work to be done here. Sticking with Cardiff and the Vale, a woman who recently gave birth at the Heath hospital reports that her pre and postpartum care was fantastic, but there was a real lack of support for breastfeeding; she describes it as woeful. The staff simply plonked the baby on her chest without any support to get the baby to latch on, and it was only when they managed to track down the specialist Seren breastfeeding team that she got the support she needed, otherwise, she said, she would have simply resorted to the bottle. She said that the Seren team had been asked not to visit patients on the wards. This clearly is something that needs to be picked up with the health board, but it does raise concern about the implementation of our breastfeeding policy, because women need consistent and effective breastfeeding advice from the whole of the team offering maternity care, not just the infant feeding lead. Otherwise, I fear that many new and expectant mums who are keen to give their babies the best start in life are not getting that help that they need in establishing breastfeeding. So, what audit has been done of the consistency and effectiveness of breastfeeding support in hospital maternity units and in the community?

Thanks very much, Jenny. You'll know that we've got an all-Wales breastfeeding action plan. It's important that health boards stick to that action plan, and I will make some enquiries, following this question, just to make sure that there is consistency in terms of delivery—very disappointed to hear about the experiences of these new parents, and, if you can give me the details, I'll see if my officials can look into that. But I was very pleased, because I quizzed him this week, with the experience of Jack Sargeant and his family in terms of the care he had in the Heath and he said that it was absolutely exemplary. So, it is that inconsistency, you're quite right, that we need to make sure that we iron out.