Hospital restricts free formula baby milk for newborns to encourage mothers to breastfeed

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Last updated at 3:29 AM on 2nd June 2011

Breast is best: Mothers in Hull and East Yorkshire who insist on using formula milk will be provided with just one bottle after giving birth

An NHS trust has stopped providing free formula milk for new babies in an attempt to encourage more mothers to breastfeed.

Those who do not will be expected to take their own formula milk to hospital or send out a relative to buy some. Maternity staff will only have access to a ‘small emergency stock’.

Mothers who insist on using formula milk will be provided with just one bottle after giving birth.

The decision by Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust backs up the Government’s ‘breast is best’ campaign which recommends that babies have breast milk for at least six months.

Eight in ten women in England start the natural way, but by six weeks fewer than half are still breastfeeding.

Liz Mason, the Hull Trust’s infant feeding co-ordinator, said babies who are bottle-fed formula milk are at a higher risk of obesity and childhood diabetes.

Despite sustained publicity about the health benefits, the UK has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in Europe, with around 20 per cent of new mothers never making any attempt.

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