The Breastfeeding Network
Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board (CTM UHB) has one of the lowest initiation and continuation rates for breastfeeding in the United Kingdom.
Increasing breastfeeding initiation and continuation rates across the local population will likely have a positive impact on childhood and adult obesity rates. The Healthy Weights team are taking a whole systems approach to healthy weight. This requires a shift in the environment and culture across local areas including Merthyr Tydfil, Rhondda Cynon Taf and Bridgend.
Infant feeding is a vital component of our approach to reducing the levels of childhood and adult obesity for our local population within CTM. Over the past two years, the Healthy Weight Team has collaborated with Midwives, Health Visitors, Infant Feeding Coordinators, Local Authorities, and others to develop a comprehensive Infant Feeding Strategy for CTM UHB.
Insights on women’s' experiences and support needs relating to breastfeeding were needed to develop a meaningful strategy for CTM.
The team used an appreciative enquiry approach to understand the experiences of women in the Local Health Board area who have had children, specifically: - What is important to families about feeding their baby? - What has been useful to support infant feeding? - What improvements they families like to see around infant feeding support?
Appreciative enquiry is a narrative based qualitative research tool that is designed to allow the person being interviewed to share knowledge from outside the interviewer's usual sphere of knowledge.
Our conversations took place with mums who lived in CTM on a one-to-one basis where they felt the most comfortable, some conversations were held online or at local coffee shops. Themes within the stories captured spread empathy through clinical services allowing them to innovate and test out approaches which have a stronger opportunity to influence breast feeding rates in CTM. We heard about the importance of good quality information and support in the early hours and days of a baby's life and were able to make a case for funding to increase the availability of this support and information in CTM.
We supported partners to obtain funding based on insights from the women which told us we needed to rebuild the peer supporter networks that had collapsed during the pandemic. We also realised we needed to increase awareness of the National Breastfeeding Helpline within CTM communities and increase the Welsh language offer. The first cohort of peer supporters began training at Mothers Matter in Tonypandy in September 2024 and we expect them to be out and about in their local communities in 2025. The healthy weights team are planning to support the evaluation of this work by capturing further appreciative enquiry stories post helpline and volunteering implementation.
The insights gathered from this piece of work have been instrumental in shaping The CTM UHB Infant Feeding Strategy 2025-2029, which was released in February 2025 and aligns with the Welsh Government All Wales Breastfeeding Five Year Action Plan.
To find out more visit: Aneurin Bevan & Cwm Taf Morgannwg - The Breastfeeding Network