A major study has revealed Britain has the lowest rates of breastfeeding in the world.
According to medical journal The Lancet just one in every 200 children in the UK is breastfed until the age of 12 months.
That rate, just 0.5%, puts us miles behind countries like the US at 27%, Norway at 35% and New Zealand at 44%.
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Breastfeeding rates for the entire first year of a baby’s life in India are a whopping 92%.
The results, from a joint study by the World Health Organisation and Unicef, said child obesity, diabetes and infections could be massively reduced if more mothers breastfed for longer.
As well as health benefits, which include lower risk of cot death, breastfeeding is thought to help create a stronger physical and emotional bond between mother and baby, according to experts.
Breast cancer rates were also reduced in mothers, the findings showed, with breastfeeding also more likely to help women regain their pre-pregnancy figure.
Advice from the NHS suggests mothers should feed their child exclusively breast milk until the baby is at least six months old, and then continue while slowly introducing other food.
According to the Lancet study around 80% of British mothers breastfeed at some point, but only 34% of British children are breastfed until six months, with most mums switching to formula early on.
This compares to 49% in America and 50% in Germany, while in many developing nations the rates of breastfeeding at six months exceed 95%.
The experts who carried out the research said: “In the UK, the milk formula market is the 11th largest in the world and growing, with sales projected to reach $907million (£631million) in 2019.”
It concluded 800,000 children’s lives around the world could be saved each year if breastfeeding rates reached ‘near-universal’ levels, while 20,000 deaths from breast cancer could also be saved.
A separate study by Unicef UK estimated if breastfeeding rates in Britain doubled almost 1,000 breast cancer cases would be averted every year, saving the NHS £21million.
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