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 Welcome to our new community website. We'd love you to join in: click on the sun in the sky to start : )
Every parent wishes for a happy, healthy baby. But even in the UK, babies born to younger and poorer parents are disproportionately prone to being born premature, suffering serious illness, still-births and death in early infancy. Put simply, there is a large health gap between the top and bottom of the social scale - a gap that leads to preventable illnesses, impaired development, avoidable suffering and devastating unnecessary bereavements. Best Beginnings is a charity set up to break down these inequalities and give every child born in the UK the best start. We are committed to making a difference but we need your help. This site is for you, whether you are already a parent, expecting a child, at school or a health worker. Perhaps you work in the media or creative industry and want to help, or would like to help us raise money. We have already made a difference and to find out about our exciting projects, read more. |
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from bump to breastfeeding: DVD |
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 The health benefits of breastfeeding to mother and child are huge. A breastfed baby is 5 times less likely to end up in hospital with gastroenteritis than a formula fed baby. The main reason that women stop breastfeeding early is because they lack information and support. That's also why younger mothers from poorer backgrounds are less than half as likely to start breastfeeding than older mothers.
Production is now complete on our groundbreaking breastfeeding DVD titled "From Bump to Breastfeeding: following real mothers' stories to find out how", which will be launched in September 2008. The films are being made in collaboration with the Department of Health (DoH) and many key professional and charitable organisations including UNICEF. They are produced and directed by BAFTA Award-winning filmmaker Jacqui Smith and edited by BAFTA nominated editor Sasha Olswang. The films aim to motivate and enable the next generation of mothers to make a supported choice to breastfeed by providing real-world stories, advice and techniques in a non-didactic and accessible way. The DVDs will be given free to all pregnant women in England, Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland. This is one inspirational example of what can be achieved when the funding is in place. Huge thanks to the Tedworth Charitable Trust, the Department of Health, the Welsh Assembly, NHS Scotland and the Northern Ireland Health Promotion Agency for making this crucial project a reality. Health professionals will be able to order the DVD through the NHS Prolog system from late August. The English version has the additional languages Urdu, Bengali, Polish and Somali, as well as English subtitles and British Sign Language. There is also a dual Welsh/English version, also with the above languages (except BSL). Expectant mothers should ask their midwife for the DVD. 
Watch the film trailer:
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Read more...
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 A baby born to younger or poorer parents is more likely to be premature and suffer serious illness. Were you expecting that? Did you know that breastfeeding can help even out health inequalities, yet we have one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in Europe? You wouldn't expect to hear that rickets is on the rise as a childhood disease in the UK. And more families than you'd expect endure the devastation of a preventable still birth.
With your help we can increase breastfeeding rates in younger and poorer families and reduce the risk of serious infections, obesity, diabetes, and life-threatening disorders. Put simply, there is a large health gap between the top and bottom of the social scale - a gap that leads to preventable illnesses,  impaired development, avoidable suffering and devastating unnecessary bereavements. The World Health Organization says that the single most effective way of closing this gap is by increasing breastfeeding rates, which is why we have made this our priority for our first three years. To do this we need to raise £1m for our First Steps programme. "Breastfeeding is a natural safety net against the worst effects of poverty. If a child survives the first month of life, the most dangerous period of childhood, then for the next 4 months or so, exclusive breastfeeding goes a long way towards cancelling out the health difference between being born into poverty or being born into affluence. It is almost as if breastfeeding takes the infant out of poverty for those few vital months in order to give the child a fairer start in life and compensate for the injustices of the world into which it was born." The late James P Grant, past Executive Director of UNICEF Not only does it lower the risk of childhood obesity and diabetes, it also lowers the risk of life threatening gastrointestinal and respiratory illnesses. It can also help relieve pain for premature babies who may have to endure many intensive care procedures. And it keeps on giving protection - by lowering risk of cardiovascular disease in later life, and helping to prevent babies losing their mother to breast cancer. NICE 2008 states ‘if all UK infants were exclusively breastfed, the number hospitalised each month with diarrhoea would be halved, and… respiratory infection cut by a quarter.' 
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Get Britain Breastfeeding is Born! |
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