Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Breastfeeding training urged Breastfeeding training urged

Helen Carter
Thursday November 14, 2002
The Guardian

Unicef is today calling for better training of midwives and health visitors to support breastfeeding mothers.

It has produced a set of guidelines after it discovered that many newly qualified health professionals lacked knowledge and skills to help with breastfeeding. The programme was launched at the annual conference of the UN children's fund in Harrogate. Andrew Radford, Unicef's programme director, said that the lack of a reliable and consistent standard of breastfeeding education in Britain had undermined mothers' chances of feeding their babies successfully.