Watch Bump to Breastfeeding videos here

Our From Bump to Breastfeeding videos are available to watch in our Baby Buddy app, in the web version of Baby Buddy and on our YouTube channel. 

Background

The health benefits of breastfeeding are overwhelmingly clear, but many parents don’t get the practical encouragement they need to start breastfeeding or to continue as long as they wish. 90% of women who stop before six months regret doing so, and many stop only through lack of information and support.

From Bump to Breastfeeding, launched in 2008, is a highly effective intervention that can be a key resource in helping achieve against national clinical and public health outcomes. It uses real mothers’ stories to show parents how to start breastfeeding and provides practical answers to common challenge. It has been designed to motivate and empower mothers to choose to breastfeed. 

This valuable resource, developed with extensive user-participation and in collaboration with significant experts on breastfeeding, is endorsed by 23 organisations including UNICEF BFI, the national breastfeeding support charities and five Royal Colleges. The content reinforces evidence-based practice and complements practitioners’ work, often helping to start those challenging conversations around infant feeding.

Response

The DVD has been distributed to more than 2 million mums, and the films are included in our Baby Buddy app.

99% of women who watched the DVD antenatally said they found it useful and watching the DVD was associated with an increase in breastfeeding rates at 6 weeks. The DVD is used to educate student midwives and doctors in best-practice breastfeeding and continues to be an integral part of the UNICEF BFI training programmes. 

“I watched the entire film, and the extra bits too, I found all of it to be extremely useful and I WILL be storing it somewhere safe so I can go back to it in sometime next month should I need some more help! I like the tips on positioning and latching on, very useful.” 

-pregnant woman

“The young girl has said she had never considered breastfeeding as an option but since watching the DVD she realises that even "ordinary" people can do it and she wants to learn more before her baby arrives. WOW!”

-healthcare professional

Independent evaluation of From Bump to Breastfeeding

From 2008 to 2010, researchers at the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health within the School of Health and Social Care at Bournemouth University undertook an independent evaluation to establish whether the ‘From Bump to Breastfeeding’ DVD has an impact in promoting and supporting breastfeeding, especially in younger women from lower socio-economic groups. The study had a three-phase design, took place across 12 NHS Trusts and involved over 800 women.

Some top-line findings from the evaluation:

• watching the DVD was associated with increased breastfeeding rates at 6 weeks.
• 71% of all women who were given the DVD watched it – this figure was 81% amongst women who left school with no qualifications indicating that the resource was acceptable to its primary audience.
• 89% of women who watched the DVD did so with their partner
• of women who watched the DVD before their baby was born: 
  • 99% found it useful
  • 84% found it covered everything they needed to know about breastfeeding
• midwives valued the DVD as a teaching resource
• even young women who were not breastfeeding could appreciate the value of watching the DVD

Whilst the DVD has been shown to successfully inform women, improve attitudes and breastfeeding rates and support midwives in their role, the evaluation has also concluded that more needs to be done and done earlier to change attitudes toward breastfeeding. Best Beginnings is planning to develop a school toolkit to build on these recommendations.

The evaluation also found that across the 12 hospital trusts who took part in the evaluation only 38% of women received their DVD from a midwife. The researchers recommend that to maximise the effectiveness of the DVD resource a more formal strategy be put in place nationally to ensure that the DVD is given to mothers by a midwife at the most appropriate times. We are very pleased that with the introduction of the new care pathways this strategy is in place.

Read the Executive summary.

Read the Full report.

North of England Breastfeeding Impact Study

We are currently carrying out, with the University of Central Lancashire, the North of England Breastfeeding Impact Study, which involves embedding Best Beginnings' resources across three regions (Cheshire West and Chester, Leeds and South Tees). We have 108 Resource Leaders recruited to train approximately 1,400 staff. The total number of new births per year across all three sites is approx. 17,500, which should therefore be the minimum number of clients introduced to the resources annually once all three sites are embedded.  

From Bump to Breastfeeding in your area

We have evidence that our resources are having more impact when they are embedded in local care pathways.

If you would like to learn more about embedding Baby Buddy and From Bump to Breastfeeding resources in your area, please click here. You can also buy copies of the From Bump to Breastfeeding DVD, which comes in seven languages, from our online shop. The DVD comes in seven languages: English, Arabic, Urdu, Bengali, Polish, Somali, and British Sign Language. There is also a Welsh version available.

Other Breastfeeding projects by Best Beginnings

Read here about historic Breastfeeding projects and campaigns by Best Beginnings in collaboration with 

• Get Britain Breastfeeding
• The Breastfeeding Manifesto Coalition