How you can get involved during National Breastfeeding Week and the official launch of the Breastfeeding Manifesto.

This year National Breastfeeding Week falls between 13-19th May and is a great opportunity for you and your friends to get involved in the Breastfeeding Manifesto Campaign and help raise awareness of the Manifesto’s key principles, and objectives.

The Breastfeeding Manifesto is about changing the UK for the long-term. We look forward to a society where:

  • Women feel enabled to initiate and continue breastfeeding for as long as they wish.
  • Parents are supported to make informed choices about feeding their babies.
  • Everyone is aware of the significant benefits of breastfeeding.

Our focus throughout National Breastfeeding Week will be on Government and Parliament – trying to get as many MPs as possible to back the Manifesto and then implement the seven steps we are proposing to raise our unacceptably low levels of breastfeeding. The key to this action is our postcard campaign

Participating in the postcard campaign is easy! All you need to do is print out the postcard from the website, address it, stamp it and mail it! Simple!

Just visit:

to download your copy of the postcard.

We also want you to spread the word… the more supporters who join us shows the weight of public feeling behind the campaign. That’s why our ‘spread the word’ section below lists some ideas for how you can take the campaign to your local community, friends and workplace and also how to contact your local media during National Breastfeeding Week.

You can also help by donating much-needed funds to the campaign. Your donations can help us continue to raise awareness about the benefits of breastfeeding and help us ensure we keep pressure on Government to invest wisely in the network of healthcare professionals, charities and volunteers who are trying to raise levels of breastfeeding in the UK.

We would like to thank Best Beginnings, the founder organisation for the Breastfeeding Manifesto Coalition, for providing the online facility for donations. Go to if you can help, and ensure you select ‘Breastfeeding Manifesto Project’ from the drop-down menu.

SPREAD THE WORD

With your help we can build a national groundswell of support for the Manifesto and ensure change happens. Here are some ideas for how you can spread the word:

  • Ask yourfamily, friends and colleagues to sign up as individual supporters at
  • Ask your contacts to print out a lobby postcard from the website and send it to their MP
  • If you would like to hand out printed versions of the lobby postcards, (at work, at the school gate, or if you are organizing a stall or meeting), to people who would like to send one to their MP, we can send you a batch of Postcards. As we don’t have the funding in place to do this for free, there is a small charge to cover postage[1].
  • Use the form at the back of this document as a petition asking people to sign-up their namein support for breastfeeding. Perhaps bring friends together and hold a street stall to encourage people to sign-up to the Manifesto – giving postcards to people whom you think will get round to sending them in to their MP.
  • Our local spokesperson – you!

During National Breastfeeding Week (NBW) get in touch with your local press and let them know about the Breastfeeding Manifesto and your support for it.

If you would like to get involved in some local campaigning please send an email with your name and postcode to . In the run-up to NBW he’ll contact you with a draft press releaseand contact details for your local newspaper editors so you can forward them our message and spread the word through local coverage.

  • How about holding a coffee morning/afternoon tea or a talk at a rotary club/community centre. You can use our fast facts sheet (below) as a basis for this talk or visit the website for more information.

Finally – if you still have some energy left – how about taking up one of the challenges from our A-Z of fundraising ideas. Events and sponsored challenges that familiesand individuals across the country have already taken-uphelping proved the much needed resources to keep the campaign going…

Art and Craft Fair

Ascot Day

Auction of promises

Barbeque

Bike rides

Book sale

Car boot sale

Coffee morning

Christmas event

Donkey Derby

Dance/disco

Dog walking

Easter Egg hung

Exhibition

Expedition

Egg eating competition

Fete

Fancy Dress

Fashion show

French evening

Garage sale

Garden Party

Guess the…

Head shave

Horse racing

How many…

Ice skating

International evening

Ice sculpture

Jazz evening

Job

Jumble sale

Karaoke

Kayaking

Ladies Night

Lending Library

Lose weight

Mah-Jong evening

Marathon

Monopoly evening

Music event

Name that tune

Nearly new sale

New Years resolution

One-day fast

One-price stall

Open Mike Night

Painting

Parachute jump

Pub crawl

Quiz night

Queen tribute

Raffle

Recipe swap

Relaxathon

Room tidying

Sahara trek

Salsa

Sponsored silence

Talent contest

Teach-the-teachers day

Triathlon

Treasure hunt

Uniform-free day

University challenge

Valentines Day dance

Vampire ball

Vietnam Bike ride

Walks

White water rafting

Wine and Wisdom Evening

Wine tasting

X-factor

X-box championships

Yoga

You’ve been framed

Zorro party

Zany… anything goes…

Please donate all funds you raise by writing a cheque to ‘Best Beginnings’ and send it to Breastfeeding Manifesto Coalition donation,c/o Linstock Communications, 7-11 Moorgate, London, EC2R 6AF. Or donate onlineat

FAST FACTS

  • The World Health Organisation recommends that babies are exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life and that breastfeeding continues alongside family food for two years and beyond. Yet this applies to fewer than 2% of babies in the UK.
  • Nine out of ten women who stop breastfeeding before their baby is six weeks old would like to have breastfed for longer.
  • Every year, more than 300,000 women across the UK are not receiving the support of information they need. If they had access to sufficient information, the majority of them would have continued to breastfeed their babies.
  • In the first six months of life, formula-fed babies tend to be at greater risk to a number of infections and are five times more likely to suffer from gastroenteritis than breastfed children.
  • Breastfeeding mothers have shown to be at lower risk to breast and ovarian cancer.
  • Research has shown that formula-fed children are more likely to develop childhood obesity and diabetes.
  • It’s not just the health of mother and baby we can improve but the health of the nation’s finances too. If all babies were breastfed for at least three months, the reduction in the incidence of gastroenteritis alone would save the NHS in England and Wales over £35m each year.
  • For more information try the NHS breastfeeding site at

Petition form

Please add your support for the Breastfeeding Manifesto below. The person collecting sign-ups will send this form back to: Alison Baum, Breastfeeding Manifesto Coalition (c/o Linstock communications, Basildon House, 7-11 Moorgate, London, EC2R 6AF). Your details will then be added to the 2,000 + names already listed on the Manifesto website.

Full Name / First half of postcode
(To show the geographical of
Support) / Email address / Phone number / Would you like to join the Manifesto’s email list?
If you answer “yes” you will receive e-newsletters updates from time to time. / Are you over 18?
Please answer Yes or No.
(Your voice counts either way, but we need to know)

[1]Please send £2 for 50 postcards, £3 for 100 and £5 for 500 postcards. Please donate using the Best Beginnings online facility at