Yellow Book

The UK has some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world. Only 34% of babies are receiving any breastmilk and only 1% are exclusively breastfed at six months. Many mothers struggle to get off to a good start because of funding cuts to breastfeeding services and a perception that formula milk is as good as human milk - making bottle feeding the norm. There is no culture of long-term breastfeeding because of a lack of public support and national leadership.

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Challenge

What is it?

Yellow Book offers independent, evidence-based advice on both human and formula milk so parents can be well prepared and feel confident that they’re making the best feeding decisions for them.

The main goal of Yellow Book is to help expectant parents go from having no definite plan for how they’re going to feed their baby to helping them come up with a comprehensive, thoroughly researched and evidence-based plan to help them make informed decisions about infant feeding

Who is it for?

Yellow Book is an infant feeding advice and planning service designed for new and expectant parents. It sits alongside existing pre- and postnatal care and is there to answer questions and help expectant parents make informed decisions about how they want to feed their baby.

Why is it needed?

Most expectant parents are so focused on planning for the birth of their baby that they don’t even think about feeding. They assume that breastfeeding will happen naturally and when things don’t go as planned, parents are left to figure out how best to feed their baby without any support when they need it most.

Partners, in particular, feel helpless and excluded from the conversation. More often than not, panicked parents turn to formula when they think that their baby is going hungry. The last-minute, panicked decision about which formula to buy is based solely on brand recognition, not on any prior knowledge about which formula is the right one for their baby.

In the end, a lot of parents feel hugely guilty about giving their babies formula and feel they didn’t try hard enough to breastfeed successfully. Parents feel let down because their Antenatal classes and appointments did nothing to prepare them for the reality of infant feeding and many blame themselves for not doing more research before their babies were born.

How does it help?

Yellow book is a speculative service prototype and if implemented would need to demonstrate measurable impact in the following areas:

An increase in breastfeeding rates
An increase in discussions about breastfeeding during antenatal appointments
An increase in the creation of feeding plans as well as birth plans during pregnancy
Increased engagement with BF advice and information by partners, not just mothers
A drop in formula sales, especially milks that are not “first infant formulas”
Yellow books being brought along to antenatal appointments
Repeat usage of the yellow book companion app

What could the wider benefits of the yellow book service look like?

Organisations would be able to share important info with parents more efficiently
Increased breastfeeding rates would mean less strain on healthcare systems
Parents would have more disposable income
Maternal mental and physical health would improve
Partners would feel empowered to become advocates
It would be much more difficult for formula companies to disseminate false information