Research and analysis

Breastfeeding at 6 to 8 weeks: comparison of NHS England and OHID data

Comparison of methods used by NHS England and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) to produce indicators for breastfeeding at 6 to 8 weeks after birth.

• From: Office for Health Improvement and Disparities
• Published: 7 September 2023

Applies to England

Documents

Breastfeeding at 6 to 8 weeks: a comparison of methods

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This report compares the outputs and methodologies of the 2 national sources of data for prevalence of breastfeeding at 6 to 8 weeks after birth, for 2020 to 2021.

The analysis includes:

• a comparison of rates of full, partial, any and no breastfeeding from the different sources
• an examination of what data is available to look at disparities in breastfeeding outcomes for different population groups including deprivation, ethnicity and age of mother
• findings to inform the improvement of data collection and reporting

It is intended to help determine if the data from the Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS), which NHS England uses for its publication, is sufficiently established to supersede the indicators produced by OHID.

Published 7 September 2023