The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has announced that following an extensive period of development the Infant Feeding Survey 2023 (IFS) for England will begin in mid-October.

This will be the first IFS since the survey was last conducted in 2010 and will provide valuable information on infant feeding behaviours and related factors including:

• internationally comparable data on prevalence and duration of breastfeeding
• the use of foods and drinks other than breastmilk in infancy
• infant feeding help and information received by mothers
• information about bottle and breast feeding in public places
• parental leave, return to work, working hours and facilities provided for expressing and storing breastmilk, or breastfeeding at work

DHSC are sharing information  to raise awareness among potential survey participants. This includes the placement of posters in maternity units and postnatal settings and posts on social media channels. Through these channels, people will be directed to the IFS website where they can find further information on the IFS and opt out from taking part, if required.  DHSC  want to ensure that health professionals and volunteers working with new mothers are aware of the survey.

We have been asked to share the OHID Twitter and DHSC Facebook posts and are asked to  like, retweet and share these and so get information about the survey to as many people as possible.