This information has been taken from the Infant Feeding Survey 2000 and can be found at http://www.doh.gov.uk/infantfeeding/publications.htm
The proportion of mothers who begin breastfeeding has been increasing since 1990. In the United Kingdom as a whole, in 2000, 69% of mothers started breastfeeding, even if only briefly. This was an increase from 66% in 1995 and 62% in 1990. The figures in England and Wales (71%) were slightly higher than those in Scotland (63%) and Northern Ireland (54%). This increase can, in part, be explained by the fact that mothers tend to be older and better educated than previously but this factor does not account for the whole increase in Scotland or Northern Ireland.
First-time mothers are more likely to begin breastfeeding their child than mothers of subsequent babies (74% vs 65%). However, between 1995 and 2000 there was an increase in the proportion of mothers who began breastfeeding after not breastfeeding their first child (from 18% to 26%) or after stopping breastfeeding before 6 weeks (from 59% to 68%).
Mothers in social class I are more likely to breastfeed than those in social class V (91% vs 57%); older mothers are more likely to breastfeed than younger mothers (78% of mothers aged 30 and over compared to 46% of teenage mothers) and better educated mothers are more likely to breastfeed than less well educated mothers (88% of mothers educated to age 19 or more compared to 54% of mothers educated to age16 or less).
