General description

These statistics are derived from the National Community Child Health Database (NCCHD) where data for breastfeeding at birth and for babies turning 10 days, 6 weeks and 6 months is extracted and refers to records where there was any breastfeeding. Data are provided to the Welsh Government by Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW).
The NCCHD was established in 2004 and consists of anonymised records for all children born, resident or treated in Wales and born after 1987. The database brings together data from local Community Child Health System databases which are held by local health boards (LHBs), and its main function is to provide an online record of a child’s health and care from birth to leaving school age. The statistics used in this release are based on the data recorded at birth and shortly after birth.
Full details of every data item available on both the Maternity Indicators dataset and National Community Child Health Database are available through the NHS Wales Data Dictionary: http://www.datadictionary.wales.nhs.uk/#!WordDocuments/datasetstructure20.htm

Data collection and calculation

Data should include all hospital births and some home births; however, due to the way data is recorded, we are unable to distinguish between home and hospital births in some health boards. It does not include any births for Welsh resident mothers who gave birth in England or in any other country outside of Wales.
The NCCHD includes records of all children born in, resident in or receiving services in their relevant local health boards. This means the database contains some information for some children not currently residing in Wales; however, unless otherwise stated, all statistics produced from data sourced from this database is filtered to only include those children born in Wales.
Data on breastfeeding at birth, 10 days, 6 weeks and 6 months refers to the time period in which the activity occurred, rather than when the child was born. The percentages are of the total number of records with stated breastfeeding status. The total number of records for percentage calculations at each point are: the number of women due to give birth for 'Intention to breastfeed'; all live births for 'birth'; and of babies turning the reference age for all other age points.
The NCCHD records both live and stillbirths, however the analysis in the statistical release refers only to live births.

Frequency of publication

Annual

Data reference periods

2014-2024

Users, uses and context

These statistics are used in a variety of ways. Some examples of these are:
• advice to Ministers;
• to inform debate in the Welsh Parliament and beyond;
• to make publicly available data on child health statistics in Wales;
• monitoring service delivery;
• policy development; and
• providing advice on infant feeding choices

The main users are:
• Ministers, policy officials and the Members Research Service;
• local health boards;
• the public;
• the research community;
• students, academics and universities;
• Public Health Wales and other NHS organisations; and
• Breastfeeding support organisations.

Rounding applied

No rounding applied

Revisions information

The NCCHD is a live databases, meaning health boards can amend data for any period. For the statistics in this release, DHCW take data extracts from a single point in time, for the latest calendar year. This means that if data extracts are taken for previous time periods, they may differ to the data which is published as it may have been revised by health boards. Welsh Government will not make revisions to historical data unless errors are discovered.

Title

Breastfeeding by age of baby, type of breastfeeding and health board, 2014-2024

Last update

August 2025 August 2025

Next update

July 2026 (provisional)

Publishing organisation

Welsh Government

Source 1

National Community Child Health Database (NCCHD), Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW)

Contact email

stats.healthinfo@gov.wales

Lowest level of geographical disaggregation

Local health boards

Geographical coverage

Wales

Languages covered

English and Welsh

Data licensing

You may use and re-use this data free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government License - see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence

Weblinks

http://gov.wales/statistics-and-research/births-national-community-child-health-database/?lang=en
https://gov.wales/maternity-and-birth-statistics
https://cwmtaf.wales/welsh-government-announce-decision-on-bridgend-boundary-change/
https://gov.wales/written-statement-health-board-boundary-bridgend-associated-planning

Statistical quality

Breastfeeding data at all points in time are subject to data quality issues as some mothers and babies have incomplete records. Breastfeeding data at 10 days, 6 weeks and 6 months is collected when the children have health visitor and GP appointments through the Healthy Child Wales Programme. If a child does not receive a contact, their breastfeeding data may be missing at that contact point. Not all records on the National Community Child Health Database have complete records for breastfeeding status. The completeness rate decreases with the age of the baby and in 2024, was as follows: 92% at birth; 88% at 10 days; 79% at six weeks; and 78% at 6 months. A completeness table for all data items used in this release from both data sources is available in the quality report (https://www.gov.wales/breastfeeding-data-quality-report).' target='newtab'>https://www.gov.wales/breastfeeding-data-quality-report).
The delivery of this programme was affected by COVID-19 and has resulted in a small increase in missing breastfeeding data in Apr-Jun 2020. The percentage of missing data for the quarter Jul-Sep 2020 is in line with pre-COVID-19 levels.
From 1st April 2019 health service provision for residents of Bridgend local authority moved from Abertawe Bro Morgannwg to Cwm Taf. For more information see the joint statement from Cwm Taf and Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Boards (see weblinks). The health board names have changed with Cwm Taf University Health Board becoming Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board and Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board becoming Swansea Bay University Health Board.
Data for Abertawe Bro Morgannwg and Cwm Taf are available for previous years in this table by selecting the tick boxes in the Area drop-down box.
More detailed information on the sources of data and analyses in this statistical release are provided in the quality report: https://www.gov.wales/breastfeeding-data-quality-report

Keywords

Child health; births; breastfeeding

Name

HLTH5047

Dataset

OData (JSON) https://statswales.gov.wales/Download/File?fileName=HLTH5047.zip

Metadata

OData (JSON) https://statswales.gov.wales/Download/File?fileName=HLTH5047.xml

Dimensions

OData (JSON) https://statswales.gov.wales/Download/File?fileName=HLTH5047_dimensions.csv

Items

OData (JSON) https://statswales.gov.wales/Download/File?fileName=HLTH5047_dimensionitems.csv