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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Kerry Brennan-ToveyORCiD, Dr Simon BarrettORCiD, Dr Louise HayesORCiD, Dr Malcolm MoffatORCiD, Dr Gina NguyenORCiD, Professor Judith RankinORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Copyright: © 2026 Brennan-Tovey et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. BACKGROUND: Breastfeeding has health benefits for women and infants. Although the WHO recommends that infants are breastfed exclusively for the first six months, exclusive breastfeeding rates remain low in the UK, with many women stopping breastfeeding within six weeks of their infant's birth. Many women face challenges initiating and continuing breastfeeding, including low confidence, limited support and misinformation. Breastfeeding peer support (BPS) services play a vital role in supporting women to continue to breastfeed by connecting new mothers with trained volunteers who offer advice, emotional encouragement and reliable information. METHODS: This study aimed to undertake a formative evaluation of the BPS service in Newcastle upon Tyne from the perspective of those who deliver the services, the wider healthcare team and mothers' experiences of utilising the service. This evaluation used a qualitative design, consisting of one-to-one semi-structured interviews with practitioners, volunteers, healthcare professionals and service users. Recruitment took place between 28th March - 14th May 2025. Recorded interview data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using Braun and Clarke's coding reliability thematic analysis. RESULTS: Twenty-two interviews were conducted (n = 11 practitioners, volunteers and healthcare professionals and n = 11 service users). Analysis identified four themes: mechanisms of the service; support offered by the service; outcomes of the service, and challenges to service delivery. Overall, the BPS was considered a supportive service by participants. CONCLUSIONS: The normalisation of breastfeeding was seen as crucial to the service, while service users described that the emotional support provided helped to increase their confidence in breastfeeding. Challenges were identified for the service, including engaging those aged under 25 years and those for whom English is a second language. These findings will be used to inform the future development of the service.
Author(s): Brennan-Tovey K, Barrett S, Hayes L, Moffat M, Nguyen G, Aquino MRJR, Rankin J
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: PLoS ONE
Year: 2026
Volume: 21
Issue: 7
Online publication date: 27/07/2026
Acceptance date: 02/07/2026
Date deposited: 17/08/2026
ISSN (electronic): 1932-6203
Publisher: Public Library of Science
URL: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0354027
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0354027
Data Access Statement: The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to the sensitivity of the topics discussed within the data. Participants did not consent to their anonymised data being stored on a public database (as approved by Newcastle University Faculty of Medical Sciences Ethics Committee [55859/2023] on 7th February 2025). However, data are available upon reasonable request and with appropriate data sharing agreements in place from maternalandchildhealth@newcastle.ac.uk.
PubMed id: 42507667
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