Iona de Wet

Iona de Wet BSc (Hons) MSc RNutr IBCLC is a registered Public Health Nutritionist and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, but works as a Project Manager at the Health Innovation Network. Iona is part of a trio with Iman Hikal and Indira Lopes-Bassols, who are exploring the reconfiguration of breast feeding support within London.

During her work as an Infant Feeding Lead in the NHS, she found breastfeeding families did not have access to specialist care when faced with complex challenges, and most stopped breastfeeding before they wanted to. This prompted her to set up a specialist breastfeeding clinic, to support families to reach their breastfeeding goals. The current national and international recommendations are for infants to breastfeed or receive human milk for six months exclusively until solids are introduced, and then to breastfeed for up to 2 years or more when possible (WHO & UNICEF, 2020). The trio’s overall aim is to move towards this reality and raise the UK’s suboptimal breastfeeding rates.

Iona believes that breastfeeding needs to be seen as a public health responsibility and women’s health equality issue, which positively impacts infants, mothers, and communities, both medically and economically. Breastfeeding ensures an optimal start and a fairer and healthier future for all newborns as it provides passive and active immunity (Hassiotou & Geddes, 2015; Praveen et al., 2015) and diminishes the incidence of respiratory tract infections (Raheem et al., 2017), all crucial during the global COVID-19 pandemic.