There is good and bad news for those people who say breastfeeding is best for babies.
A survey shows that 76% of mothers start out feeding their newborn the natural way - but after six weeks, less than half are doing it and by six months, the numbers have shrunk to less than a quarter.
The NHS information centre says fewer than 1% follow current Government advice by breastfeeding exclusively for the first six months of a child's life.
Meanwhile the proportion of mothers reported to have smoked throughout pregnancy has fallen from 20% to 17%.
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