Why Breastfeeding Apps Are Failing Mothers
- Gemma Poole
- Aug 4
- 2 min read
Apps can't replace grandmothers.
I keep thinking about this during Breastfeeding Week as investment pours into digital solutions that miss the fundamental point. We're solving the wrong problem with the wrong tools.
The evidence tells a clear story. Research shows no difference in breastfeeding rates between high and low app users. Despite being the most preferred resource at six weeks postpartum, increased app usage doesn't improve outcomes among the women who need support most.
In the UK, only 1% of mothers are still exclusively breastfeeding at six months, despite 81% initiating breastfeeding at birth. This dramatic drop-off highlights the inadequacy of current support systems.
Meanwhile, cultural attitudes have overwhelming influence on breastfeeding practices. Traditional societies show dramatically higher rates than modern ones.
The disconnect is stark.
The UK has some of the lowest breastfeeding rates globally, with significant disparities across communities. Mothers from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds face particular challenges, with support often failing to address cultural needs.
The Real Innovation Opportunity
We've medicalised and commercialised something that thrived for millennia through community knowledge transfer. Apps focus on technical mechanics while ignoring the cultural ecosystem that makes breastfeeding normal, visible, and supported.
True innovation might look like restoration rather than disruption.
Community-based interventions increase early breastfeeding initiation by 86% and exclusive breastfeeding by 20%. These approaches work because they address the whole person within their cultural context.
They create villages, not user interfaces.
The NHS spends approximately £40 million annually on artificial feeding-related illnesses that could be prevented through better breastfeeding support. Yet investment continues to flow towards technological solutions rather than community-based care.
Beyond the Binary
The current framework traps us in success-versus-failure thinking. Position, latch, milk flow become metrics instead of relationships. We've stripped away the generational wisdom, family visibility, and cultural normalisation that historically supported breastfeeding families.
Commercial interests exploit this gap. They've created dependency where community knowledge once flourished.
The solution isn't better apps. It's better communities.
Building Ecosystems of Care
Real transformation happens when we connect women to their heritage, their communities, and multidimensional support systems. This requires collaboration between healthcare professionals, community leaders, and families themselves.
At The Essential Baby Company, we see this daily. The most effective interventions bridge lived experience with clinical expertise. They honour cultural wisdom while addressing modern challenges.
Technology can support this work, but it cannot replace human connection, cultural knowledge, and community care.
The village approach works because breastfeeding was never meant to be a solo journey. It requires collective wisdom, shared experience, and cultural continuity that no single product can provide.
This Breastfeeding Week, let's invest in what actually works. Communities over companies. Relationships over apps. Wisdom over widgets.
The mothers deserve nothing less.
Comments