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That is a really important point. I will bring in Carolyn Wilson to provide some more evidence on that, but first I will give you my initial thoughts.

The issue is important. For a long time, since before the pandemic, far too many women have given up breastfeeding not because they wanted to or chose to, but because they were not given support in the early days. We have been working on the issue for a very long time. I hear what the convener says about some women feeling that they were not supported well.

However, the reality is that, during the pandemic, breastfeeding rates went up. It is complex to unpick that; we are still trying hard to understand why that was the case. The most recent infant feeding statistics show that almost two thirds of babies who were born in the 2020-21 financial year were breastfed for at least some time after their birth. That figure is up 1 per cent on the previous year. More than half of those babies were being breastfed when their health visitor first visited, which is between 10 and 14 days after the birth, and 38 per cent were being exclusively breastfed. Those figures show increases of 2 per cent and 1 per cent, respectively, on the previous year.

The proportion of babies aged six to eight weeks who are being breastfed is at its highest since records began. Many people would say that it is still too low, but the figure is up to 45 per cent, and 32 per cent of babies are being exclusively breastfed, which is an increase of 1 per cent on the previous year.

Although I would not dream of dismissing the women’s experiences that the convener mentioned, the data show that we have, at population level, managed to get something right in relation to breastfeeding support during the pandemic. I am not sure whether that was because fathers were often at home or because more support was provided virtually in people’s homes, so people did not have to go out to ask for help. We will unpick the details.

All the improvements have come against the background of a commitment to breastfeeding in Scotland over decades. Carolyn Wilson might be able to set the scene better than I can, but Scotland was the first UK nation to achieve 100 per cent accreditation from the UNICEF UK baby friendly initiative, which was an important landmark in improving breastfeeding rates. The committee will be aware that there are massive cultural factors that influence whether women and families choose to breastfeed and whether they are able to and supported to do so. The UNICEF UK baby friendly initiative gave us strong evidence-based practice with which to improve breastfeeding rates in Scotland.

It is a substantial piece of work. One of the things that I always say is that we have to understand the health inequalities that women have faced; if we think about the reasons behind the women’s health plan, it is about inequalities in wealth, power and income. Added to that, there have been millennia of mythology and fear about women’s bodies, which will not be undone quickly or easily. However, I think that this is a perfect moment in time to make tangible progress, and I am convinced that we can do that.

The convener spoke about research. One thing that is very clear is that evidence shows that women’s heart attacks are underrecognised and that, even when they are recognised, they are undertreated. That is one of the reasons why women’s heart health is a priority. Women are less likely to be put on to the battery of preventative drugs that are routine for men who have heart attacks.

Women’s heart attacks are often referred to as having an atypical presentation. However, the reality is that, for women, it is not an atypical presentation, but a perfectly normal way for women to present with a heart attack. It simply does not look quite like the way that men present. That is absolutely an insight into the situation that we face. It really is a man’s world—the world is built around the way that men present and the treatment that men need.

To be fair, there are some reasons why that might be. I am a pharmacist by profession and so I know that there are questions of ethics around women, particularly child-bearing women, participating in clinical trials of new drugs. However, most health professionals say that, as they went through medical school, the default setting was men’s bodies, men’s presentations and men’s illnesses. Marion Bain might like to reflect on her own experience of that.

You are right that self-screening is being trialled in Dumfries and Galloway. It is initially being targeted at women who are not presenting for screening—that is, those who are not taking up the offer of cervical screening. Uptake is increasing through the use of self-screening.

You highlight one of the big challenges that women have in accessing healthcare. Women might have caring responsibilities that mean that it is impossible for them to go to an appointment, but that is not the whole story on cervical screening. One of the real problems is that the test is invasive. As we know, many people have experienced sexual violence and going for a test of that nature is a barrier that they cannot overcome.

I can see that some women would find self-screening at home helpful. The challenge is that we have not yet had a test validated or recommended by the national body to say that it is appropriate. As soon as that happens, we will have procedures in place to use it, but we are not quite certain of the technology yet. Dumfries and Galloway is just one of the areas in the UK where work is taking place to ensure that the quality of the test is sufficient to use nationally.

That is a great question and one that we mull over all the time, because we are trying to harness those benefits and ensure that they reach those parts of the population that were not able to change their behaviour during the pandemic. Physical activity and sport are central to Scotland’s recovery. I recognise that obesity is a risk factor for severe illness and death relating to Covid, so it is more important than ever that we tackle it.

The link between physical activity and sport and mental wellbeing was already strongly established, but many people have recognised that on a personal level over the course of the pandemic. I cannot be the only one here who found that the opportunity to get outside in the fresh air, connect with nature and say hello to my neighbours, albeit from a 2m distance, was the most precious thing that got me through the pandemic on a daily basis.

Sports clubs have done an astounding job and we recognise how important they are to their communities. Many sports clubs across the length and breadth of Scotland have stepped up during the pandemic by meeting the needs of vulnerable people in the population. Sport has a reach that we as parliamentarians or Government do not have; it reaches people whom we cannot.

We are reflecting on all that. Over the course of the past 18 to 20 months, as you would expect, relationships between the Government and the sporting sector have been strengthened significantly. That is not to say that it has always been easy, but, boy, we have had to work really closely together to rise to the challenges that the pandemic has thrown at us in order to bring back sport, which is something that we love. Those strong relationships will see us through the remaining tough times of the pandemic. They will also help us work together to tackle the broader health of the nation.

As I said, we are pretty keen to do that, and it ties in with action on climate change. I have already had a bilateral meeting with Patrick Harvie, the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights. Increasing activity in relation to transport is part of tackling inequalities, because anyone can walk and you do not need special equipment to do it. Ensuring that we have 20-minute neighbourhoods that are nice to walk in and in which you can access public services and tackling the provision of that infrastructure are important parts of delivering our aims. That will require us to work together and to keep things in focus, but I am absolutely determined that there are opportunities there.

Finally, on the active Scotland delivery plan, we do pretty well in that we buck the international trend and increase our activity levels, which most people would be surprised to hear. Much of that is about active transport, so that is something for us to focus on.

Again, it is impossible to disentangle where we are now from the experience that we have had over the past 20 months. Over the past 20 months, more people than ever before have been dying at home. In some ways, you might consider that to be a positive thing, because if you ask people where they want to die, they largely want to die at home. However, we need to ensure that support systems are in place and that everyone who requires palliative care can access it.

We need to ensure that the offer of palliative care is available to people, whatever condition they are suffering from. There are concerns that palliative care is more focused on conditions such as cancer and is less available for conditions such as heart failure. We need to ensure that palliative care is accessible across the board.

We also need to ensure that palliative care is accessible across our communities. As with every kind of care, there is a health inequality aspect. People from richer areas are more able to access palliative care. That will be a focus for us all.

We need to ingrain palliative care. We need to be having conversations about death and dying, and to be looking at advance directives and advance planning. Those things need to be handled extremely sensitively, and people need to be well informed and supported to make their own decisions. We need to have more conversations about that. A great deal of work is going on, across the board, on palliative care.

What do you mean?

The best thing that you can do is to write to me and explain that particular problem. I am more than happy to find out what the situation is and come back to you. I am not aware of people being unable to access hospice care when they need it, so I want to know the details of that before I give you advice on it.

Again, I will look into that. There is a national system of health alerts. Over the course of my lifetime, television weather forecasters have started to give warnings at times of low air quality, which people with lung conditions pay a great deal of attention to. There is a recognition that that is important for conditions such as asthma—an asthma epidemic in London many years ago prompted that change in practice. The challenge is communicating the information to the people who need to know, but you are right that we have systems in place. People are now significantly more health literate and look after their conditions in a way that they have not done before, so there might be an opportunity to communicate that risk in a different way, rather than broadcasting it on television.

Again, I have already mentioned how important it is for us to tackle that. For example, active transport is a solution to tackling climate change. Getting cars off the road will make spaces more comfortable for people and also reduce particulate pollution, so it is a win-win situation. Investing in active transport infrastructure is a really important priority for this Government.

Recently, I was at a World Health Organization panel event, and I presented with the deputy mayor of Paris, where the authorities have done remarkable work in a very short period. The population density of Paris means that many people live in a small space, so it is difficult for people to have enough space to navigate, and the city also had a significant pollution problem. The pandemic offered the authorities an opportunity to put in place infrastructure that transformed the way that people live, and that approach has been hugely popular.

During the course of the pandemic, there have been some controversies associated with the spaces for people programme in Scotland, and some of the infrastructure—which was put in to make the environment easier for active transport—has been removed. We need to work with communities to find out what works for them, but we absolutely need to increase the level of active transport, because it will tackle climate change and make us healthier—because we will be more physically active—and because we need to reduce the level of particulate pollution that people are exposed to. All three of those targets are incontrovertible.

That is fine.