Follow up to a presentation given at the International Children and Childhoods Conference held at University Campus Suffolk, 14th-15th July, 2015.The latest UK parental leave reform introduced by the Children and Families Act 2014 could have an unintended impact on breastfeeding outcomes. The revised provision of up to 50 weeks shared leave was introduced in April 2015, with a view to encouraging parents to share infant care responsibilities more equally. This paper explores issues with definitions, policy shifts leading to the incremental change in entitlement and the potential for cascading policy failure