I don't think that anyone has commented on this, but this scheme won't cost the NHS £200 per head even if it was rolled out nationally. It probably won't cost them anything.
Instead what they will do, is get big companies to support the scheme out of their own pockets and they probably will do.
Why? Because its great advertising, marketing and way of getting women who are starting a family into their store (and then will perhaps be loyal to that brand) and will probably spend more than their £200 in vouchers in the end. These companies wouldn't support it unless there was a financial benefit to them somewhere in the mix. We should be aware of the commercialism thats going on here and just how much of a golden egg a woman who has just had a baby really is - its not just about the ethics of offering £200 to incentivise something.
The cynic in me, has to think that this is perhaps an idea dreamt up, to win the female vote at no cost. (Whilst potentially getting someone to make a profit of it). Its an attempt to make it look like they are taking steps to address a problem, but the reality is that it fails to even understand what the real issues are. If real thought had been given to the issue, they could have come up with something better than this, and its that level of contempt that massively insulting as much as the patronising offer of money.
As someone else said, this is about getting women to comply and making them prove that they are obeying to health workers. Just throwing this out here, but a woman has a RIGHT not to want to breast feed - this type of pressure is alarming as it in some ways removes that choice. It doesn't matter if breastfeeding is ten thousand times better, using financial incentives and supervision is unethical because it affects the decision you make. To some women it may no longer make breastfeeding a completely free choice. There may be situations where the financial carrot ends up being the stick to beat women with. Don't forget the group that this is targeted at, is perhaps more likely to be one that is more vulnerable for various reasons; including abusive relationships.
And what happens next? A financial incentive to have a smear test?
In addition to this, its women being targeted massively here. Yet, as many pet subjects on Mumsnet testify to, its not just the attitudes of women that are the problem here. Far from it. Women are not somehow 'to blame'. And this is where the whole debate tends to go. They aren't trying hard enough, or they don't care about their baby enough, or they are selfish or more interested in their own looks etc etc.
So where is the education of men and what responsibility do they have here in supporting women to breast feed? Its too easy to say that women who are in the target groups are more likely to be single mothers - we aren't just talking about support they might get from their partners. We are talking about the wider support in society; from partners, fathers, brothers, friends, employers, work colleagues and complete strangers. Its not just a woman's problem and that needs to be tackled here. That means starting education in schools to brake taboos and challenge a whole bunch of negative views about it.
This scheme is nonsense, because regardless of what the outcome of the actual study ends up being, even if its positive it has some pretty nasty assumptions and views about women, their role in society, how they can be blamed and manipulated and forced into something that they might not otherwise have done without some sort of coercion.
Hideous idea. One that those doing the study should be ashamed of supporting.