It appears that there are plans at the Department of Health to abandon important national work to support infant feeding. In an apparent bid to save money, the Government is getting rid of the national and regional Infant Feeding Coordinators. The infant feeding team not only works on activities to support breastfeeding, but has also done valuable work to support families using infant formula, for example through the production of improved independent bottlefeeding information. Whilst there may be immediate savings in cutting this work, the taxpayer will have to foot the bill for the consequences. According to the Office for National Statistics' Infant Feeding Survey from 2005, 90% of mothers who stopped breastfeeding before 6 weeks said that they wanted to breastfeed for longer.
Supporting mothers who want to breastfeed is a win-win: it helps them to feed their baby the way they want to, and saves the NHS money treating ear infections, gastroenteritis and asthma amongst other things.
Help save this vital work by writing to your MP and Andrew Lansley (Secretary of State for Health, Richmond House, 79 Whitehall, London SW1A 2NS).
There is more info [[
info.babymilkaction.org/cem/cemmar11 here]].