Ask the UK Government not to abandon mothers and babies

Defend infant feeding support and National Breastfeeding Week from UK Government cuts

The UK Department of Health is planning to scrap its Infant Feeding Coordinator posts and its support for National Breastfeeding Awareness Week.

Please send a message to the Secretary of State for Health asking him to reverse this decision, not least to save taxpayers money at this time of limited budgets.

Many countries have similar posts as part of their commitment to the Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding and the Innocenti Declaration. This work is being stopped in the UK to help cut the country's budget deficit, but will lead to medium and long-term costs to the health service and growth in health inequalities. The National Health Service spends millions of pounds every year treating some of the extra illness amongst formula fed babies (according to NICE, the National Institute of Clinical Excellence).

The Department of Health was not only promoting and supporting breastfeeding; it was working to help mothers who bottle feed. Please go to Baby Milk Action and complete the form that will be forwarded to the Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley.