£200 of vouchers for mothers who breastfeed

Vouchers for retail chains Matalan, John Lewis or Mothercare – as well as supermarkets – will be given to 130 new mothers in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire if they feed their babies with breast milk.

Breastfeeding rates remain stubbornly low in parts of the UK, with only a third of babies breastfed at six months and only one in 100 exclusively breastfed at this stage.

In the study led by experts from Sheffield University, mothers will be given vouchers worth up to £120 if their babies receive breast milk until they are six weeks old, and a further £80 if they continue until the babies are six months.

Investigator Clare Relton said: “The UK has one of the worst breastfeeding rates in the world and rates vary very widely across the country. The scheme offers vouchers to mothers who breastfeed as a way of acknowledging the value of breastfeeding to babies, mothers and society, and the effort involved in breastfeeding.”

Mothers and their health visitor or midwife will be asked to sign off to say they are breastfeeding.

But Janet Fyle, of the Royal College of Midwives, said: “The motive for breastfeeding cannot be rooted by offering financial reward. It has to be something that a mother wants to do in the interest of the health and well-being of her child.

“Investing in midwives and improving ante-natal and post-natal care will go a long way to reversing the worryingly low levels of breastfeeding that we are seeing in certain communities.”