NEW mums in Brentwood are giving up on breast feeding because support networks are not being promoted.
An Essex County Council health report has revealed that the town has the equal lowest level of breast feeding in Essex, along with Basildon.
The report explains how breast feeding can reduce obesity in later life and protect babies from infections, as well as improve the bond between mother and child.
According to a breast feeding peer supporter, women are deciding to bottle feed their babies due to a lack of ongoing guidance from health visitors.
Sonia Hearne is a nursery nurse at Larchwood Gardens Children's Centre, in Sawyers Hall Lane, where she offers support to mothers at the Breast Friends Cafe.
She believes that if all health visitors promoted services like hers, the figures would read differently.
She said: "New mums come out of hospital having been encouraged to breast feed. But, between six and eight weeks, they struggle and decide to bottle feed as they don't see a way forward.
"I think where the system is falling down is that not all health visitors point mums in the direction of resources like the breastfeeding cafe.
"We always have two trained supporters, but we often see women providing the moral support to each other which inspires them to continue.
"Those first six weeks are crucial and if mums don't get the support they need, they may think breast feeding is too difficult. If they come to a group like ours, they see there is light at the end of the tunnel."
Mum-of-two Havva Buckles, 30, from Ingrave, said it was her breast milk that helped her daughter Kayra, now 10 months old, fight off chicken pox brought home by Yasmin, two.
She said: "Breast milk is better for the baby. But having children does take its toll on you. I think some women give up if only to keep hold of their sanity.
"I think there is enough information around. But what would be nice is for there to be stickers or notices advertising breast feeding-friendly shops and cafes."
Leh Cecil, of The Coverts, Brentwood, was on the verge of giving up breast feeding when her baby David was six weeks old.
She said: "I didn't feel like the baby was feeding properly or putting on the right weight, which was making me anxious. My friends were telling me to put him on to formula. I was told about the Breast Friends Cafe through my antenatal group. Sonia advised me I was holding David at the wrong angle which may have meant he was getting neckache.
"I would have given up if it hadn't been for the group."
