“BREASTFEEDING quite literally saves lives, thousands of lives” – those were the words of a passionate Basingstoke mum who was given a standing ovation at a county council meeting after she made a desperate plea to save a vital service from closing.

Lindsey Lawman spoke to councillors at an ordinary meeting held at Hampshire County Council’s offices in Winchester last Thursday, and explained why the Breastfeeding Counselling drop-in service that runs in North Hampshire is so important.

The not-for-profit organisation, which runs drop-in sessions in Basingstoke, Tadley, Kingsclere, Overton, Whitchurch and Andover is set to run out of funding by March, and will close if further funding is not secured.

Mrs Lawman, 35, benefited from the service following the birth of her son Patrick a year ago.

She told the council about the benefits of breastfeeding to mothers and babies.

A second grant for the drop-in sessions came to an end last year, and 100 women wrote to public health petitioning for funding.

The council offered a grant of £27,000 last year to fund the sessions for eight months, on the basis that the public health team look at developing a sustainable model of support for breastfeeding women.

But this money is set to run out, and the group now needs £40,000 a year to keep going.

Mrs Lawman said: “We now face a funding precipice. There are no reserves, private backing or volunteers able to make this service work. Unless I can assure you today of the social, financial and health benefits of the breastfeeding drop-ins, they will close.

“It fills me with dread to consider future mothers being deprived of this vital service. And it crushes me to think of all the babies who will go without if the funding stops.

“When my son was a newborn, I gritted my teeth and counted down the days until I would allow myself to give up breastfeeding at six weeks. I hated it. And yet, here I am, a year later, still breastfeeding my son thanks to the skilled support of the breastfeeding counsellors. And here I stand pleading with you to enable future mothers and their babies the chance to experience the same.”

Mrs Lawman, from Brookvale, pointed out that many new mums are not given support to breastfeed in hospital, adding: “When my mother gave birth to me, she was in hospital for two weeks, during which time midwives taught her how to feed her baby. With low-risk mothers now being discharged after as little as six hours, we are now not afforded that luxury.”

She has received huge support for her campaign to save the service, and a video she uploaded to Facebook asking local mums to back her was watched more than 7,000 times in 24 hours.

Speaking to The Gazette after the council meeting, she said: “When people give up breastfeeding, it’s not necessarily through choice it’s because it’s painful and difficult.”

The Breastfeeding Counselling drop-in service has been running since 2013 with grants from various organisations including Hampshire County Council and Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council.

Basingstoke MP Maria Miller offered her support to the campaign, and spoke at Thursday’s meeting, telling councillors: “We have a fantastic body of expertise and we need to safeguard it for others to access in the future, not only for their children’s health but also for their own health. The benefit of this support for post-natal physical and mental health is well-known.

“Councillors, you simply can’t afford to lose this expertise.”

A total of 500 women used the service in 2014 – more than 17 per cent of all new breastfeeding mothers registered with local GPs.

Councillor Patricia Stallard, Hampshire County Council’s executive member for health and public health, said: “We fully recognise the well-established evidence for the benefits of breastfeeding to both mother and baby, and since the responsibility for commissioning health visiting services transferred from the NHS to the council on October 1, 2015, we have undertaken work with the health visiting service to ensure that support for breastfeeding and safe infant feeding remains a priority – delivering the best possible outcomes for mothers and babies.

“Going forward, the county council is working closely with a range of people and organisations to look at the best way of delivering breastfeeding support from April 2016, including giving more help to those mothers who need it the most. This will ensure that in all areas of Hampshire, mothers will have timely access to appropriate support, delivered by the county council-funded health visiting service.”

For more on this story pick up a copy of this weeks Gazette