Agreeing that money would be better spent on support and education. HVs and MWs in the UK (in my experience) are woefully inadequate in providing any sort of BF support (of course, there are some notable exceptions!) Their only requirement is the short (is it one day or one hour? I can't remember) UNICEF BF course which provides the absolute bear minimum in terms of education, whereas and ABM BFC takes around 1-2 years part-time to complete a multiple unit course covering the biology of the breast and lactation, effects on baby, effects on mum, possible things that can be hurdles to BF etc etc etc.
If the average HV and MW had half as much information imparted, they would be in a better position from the word 'go' to support and advise women on BF. I don't know what the stats are, but it does seem that a lot of women stop BF before they even leave the hospital because of poor support and the offer of formula (or insistence that LO should have it) - and these are often women who have been keen to feed.
Others further fall away when baby has "lost too much weight" and "needs supplementation with formula" rather than support being given on how to increase milk supply, latch, frequency of feeding, positioning and help to stop any pain (identification of TTs, etc).
Community based support groups are amazing and a fantastic resource and I have a huge amount of respect for those running them (my friend included), but they are sometimes underutilised by MWs and HVs. So mum has an issue and instead of referring to the local experts, they try to 'fix' it themselves, but don't have the relevant experience.
Urgh. It all makes me so sad that there are women out there who have been desperate to BF and then end up reluctantly switching to formula and feeling guilty about their decision as it's not what they actually wanted to do. This scheme isn't going to fix that.
