Breastfeed for longer and save the NHS £40m

In December, Ellie Lee gave comment to The Times about a paper on the financial benefits of breastfeeding: ‘‘Ellie Lee, an expert in parenting culture at the University of Kent, said: “It is more and more apparent that women’s bodies have come to be thought of as a means to achieve the end of cost-cutting. Both home birth and breastfeeding are now discussed this way, as practices that can ‘save the NHS money’. This is wrong — women need to be seen as individuals and the starting point should always be their right to make the choices they see as best when it comes to pregnancy, birth and raising their child.” ‘