MOTHERS from across Oxfordshire fear for the future of a popular breastfeeding support network as the council threatens to pull all funding.

Baby Cafes are held nearly every day in various children’s centres across the county.

Expectant or new mums can go along to one of the 11 sessions to receive breastfeeding advice and support.

One mum, Liz Ashdowne, of Woodstock, has written a letter to her MP and the Prime MinisterPrime Minister David Cameron urging him to support Baby Cafes, after learning Oxfordshire County Council has proposed bigsubstantial budget cuts for the county’s 44 children’s centres to save an estimated £6m.

The 35-year-old mother-of-one said Baby Cafes provide a vital support system for breastfeeding mums.

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She said: “They are a venue where expectant and new mums who are breastfeeding can come and get support and advice.

“That’s especially important today when so many people live away from their family or parents and don’t have that family support network anymore.”

Mrs Ashdowne, who has a six-month old daughter called Sarah, said she first went to a Baby Cafe when she was nearing the end of her pregnancy.

Outraged by the prospect of the cafes being shut down for good, she wrote a letter to the Prime Minister.

The proposed cuts to the centres could mean about £30,000 funding for Baby Cafes is withdrawn by as early as September this year.

Bicester Advertiser:

Liz Ashdowne of Woodstock with her daughter Sarah

Mr Cameron has since responded to Mrs Ashdowne and said: “It is important that breastfeeding mums get the support they need and I will take these concerns up with OCC.”

Baby cafe facilitator Jayne Joyce, 44, said Baby Cafes supported new mums during a tricky time in their lives. She said: “I think it would be really useful if the local health commissioner realised what we do here, and what would happen if we were not here anymore.

“Anyone who has just had a baby needs support.”

Lisa Mansour, 41, of Blewbury, near Didcot, leads eight of the Baby Cafes in Oxfordshire and has been working as project leader for seven years.

She said if the council withdrew funding, she would lose her job.

She added: “If someone comes to the Baby Cafe to have a cup of tea and then we discover they have a problem then we can stop that problem.”

Sarah Mayhew-Craddock, 34, who lives in Hurst Street in East Oxford, with her husband and 15-month-old daughter Ottilie, said it would be a “crying shame” if there were no more Baby Cafes.

She said: “Breastfeeding is an incredibly difficult thing to do and maintain.

“I would like to have more children in the future and the prospect of doing that without the baby cafe is frightening.

“I think we are very privileged here and it’s a model that should be rolled out to the rest of the country.”

Cabinet member for children, education and families Melinda Tilley said: “We have 44 children’s centres and seven early intervention hubs costing us £16m per year.

“But we need to make savings of more than £6m.

“If we can work it all out then of course I am hopeful we can save them but I don’t know – it’s too early to say.”