English women have fewer opportunities to breast-feed their children than their counterparts in other parts of the UK due to a lack of joined-up government thinking, campaigners have warned.

Rosemary Dodds, policy research officer at the National Childbirth Trust, said the issue needed to be raised in schools and workplaces, but that government policy only focused on health settings.

"We need a breast-feeding strategy that links up breastfeeding at work, in education, and support in the legal system. It needs to be cross-departmental whereas at the moment what's happening is just focused on health services."

She added that the Government had reneged on promises to include reference to the strategy in the children's National Service Framework.

A Breastfeeding Bill is currently going through the Scottish Parliament.