The news follows the release of research highlighting gaps in the effectiveness of current policies attempting to persuade women to continue to breastfeed their babies.
The UK rates for persuading women to begin breastfeeding are among the lowest in Europe, and those who do start breastfeeding soon stop, particularly among deprived families.
To tackle this, the Government set a target under the NHS Priorities and Planning Framework in 2003 to increase the rate of initiating breastfeeding among deprived groups by two per cent per year.
But Professor Mary Renfrew, author of the Breastfeeding for longer - what works? report and director of the Mother and Infant Research Unit at the University of York, said the system failed to monitor whether mothers were deprived, meaning it was impossible to know if progress was being made.
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