New mothers across England are being failed as a result of cuts to local breastfeeding support services, campaigners say.

Breastfeeding is known to reduce the risk of infections and allergies as well as future obesity and diabetes for the baby, while benefits to mothers include a reduced risk of breast and ovarian cancer.

But while about 80% of new mothers in England attempt to breastfeed after giving birth, only 1% of babies are exclusively breastfed until they are six months old, despite the practice being recommended by the NHS.

Now the UK-wide Better Breastfeeding campaign says it has discovered that at least 44% of local authority areas in England have been affected by cuts or closures to breastfeeding services in recent years.

Experts say 90% of women give up breastfeeding before they want to. A 2016 survey of 300 mothers found that 60% of women who gave up breastfeeding did so at least in part as a result of lack of support.

“Breastfeeding support in the early days can be the difference between making it past those early days or not,” said Amy Brown, a professor of public health at Swansea University and co-chair of the campaign.

Brown adds that lactation experts can help with complex issues, while trained peer supporters – often mothers who have done some specialised breastfeeding training – can help women spot problems and understand how the process works and what is “normal”.

“These are the sorts of challenges breastfeeding support services can help overcome,” said Brown. “Without them, women are left in pain, babies are not being breastfed, and mothers are feeling all sorts of negative emotions because they haven’t been able to breastfeed.”

Ayala Ochert, also co-chair of the Better Breastfeeding campaign, agrees. “There are a lot of little things that can happen that can quite quickly turn into a problem if it is not nipped in the bud,” she said.

The survey involved collecting reports of cuts to services flagged to the team by campaign members and verified by reports from others in the area. The results reveal the proportion of local authority areas affected by funding cuts in the area.

Shel Banks, a lactation consultant in Blackpool and campaigner for Blackpool Breastfeeding Support, said that in June 2017 Blackpool council slashed breastfeeding support services.

“In Blackpool there is now no organised breastfeeding peer support, no ongoing infant feeding training for health visiting staff, no infant feeding team, no one at all to support health visitors and children’s centre workers in the community with any kind of infant feeding problem at all – and therefore no support for the mothers,” she said.

The Better Breastfeeding team note that in Blackpool there is one volunteer who runs a group once a week, even though in 2014 the council received a £45m grant over 10 years to improve infant health.

Merle Davies, director of Blackpool’s Centre for Early Child Development, responded that new parents in Blackpool now saw health visitors more often than in any other area of England and that the new strategy was focusing on all methods of feeding to reduce feelings of guilt felt by mothers who did not breastfeed.

“We are in the process of developing ‘Learn to Feed’ volunteer roles that will offer emotional and practical support to parents on all aspects of infant feeding,” she said.

Banks said: “The council say all breastfeeding support can be provided by health visitors. But they won’t necessarily have specialist breastfeeding knowledge, and there is now no one to train them or supervise them if they run into problems; also they are not in the mothers’ homes early enough – they usually don’t go in until day 10.”

Ochert said the number of areas affected by cuts is probably even higher than the latest survey reveals, since it relied on individuals flagging the cuts.

The findings chime with previous surveys and studies, including one last year that found that breastfeeding peer supporters were available in only 56% of NHS regions. Separately, the number of Baby Cafés run by the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) fell from 108 in December 2013 to 49 in December 2016.The government’s five-year plan for improving maternity care, released in 2016, stresses the importance of breastfeeding and says it could result in future healthcare savings. But Ochert said the stance is not backed by action and that no significant funding had been allocated.

“In England there is no overall national strategy [for breastfeeding]. Local authorities are expected to just do their own thing,” said Ochert, adding that local authorities, which are now responsible for public health, do not have to stick to public health guidance.

Abi Wood, head of campaigns at the NCT, said the trust trained 300 breastfeeding peer supporters last year but called for more funding to support new mothers.

“We are extremely disappointed that there have been so many cuts to breastfeeding services due to a lack of funding by councils or NHS trusts,” she said. “We know that breastfeeding services are shockingly inconsistent across the country and too many women who want to breastfeed are left struggling. This has to change.”A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “All women should have access to the services they need to give their children the best start in life. Breastfeeding has benefits for both mothers and babies, which is why guidance to local maternity services is clear that they must provide advice and support on breastfeeding to all mothers.”

The survey results come ahead of a Channel 4 documentary, Dispatches: Breastfeeding Uncovered, that will be broadcast on Monday 30 July.

“I feel I let my child down”

Estelle from Blackpool is among those who have been affected by the cuts. When her daughter was born, six years ago this week, she says she received excellent support during her time in hospital and through home visits.

“I managed to breastfeed – it was really hard work at first, but I managed to do it and stick to it, and I actually breastfed [my daughter] for a year,” she said.

The scheme was called Blackpool Star Buddies and was run by the Breastfeeding Network until it was stopped due to funding cuts on 1 July 2017. Now only a handful of volunteers remain and home visits are no longer possible.

When her son arrived in March this year, Estelle was sure she would breastfeed him too: “I didn’t buy any bottles, I didn’t buy any milk, I didn’t see any way that I would not breastfeed him.”

When he was born he managed to latch on a couple of times at the hospital before Estelle and the baby were sent home. “I was quite keen to get out of the hospital because I had a five-year-old at home, so I said yes, he has had a couple of feeds, let’s go home,” she said. But once home, he wasn’t able to manage it.

“I ended up giving in and giving him a bottle,” said Estelle. “I didn’t realise [why he couldn’t breastfeed] until he was five days old [and] the lady said ‘I think he is tongue-tied’. By the time they cut his tongue he had been bottle-fed for two weeks – he never took to the breast. I tried but he just didn’t take to it.”

Estelle said if home support had been available, things might have been different.

“If they had come the next day or the day after and I had said to them ‘I don’t know why he is not feeding’, they obviously had the experience and they might have been able to see he was tongue-tied – and they might have been able to sort it quicker,” she said.

Estelle said she felt disappointed that she couldn’t breastfeed: “I kind of feel like I let my child down as well. I feel like, ‘Well, I did that for your sister, but I didn’t do it for you. That was quite hard.”

• This article was amended on 30 July 2018 to give the full name of the Channel 4 TV documentary.