Mums across Oxfordshire are mounting a campaign to save a world-renowned breast-feeding clinic at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital.

Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust is facing a £33m deficit and is planning to make major cuts, including 600 posts. Two-hundred staff, including two surgeons, will lose their jobs this summer.

The trust wants to shut the Horton's special care baby unit, downgrade maternity services and close the 24-hour children's ward.

Campaigners say the number of deliveries per year could increase from 6,500 to 8,000 at the John Radcliffe's maternity unit if the proposed cuts are made at the Horton, and there will then be an even greater need for the clinic, which was launched in 1991.

One of the founders of the clinic, which now runs two days a week, is Chloe Fisher, who is a leading authority on breast-feeding and co-wrote the guide Bestfeeding.

Despite the clinic's excellent reputation, the trust is planning to close it on September 7, say protesters.

Julia Horsnell, 45, from Orchard Lane, Boars Hill, a member of the trust's maternity services liaison committee, is fighting the proposal.

She said: "This clinic should be treasured as a centre of excellence. The hospital management does not realise what an asset it is.

"I used the clinic with my two children, Kate, aged 10, and Harry, four, and it is inspirational for mums who are experiencing problems breast-feeding.

"The trust will argue that the same advice is available at baby cafs, but they rely on grants which are not guaranteed from year to year and cannot provide the same level of expertise.

"It will be a disaster if this clinic has to close."

Mrs Horsnell said any financial savings would be "minimal" because was there was only one salaried member of staff - Sally Inch.

Penny Curtis, 30, of Manor Green, Harwell, near Didcot, experienced problems breast-feeding with her daughter Lilia, now six months.

The pharmaceutical company brand manager said: "The clinic worked wonders. It gives expert support and advice to mothers - it's vital that it is saved."

Jane Ramsay, 34, of Florence Park, Oxford, who used the clinic with her daughter Roisin, two, and four-month-old son Rowan, said: "I'm gobsmacked the clinic could be closing. It was a real lifeline for me."

Janet Knowles, head of midwifery services, said no final decision had been made, adding that financial savings were not the significant deciding factor.

"For four years we have been building up a network of baby cafs in all the major towns, and breast-feeding support networks," she said.

"We won't lose any expertise or skills. Sally Inch has been helping us to develop a more robust structure which is accessible to all women."