Have any ther peer-supporter groups come across this?

[PerplexedPeerSupporter]

I am a relatively regular poster who has name changed for this as I do not want my usual posting name to be linked to this in case the situation is recognised by any of the parties involved.

I am a memeber of a local BF support group and we have been having some perplexing problems with some of the local hcps.

We are a relatively newly formed constitutionally governed group that has grown out of the hard work of a dedicated local, peer supporter and a midwife. Initially it was an informal group that was overseen my the mw and it felt more like a social group. But support was given and many of the attendees found the support from other bfing mums really useful especially as we Iive in an area with dismal bfing rates.

Quote a few if us elected to receive some training as peer-supporters and we were then encouraged by the mw to form an independent group. Which we did.

This is were the problems started. Without going into too much detail it has come to light that there has been instances of active 'sabotage' of our efforts to reach out and support new mums by the very same mw.

Has anyone else experienced something like this and do you have any advice?

Bump?

Wow :(

If you are constitutionally governed you will have a chair - have you shared your findings with him or her, confidentially at first?

Ideally, chairs should come from outside the group they are chairing, but this may not be the case.

If you need to go outside, then think of where the governance of your group is sited.

Are you sure it is active sabotage?

This happened to a group I was part of a little while ago. I had flyers printed about the group and gave them to the HCP (it was a health visitor) who was supporting us. The idea was that she gave the flyers out to her colleagues to give to new mothers. One week I needed to go into her office and I saw our flyers sitting on a shelf, still in their original packing. They had never been distributed. I never thought this was sabotage, but just chronic lack of organisation - could this be the same sort of thing with you?

Are you coming back, OP? :)

Hi TikTok - Had something very similar with the flyers for our BF peer support group. Gave a bundle to a HV, but about 6 weeks later when I was seeing her with DD I spotted them under her desk, untouched. Either a lack of organisation or a lack of interest. .

The group I was involved with before we moved house had something very similar. Our leader printed a lot of fliers, using her own money, which was quite a big thing for her, gave them to a HV who had been saying all the right things to the group but later found out she hadn't passed them on to any of the other HVs or to the MWs at either the local MW led or Dr led units as she had promised.

Some time later we had an HCA who was one of the BFing supporters at the MW led unit, and who actually supported me very well when I had Wriggler, come to the group to see how we ran and look at ways of forging better links between the group and the unit. She told us that one of the reasons she wanted to come and try to forge those links was because the HV had told the unit that we wanted nothing to do with the unit or any contact with health professionals (as in we were sort of rabidly against them and believed there was nothing they could offer). This was a bit mad as several members of the group were health professionals themselves. The upside is that after hearing that we were in no way anti-health professionals per se although of course had other things to offer several of the group now go to the NHS run ante-natal course to "do" their session on BFing, and the unit actively encourages the group as a resource for new mums. As far as we aware the HVs still don't even mentions the group - they certainly never suggested it to me and I only found out about it when I arrived early for another session that was before it!

I'm back. Sorry about the lengthy delay.

Tiktok - we were originally led to believe that the other mws and hvs were not very supportive of the group but have recently discovered that they had been telling mums about us and giving their details to the mw who is a member of the group (and helped found it) but that she has NEVER told any of the mums about our groups or aboutthe support services that we offer.
(we have only recently printed our own posters and leaflets as it seems to take for ever to come to any agreement at out meeting - mainly as the mw, who we all respected is usually contrary). We have also been told that we have no place in supporting mums with newborns and that we should only really be offering support in 'maintaining' bfing after about 13 weeks. When we pointed out the NICE guidelines of making contact with new mums within 48hrs, she was very concerned that we do not have insurance to cover us?

It is all a little strange really. Largely because none of the other members (including me) want to upset her as she is a lovely person and has been a fantastic support to so many of us

Is there any way you can share your concerns about her support with her direct? No need to be rude, just be honest and explain why you feel let down - if she is as nice as she appears, yes, she will be upset, but the point of your group is to offer help to mothers then it's worth upsetting her. Maybe she does not mean to appear obstructive?

You can't really be sure she has never told anyone about you, unless she herself has said 'I have never told anyone about this group' - it's possible you have just not come across anyone she has told!

The insurance thing sounds odd. If it is really the case there is an insurance question, then you have to get it sorted - you should show you take this seriously enough to get the facts about it. I have never heard of people being insured to support mothers only after 13 weeks.

You can't be insured to give medical advice, but peer support schemes don't normally have a problem with insuring their workers to support bf at whatever stage.

Hope you get this sorted!

What have you decided to do, PPS?

interested to find out too... any update?

Hi all. Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to this.

We've been embroiled in a bit of a battle. It has become clear to us that the mw in question sees us as part of her team, who need to report back to her about every mum we see. As we don't agree that this is appropriate (confidentiality being a major factor), she isn't happy to tell mums about us.

I think that she feels that our only real function is t provide a social group for breast-feeding mums. I and the other members feel that we have more to offer than that.