How do we sort the bad advice from the good when it comes to midwives etc?

[theborrower]

It's struck me that there loads of stories on this board from people who have received bad advice and care from health care professionals (midwives in the postnatal ward, health visitors and doctors) about breastfeeding, but how do we sort the bad from the good? We naturally put our trust in these HCPs and assume they know what they're talking about, but it seems like it's not always the case.

For example, we constantly hear about midwives manhandling screaming babies and shoving them on to the boob, which can start a cycle of refusal and distress (happened to me). Our resident expert TikTok recently said "no trained BF counsellor would ever do that" (or something to that effect), so how do we sort the good from the bad? How do we know when we're getting bad care and bad advice? Is there a list of common mistakes/myths that we can assemble to help new mums?

Completely know what you mean. Was left well alone with DC1 by most HCP as he latched on during skin-to-skin and just got on with it. Some MWs even said things like "I'm not going to disturb you two, you just look like you are getting on with it with no fuss". However, one MW came along and tried to tell me I was doing it all wrong and got me really stressed while she was there. Once she'd gone I thought about it, he looked happy, could see that he was feeding correctly and just thought, "actually I'll just carry on as we are thanks".

Think that education is the key but how would be start to educate everyone? Kellymom has a good section on information is your ally, perhaps cards like this could be given to women whilst PG. Books can be good or harmful too. My SIL asked her MW what she recommended and she said "The Baby Whisperer" , which happens to appear on Kellymom's list of books to avoid.

I know. I give thanks for MN because it gave me the confidence to ignore "feed every 4 hours", "don't have the baby in bed with yoü in case you fall asleep", "feed less often in the day so he learns to go longer at night", "shall we give him formula to make him sleep so you can rest", "if he is ill give him water" blah, blah, blah.

Why don't they tell you about cluster feeding and growth spurts?

Its tricky because some things help some people but just mess things up for others eg expressing. But I think every new mother would benefit from knowing that mw and hv are necessarily experts on bf.

not necessarily experts (obviously)

Hmm...i've been wondering about this for a while but have no idea. I know so many people who have been upset by their struggle to bf/move to ff. So much of it seems to stem from bad advice. Now that i'm more clued up i can spot it when people talk about their experiences. I always tell people interested in bf that hcp knowledge is crap patchy, and explain about bfcs. I offer my support but i'm not an expert and fear coming across as pushy. I think loads of people think i'm obsessed with bf, i'm just sad that knowing owt about it makes you seem like a loon.