Should I volunteer in the Hospital or the Community?

[whatshallwedo]

I have got the chance to apply for bf training to either volunteer in a hospital or in the community and I'm not sure which one would be most helpful to others.

I am tempted to go with the community as that is where I accessed all of my help and support and without it I wouldn't have been able to carry on.

Can I ask for a quick poll please as to where people might need a volunteer the most? Thank you

Hmm tricky, can you not do both? That's what I'm doing

I'd love to do both and I now have the time available to do both but I was unsure whether they would believe I would be able to commit to both.

Can I ask please how you volunteer in the community, is it through the hv's?

i would say the hospital for sure!!!

those first few days are absolutely the MOST important when it comes to getting breastfeeding off to a good start.
accessing help once you are back at home is, generally, easier

I did the community for a while, I volunteered at a breastfeeding group at the.children's centre. I enjoyed it.

I've stopped that now because it clashes with something else so I'm going to do the hospital. I've been warned It's pretty full on and can be really draining but I'll give it a go.

The only thing I didn't enjoy was volunteering in the antenatal clinic, it felt a bit like a sales job and I don't have the right sort of personality for that.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

I would say hospital. For me that's where the help was most desperately needed and most lacking. I couldn't have managed without community support either, but that was much easier to access.

Another vote for hospital - there's already a lot of support in the community but little in some hospitals - the midwives at ours were pretty brutal and the paediatricians positively anti-bf.

Thank you, I have applied to the hospital and enquired about the community just in case so fingers crossed