Keep specialist breastfeeding support at Barnet Hospital, North London

[CounsellorGirl]

Have you or someone close to you given birth at Barnet or Chase Farm Hospitals in recent years?

If the answer is yes, then chances are you will have heard of Bella Dale.

If the answer is no, but you value the importance of being able to receive effective breastfeeding support and perhaps have received it yourself then please read on.

Bella heads up the Antenatal Education and Breastfeeding Support at Barnet Hospital. She is a specialist midwife, and a real expert in her field. Hospital bosses are proposing to axe her post as they believe it to be ?non-business critical.?

As a local mum, who gave birth to one of her children at Barnet Hospital, I am outraged that the hospital bosses are considering cutting the Infant Feeding Specialist post. The breastfeeding support I received from Bella in the first few months of my son's life was invaluable. I continued to breastfed him for 22 months, but I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I would not have managed to do so for more than 2 or 3 weeks if I had not had this input.

If we want to see this service continue we need to take action NOW. You can sign an e-petition at www.ipetitions.com/petition/breastfeeding. The petition has to be presented to the Chief Executive of Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust by 6th October. Please tell friends, neighbours and anyone else you know who might be interested in signing the petition.

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she must have been there before i had my ds(5) at barnet they just left me to get on with it.

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sorry i meant 'after' i was there! (off to sign petition!)

signed, bumped and passed on

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i signed and wrote a bit too.

bloody idiot tossers, shouldnt be in charge of dressing themselves, let alone a health service

obv, thats not what i wrote, btw!

I've signed too and will keep bumping this.

I wrote something vaguely along those lines actually Kelly.....

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Oops,how old??

Oh, Oops

He may well take a bedtime feed - all sleepy and snuggly.

(and bump)

Thanks to everyone for drumming up some support. I have been away at a wedding this weekend, and was feeling a bit discouraged before I went that the word wasn't getting round about what could happen to Bella's job. It was great to see that people feel the same as me. The petition has to be presented to the big bosses by Friday 6th October at the latest in order for them to consider it, so keep plugging away!

P.S. Thanks kiskidee for setting up the link.

I am a bit concerned that we are going to lose the petition today. I had a warning message from ipetitions saying that I have got 7 days to activate my account or else it will be wiped. When I went to the help screen it said that I should receive an e-mail with a link to click on to activate the account. I haven't received this email yet and I set up the account a week ago, on Sunday 24th. I have saved the data collected so far, but I dread logging on to find that the petition has been deleted. I have emailed them 3 times to ask about this but am yet to have a reply. If it is wiped then I will try to set up an identical petition, but I suspect I will have to give it a different name. Watch this space..................

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Hello oops, how nice that we have almost certainly seen each others' norks

If you remember an unkempt woman with enormous boobs and a small son with a very unusual name (my name is also unusual in a Scottish kind of a way) then that was us.

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Just seen this and have signed. (been without a computer since friday night due to the old one being incompatible with a glass of red). I also has ds at Barnet almost 2 years ago and although (fortunately) had no need for help with bf would hate for others who may need it to loose out.