Breast-feeding & hospital

[Laura032004]

DS2 has got to go into hospital for 4 days in Dec when he'll be 5 mnths old. Did I read somewhere that if you are bf your baby, then the mother gets hospital meals?

I don't know how we'll cope otherwise, as the hospital is 100's of miles from where we live, so I'll be there with him by myself, and the canteen is only open for breakfast and lunch.

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Thanks for that YG. I can't find any mention of it on the hospital website (Bristol Childrens Hospital in case anybody has been there before).

When I was in hospital with ds at 6 months old I was not allowed meals, even though he was only having breastmilk. I would check before you go in.

I did get fed, but was sometimes forgotten as the catering team were not used to having to feed adults!

I went into hospital with DS when he was about 3 months. I was told I had been BF DS for 'too long' to get free meals! i.e only new mums BF get free meals. That was at Queens in Nottingham on the childrens ward BTW.

Hmmmm, so no obvious nation-wide policy then. I might ring up and ask what the hospital policy is.

After ringing every number I could think of, I eventually just rang the ward he will be going onto. Unfortunately they don't have any provision to feed bf mothers. They used to issue vouchers for the canteen so that you could get a meal, but this has been stopped for financial reasons.

ask if you can use the ward kitchen to heat premade meals (am thinking lasagne etc in boxes brought from home in a cool bag) for yourself? Bet the nurses have somewhere they can microwave a boxed dinner...

At Kingston in 2005 breastfeeding mothers of babies under a year got free hospital meals. I agree it's crazy that there's no standard policy.