Quick Survey on BreastFeeding - Please Take A Look :-)

[Lact8]

I have written and re-written this post and keep deleting as sometimes dicussing breastfeeding on here seems to offend or some say makes them feel guilty about the choices they made about feeding their babies and that's not what I'm trying to do at all.

Basically I want to pick MN's collective brain on what services would support women who want to breastfeed (I'm part of a group of local mums who are working with HV and Surestart to provide support to other mums and possibly information at antenatal stage too)

So

1. Were you advised of or did you attend any groups about breastfeeding while you were pregnant? If yes,do you feel this was useful to you when you started breastfeeding? If no, was this because they weren't available/appeal to you?

1. If you breastfed, did you need support? Who did you contact? Family? HV? LLL? MN? Other? What would've helped you the most?

1. Who was available at the hospital after the birth of your baby to provide support with starting breastfeeding? Would you want specific breastfeedng counsellors available?

1. Have you attended any Baby and Toddler Groups that are specifically aimed at breastfeeding mums? What are your experiences?

Many thanks for taking the time to read this and any replies would be most welcome

1. Antenatal class covered bf'ing but didn't tell me anything more than the 2 pages on bf'ing in my pregnancy book.

1. Yes I could have done with help. I phoned the NCT helpline and chatted to someone. Really needed someone to come and look and tell me if I was doing it right though! And it would have helped to have people telling me I was doing the right thing, rather than "oh things will be better if you give formula".

1. In hospital I had about 12 different midwives / nursery nurses / random passing cleaners trying to help me bf. Everyone told me something different.

1. No

1. Were you advised of or did you attend any groups about breastfeeding while you were pregnant? If yes,do you feel this was useful to you when you started breastfeeding? If no, was this because they weren't available/appeal to you?

NCT classes covered bf, really useful.
NHS ones did but were not as useful

1. If you breastfed, did you need support? Who did you contact? Family? HV? LLL? MN? Other? What would've helped you the most?

Am still bf 18 mth old, had support from family and midwifes

1. Who was available at the hospital after the birth of your baby to provide support with starting breastfeeding? Would you want specific breastfeedng counsellors available?

Midwifes were fab, gave birth in midwifery unit

1. Have you attended any Baby and Toddler Groups that are specifically aimed at breastfeeding mums? What are your experiences?

No just go to normal baby and toddelr group which is pro bf

1. Were you advised of or did you attend any groups about breastfeeding while you were pregnant? If yes,do you feel this was useful to you when you started breastfeeding? If no, was this because they weren't available/appeal to you?

I knew about groups but did not have the time to attend as I worked full time

1. If you breastfed, did you need support? Who did you contact? Family? HV? LLL? MN? Other? What would've helped you the most?

Had a terrible time, although am still bf at 8mnths. Everyone had a different opinion. Some good, some not so. Did phone LLL who were FANTASTIC

1. Who was available at the hospital after the birth of your baby to provide support with starting breastfeeding? Would you want specific breastfeedng counsellors available?

Hospital was awful, MW rushed, put too much pressure on, made to feel failure, spoke to a specific bf counsellor who was lovely but even though I followed her advice MW made out I was ignoring all advice.

1. Have you attended any Baby and Toddler Groups that are specifically aimed at breastfeeding mums? What are your experiences?

No but the group I go to all three new mums were bf too.

1. yes, at the local hospital (1 day session)yes it was useful, if only to have the confidence to ask for help. on the down side, she was rather militant and insisted that if you were doing it right, you wouldnt have sore nipples and that EVERYONE can breastfeed and if you dont you're copping out. i didnt 1st time round so didnt do much for my self esteem

1. yes i needed support. midwife was FANTASTIC. spent an hour+ with me one morning as i was about to give up. encouraged me to have a skin to skin day in bed, helped with latching on etc. was truly fabulous

1. had a home birth. but specific counsellors would be a good idea

1. i attend a breastfeeding support group which is brilliant. have the experience of the counsellor and also other mums some of whom have been through bfing before.

good luck

1. Were you advised of or did you attend any groups about breastfeeding while you were pregnant? If yes,do you feel this was useful to you when you started breastfeeding? If no, was this because they weren't available/appeal to you?

was told about a few but didn't go as i was too shy, but expecting moms would have been welcome

1. If you breastfed, did you need support? Who did you contact? Family? HV? LLL? MN? Other? What would've helped you the most?

public health nurse was a great help in the early days and the MN book and what to expect.... book were fabulous

1. Who was available at the hospital after the birth of your baby to provide support with starting breastfeeding? Would you want specific breastfeedng counsellors available?

maternity nurses and they were bitches who knew very little... ended up bleeding and in agony thanks to them. there is a bf counceller there apparently but after 2 babies i've yet to ever see sight nor life of her

1. Have you attended any Baby and Toddler Groups that are specifically aimed at breastfeeding mums? What are your experiences?

no but the majority of my toddler group that i found recently bfs and i've found it's made a massive differance to my confidance with public feeding... with dd i never fed in public but now with ds i'm so much braver

1. Were you advised of or did you attend any groups about breastfeeding while you were pregnant? If yes,do you feel this was useful to you when you started breastfeeding? If no, was this because they weren't available/appeal to you?

one of our antinatal classes was on breastfeeding, it was ok but the leaflet handed out showed a sketch of how to breast feed and my boobs didn't look anythign like the 2 inch long nipple in the pictures!

1. If you breastfed, did you need support? Who did you contact? Family? HV? LLL? MN? Other? What would've helped you the most?

Breast fed with both DD's.
First time round need loads of support, a poor latch during stitching post birth resulted in very damaged nipples. My one-to-one midwife was fantstatic she called 3 times one day just to check how it was going. My mum was also a round and i great help. HV was next to useless and when asked for advice on expressing was told a 6 week old baby should have approx 8ox per feed!!
second time was much easier, dd2 'knew' what to do and i had the confidence to remover her if the latch wasn't right. again one-to-one midwife fab HV useless.

1. Who was available at the hospital after the birth of your baby to provide support with starting breastfeeding? Would you want specific breastfeedng counsellors available?

First time very limited hopsital staff, had more help once home from one-to-one midwife. second time i had a home birth. There is a breast feeding drop in session at lcoal hospital which is apparently very good but nvere got there

1. Have you attended any Baby and Toddler Groups that are specifically aimed at breastfeeding mums? What are your experiences?

nope but most of the groups i have attended had breast feeding mothers present

1. Were you advised of or did you attend any groups about breastfeeding while you were pregnant? If yes,do you feel this was useful to you when you started breastfeeding? If no, was this because they weren't available/appeal to you?

Nothing available with DD (5 yrs ago)- just the standard bumpf from HV and community midwife. This time round there are ante-natal breastfeeding workshops on a monthly basis at local surestart centre. I am curious as to content and will report back after the first one.

1. If you breastfed, did you need support? Who did you contact? Family? HV? LLL? MN? Other? What would've helped you the most?

I was lucky in that after initial shaky start in hospital, DD latched on well and fed easily. I later had supply problems from one breast, and contacted LLL by phone. MN helped reassure me.

1. Who was available at the hospital after the birth of your baby to provide support with starting breastfeeding? Would you want specific breastfeedng counsellors available?

Brilliant support from the post-natal midwives. Although have been told that BF counselling services have been one of the areas in maternity services that have been cut-back locally.

1. Have you attended any Baby and Toddler Groups that are specifically aimed at breastfeeding mums? What are your experiences?

No. Will raise at Surestart breastfeeding workshop. Am sure it is something that could be supportive.

1- there was one session as part of parentcraft(antenatal) class with community midwife. other than that i made sure i informed myself, ie got books, looked on line etc etc. my own midwife recommended a very good book called 'bestfeeding'.

2- i didn't need one to one support once i was at home. i referred back to kellymom.com, mn, and 'bestfeeding'

3- i was on the post natal ward for 36 hours. midwives helped me latch on for each feed. they wouldn't let me go home until they saw me do a decent length feed on my own without help. proper breasfeeding counsellors would have been good, i was lucky i didn't find it difficult

4- no

1. Yes - one-off 2 hour bf workshop at hospital aimed at mums-to-be and their partners. Sort of useful, quite good on theory & also covered extended bf

1. Needed lots of support - bf clinic at hospital staffed by specialist midwives - fab. HV and community midwives were well meaning but useless. DD was very slow to put on weight and I was pressurised to top up with formula, with HV even talking about malabsorption syndrome. Luckily I didn't get hassled too much when I told her I was going regularly to the bf clinic. I'm sure I would have stopped bf very quickly if the clinic had not existed - it was my only source of practical support

1. Bf midwives mentioned above were great - however through the night I had to rely on whoever was on shift, and got seriously conflicting advice

1. Attended weekly bf workshops at hospital until dd was about 3 months. Pluses - moral support from midwives, biscuits, no obsessing about weight gain. Minuses - didn't really 'click' with anyone and found it quite cliquey - it was a chore rather than an enjoyable social thing. I put that down to most of the mums there struggling with bf and not having much spare energy for making an effort to chat - me included!

Also meant to say I had not joined mn at that point - if only I had...!

1. Were you advised of or did you attend any groups about breastfeeding while you were pregnant? If yes,do you feel this was useful to you when you started breastfeeding? If no, was this because they weren't available/appeal to you?

there was a bf evening in my NCT class. tbh in retrospect it wasn't all that helpful, but I think that is to do with the quality of the bfc.

1. If you breastfed, did you need support? Who did you contact? Family? HV? LLL? MN? Other? What would've helped you the most?

I got help from the midwives in the hospital (very variable in quality) and from my family. I called the NCT bfc but she never called back

1. Who was available at the hospital after the birth of your baby to provide support with starting breastfeeding? Would you want specific breastfeedng counsellors available?

I did get help from the midwives, a bfc would have been more helfpul imo.

1. Have you attended any Baby and Toddler Groups that are specifically aimed at breastfeeding mums? What are your experiences?

I have been to a baby cafe lunch, which I thought was great

Doggiesayswoof - was that at the Queen Mum's? - your experience sounds very similar to mine!

1. No, just wasn't aware they existed

2. Yes...neighbour was a LLL councillor so I asked her help

3. I was a late admission to a Private room on a Friday night. I wanted to get home ASAP Saturday. All I got was an orderly come in, change DS's nappy while I was at the loo and then asked if I tried feeding him. He slept through the whole night and I assumed he would demand it. Gave him the nipple and he gobbled the colostrum like mad!

4. Joined a local group on HV advice. It was really useful, they offered support and friendship and spotted my PND. I also became a BF supporterf and I'm offerring my time to a surestart project.

Hope that's what you're after

1. Yes, very helpful
2. Yes, loads and loads, I struggled and asked anyone and everyone - it would have helped if anyone had been availbale on the end of any of the phone helplines
3. midwives, felt like I was hassling them when they were busy, but I did it anyway. The BF counsellors were good but 9-5
4. Yes, appalling. Run by ignorant women who've bottle fed their own kids but employed because they speak 'community languages', given a one-day trianing course and then set up as 'experts' to dispense bad advice and patronise. I went as far as complaining, but the managers were defensive (Surestart). Ahh the joys of inner-city life...

Just re-read my last post. I didn't mean that the organisers were ignorant because they'd chosen to formula feed, just that they lacked understanding of all sorts of issues raleting to running a BF support group (one of them commented that she didn't like the idea of BFing in public, another dispensed totally garbled advice about viamins)

1. Were you advised of or did you attend any groups about breastfeeding while you were pregnant? If yes,do you feel this was useful to you when you started breastfeeding? If no, was this because they weren't available/appeal to you?

Had a couple of classes as part of antenatal classes but to be honest pretty useless as just couldn't focus on it with birth looming - if only I'd known that that would be the easy part!

1. If you breastfed, did you need support? Who did you contact? Family? HV? LLL? MN? Other? What would've helped you the most?

I did need support and had brilliant advice from the NCT phone line - saved me from giving up twice - brilliant!

1. Who was available at the hospital after the birth of your baby to provide support with starting breastfeeding? Would you want specific breastfeedng counsellors available?

NO-ONE. Vague midwives. Ended up readmitted with weight loss and jaundice and topped up with formula and only then met very nice breastfeeding counsellor on SCBU. Should have seen one before i was discharged the first time I think.

1. Have you attended any Baby and Toddler Groups that are specifically aimed at breastfeeding mums? What are your experiences?

No

1. Were you advised of or did you attend any groups about breastfeeding while you were pregnant?

Apparently there is a group quite local to me I only found out about it from MN, by which time I didn't need it! Also found out later that the HVs were running one. It doesn't run any more. Suspect there wasn't enough interest - perhaps because nobody knows about it! Or maybe the HVs just don't have enough time.

1. If you breastfed, did you need support? Who did you contact? Family? HV? LLL? MN? Other? What would've helped you the most?

Yes, and I got the most from my DH. The most factual support came from MN (many many thanks to TikTok BTW)

1. Who was available at the hospital after the birth of your baby to provide support with starting breastfeeding? Would you want specific breastfeedng counsellors available?

There was one MW who described herself as a BFC MW. I don't think she was really a BFC as we understand it, but she definitely helped with my latch problem. But she, like all the other MWs, was completely overworked. More BFCs or even MWs like her would have been a godsend.

1. Have you attended any Baby and Toddler Groups that are specifically aimed at breastfeeding mums? What are your experiences?

No.

1. No - there was one but I got the day wrong and in my naive stupidity didn't think it mattered

1. Yes. Hospital bf clinic after being referred by community midwife - wouldn't have known about it otherwise and unfortunately by the time she referred me a lot of damage had already been done. It would have been most useful to have had access to the bf counsellor while I was still in hospital.

1. Midwives were all very enthusiastic and supportive but too busy and the advice was too varied and piecemeal to really be sufficient if things weren't going smoothly. Auxiliary staff often acted as "gatekeepers" to the midwives by answering buzzer for help and some seemed v anti bf & reluctant to disturb the mw for bf related problems. A member of staff on the postnatal ward who was dedicated to feeding isses (bf & ff) would have been so helpful.

1. No - I think in part this has been due to my lack of confidence about my own feeding technique & feelings that seeing other women feeding without problems might make me feel inadequate. (Which is really silly of me)

prettybird - I was at the QM. The bf counsellors are great aren't they? Their ability to make me feel like a success after every visit was almost as important as the practical advice I received about latch etc. They also liased with my gp so that my dh could pick up my prescription for abs when I was diagnosed with a nipple infection. Can't praise them enough .

The only downside was that I didn't get to see them earlier really. I must have seemed to be coping better than I really was when I was in hospital.

1. Yes - advised about bf group a few miles away, but only when I was having blocked milk duct problems. Didn't go because I hate driving round bits of Leeds that I don't know.

2. Yes - NCT bf counsellor. She was brilliant.
   (about the recurrent blocked milk ducts)

3. NO-ONE! Was shocked to be honest - the midwives were too busy to help with bf-ing - or even helping you to bath baby for first time.....

4. Nearest group was too far and in an area of the city I don't know.

1. No
2. Yes called HV, la Leckhe and NCT - NCT helped best but what I really would have liked would have been a visit from a councellor.
3. 1st birth - horrible nurse squeezed my nipple so hard and told me i had milk and if i didnt want to use it she would get me a bottle. luckily another nurse started her duty that day and was lovely and patient so helped me. 2nd birth all the nurses were lovely and i was shocked at how much i forgot!!!
4. Baby cafe but only two mums were there so felt a bit exposed with my problems, was expecting lots of mums.

Shonaspurtle - interesting what you say about the auxiliaries acting as gatekeepers to the MWs for latch problems etc. I think I got a wee bit of that - but think I must have appeared (even if I didn't feel!) so assertive, they didn't date not get the MW - even though sometimes I had to wait ages.

The sister in charge knew I was really committed to bf - it was her that got me to go along to the breast feeding support group (at that time it wasn't officially a clinic) while I was actually still in hospital. That way, I'd made contact with Rosemary and ?? (can't remember her name) even before I'd been discharged.

Next time (if there is a next time!) I'll definitely be more assertive. I wonder why they don't routinely tell people about the clinic when they're on the postnatal ward? Presumably because they're so busy but maybe if I'd still been in when the group was on they'd have mentioned it.

Ds was born on the Friday morning and I went home on the Monday morning. Looking back I should have stayed longer. I don't think it helped that I was in over a weekend.

1. was advised of a breastfeeding group whilst pregnant by hv but didnt attend whilst pregnant.

1. didnt really need much support but when i wasnt sure if baby was laching on properly cmv told me to ring when about to feed and she would come. that was useful.

1. mw's were available to provide support and help with laching on but only stayed a few hours so dont know how available they actually were. when i requested help i did get it. i think it would be a good idea to have a bfc available as i have heard mw's give contradicting advice.

1. i now attend the breastfeeding group i was advised about whilst pregnant which meets every week and has a bfc and hv attending. good to meet other bf mums as i didnt know any and good to know that there is bfc and hv if u need any prof advice. i am actually training at the moment to become a peer supporter for the group.

1
no non they were not available

2
i breastfed but didn't need any help thankfully but my mum has a friend who works for a breastfeeding helpline and i would of asked her if i needed help

3
no one i had the worst midwife ever my dp was there but he knew nothing about it really apart from it was good for the baby

4
no didn't really knew they existed