appalling bf advice - too much of it!!

[weeonion]

hi there. no real point to this post but just felt i had to share some bloody awful advice i have been given by professionals in the last month.
doctor at A&E - (i was advised to go there to get antibiotics at 3am) - just stop tonight and dont feed again,
nurse at A&E - dont bother with bf - its too mush hassle and a niusance
community midwife - forget about bf and focus on buying sexy bras instead!!!!!
community midwife - give up bf - my dp would appreciate me with better boobs
new HV at bf support group - remember that bf can be bad for a baby???????

shocked by all of this. where/ how exactly does policy be put into practice!!

Is there a breastfeeding policy at your local hospital?

I would talk to my local patient liaison service about this - it's not helpful, it's not best practice and it's very, very undermining.

The community midwives and the HV really ought to know better - wtf are they talking about?! Did anyone ask the HV what she meant?!

I'm really sorry you've had these experiences. Ignorant HCPs

Wow you got the jackpot there!

Fortunate you know bad advice when you hear it.

hunker - this all happened while i was on holiday in N.ireland for a month. thankfully i have good support here with the bf specialist.

i did aks the hv what she meant. she said it was to do with stress hormones being released by mothers and passed onto kids. also breastmilk had high sugar levels so damaged teeth!!

I would love to know what the HV meant.

No wonder bf rates are so low in NI.

And yes, thank goodness you knew better!

Oh, what UTTER crap.

I would still complain, actually. I'm sure there must be a way!

It's rife in Glasgow isn't it? I have to bite my tongue now when I hear these pearls of wisdom via friends - none of them are bf, all of them were given shit advice from pretty much every health professional they came across who was PAID to help them and their baby.

Small comfort, but at least you know it's shit advice. Most people think these people know what they're talking about (and presumably the hvs/midwives/doctors/gps think they're giving good advice) and hence: "oh my milk wasn't good enough", "oh I didn't have enough", "I had to take abs so my gp avised me to stop". One friend was told by her hv that her milk was "too watery". This is in 2006. Funnily enough bf rates in Glasgow are very poor.

Oh, and Aitch tells me that the only consistently high quality, knowledgeable support that I found (appart from my fantastic, one in a million community midwife) - the service at the QMH is about to have their funding cut and their remit widened... .

Eleanor Stenhouse is the Head of Midwifery for NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde. I've written to her but had no reply yet.

x-posted weeonion! Glad this was in NI (well not glad obviously but you know what I mean!) but unfortunately the same rubbish is peddled here as well ime.

With HCPs like this, formula advertising and India Knight et al, no bloody wonder it's an uphill struggle for women who want to bf.

Just add in unsupportive family and strangers making yuck faces if you bf in public and we've pretty much got every avenue covered.

And then people wonder why the bf rates are so low in this country.

god this is so familiar, one dr said ok to take antiobiotics & nurofen & carry on bf, & one dr when i low said ''she is 1, she doesnt need bf aymore, take these anti-depressants'' im so fed up of our doctors, they are insensitive & clueless

How flippin' depressing, whats wrong with these folk???

isnt it just

I feel extremely fortunate to live 2 miles from a midwife led maternity unit. They are really good with the b/f. Everyone I know who gave birth there b/f for at least 3 months and the majority for a year or more. HV not so and I have as little to do with GPs as possible.

You have to complain weeonion. Bloody people - doesn't give you much faith in 'health professionals' does it?

I too realise I must be very fortunate, TDONB. My baby is 3.5 weeks old and I've had nothing but amazing support via the NHS. The hospital midwives (consultant-led unit but very small and informal) were fabulous without exception, happily spending what added up to literally hours in the middle of the night helping me establish BF. My community MW would visit more than once a day if I was having difficulty (engorgement problems) and stayed for as long as it took, drying my eyes and generally being lovely and encouraging me to persevere. My HV is a bit of a BF militant - I'd be scared of stopping BF now, she'd eat me alive! In all honesty I don't know how knowledgeable she'd be were I to ask her about a specific BF problem, but she's certainly extremely supportive.

This is all Highland and Grampin NHS staff, so not all of Scotland is bad!

It's amazing the human race has lasted so long with all this poor quality breast milk we produce

It just amazes me, why are they so out of touch? Aren't HCP required to keep themselves up to date? Is it just bf they don't know about or are they dangerously underskilled in other areas as well?

I've started separate thread about fab birthing unit - everyone should have access to this type of care.

isnt it interesting that certain areas are clamouring to gettheir baby friendly status but havent bothereed to ensure that their frontline staff are trained/ have the attitudes to support this.

i have spoken to the bf co-ordinator for NIreland in relation to that advice i was given (used to work with her) and tbh - she said it is pretty typical. the laleche and nctphonelines were brill - especially in the early hours of the morning.

i did end up having antibiotics on drip, breast scans for abcesses etc - alot due to the fact that certain doctors would not listen to others expert opinions.

i woudl be interested in see how bf support and advice is being audited across the country.