Hunker, there are 2 groups in my area. At first it was myself and another woman who sometimes were the only 2 people there when dd was under 1. sometimes it was just one of us sitting chatting with one of the 2 hv's who are trained up on some courses. from our conversations, i have deduced that neither of them bf for long or at all.
when dd was approaching 2 and i was back at work, i dropped in and there were quite a few women there. I went along with dd and some of the comments I heard regarding co-sleeping, when I dropped it in conversation, were not on. She remarked, 'well, we all want to get our babies out of our beds as soon as we can. Later on, she said to another woman, 'well you can always come here where the real experts can help you bf.' While looking at me in that funny way that you feel like you did not belong there. And this was also the woman who when dd was fussing alot at 6 wks old told me to top up! I only hope she now has better training and isn't still telling people that.
One of the women was bottlefeeding expressed milk. I deduced from oversupply. I deduced earlier it was the only way she may have been helped to cope with it?
One last clanger. My mate who is also bf an over 2, turned up one day to go to the group. this HV ushered in all the mums with babies and left my mate standing there in the lobby with her 2 yo. My mate hasn't gone back I think but now she also works full time.
I think the other hv is nicer but doesn't run the group v. often.
Now, there is a second group in my area only in a new sure start centre which is less than a yr old and the group is only running for about 6 months. It seems to be run by hv's who are on the whole a lot more positive and excited about exclusive bf to 6 months and blw. I will deffo pass on details of that one. the only downside is that it doesn't seem to have anyone dedicated to run it and since i work full time, can only drop in a few times a yr to guage their knowledge. I don't have a problem recommending that one. I guess I should speak about the first one but i feel i can only give information with caveats about it.