Its so sad the amount of threads on here saying Mums have been given shite advice from HCPs when they are at their most vulnerable (myself included). What the hell can we do about it?

[MamaG]

Its shocking and disgraceful. I do a small teeny bit by being positive about BF to any woman, whether she's had children, pregnant or childless at the moment. My DC don't bat an eyelid if they see someone feeding, and I feed in front of their friends too when they come over. If they ask (age 4!)what I'm doing, I just tell them and they accept it.

But its such a TINY thing to do. I feel that I want to do something bigger but I don't knwo what! I'm not an expert on BF by any means, just a Mum.

MamG - you can see if you could train as a peer supporter or breastfeeding counsellor.

When you hear someone talk about the bad stuff they have heard from their HCPs, ask if they have thought about complaining. I wish more mothers would do so - I often suggest to them on mumsnet that they might think about it. I don't think many (any?) of them ever do

(There's a thread at the moment in which someone says their HV had advised them to top up with formula in order to make more breastmilk. Another one where a midwife has told a mother to space out the feeds of a tiny newborn, so as not to create bad habits. Just two examples among many... )

Thanks tiktok, thats actually a cracking idea. How would I go about training to be a peer supporter or a BF counsellor?

I will certainly encourage people to complain about bad advice when I hear them talk about it (on MN or RL). Luckily (HUGELY luckily) where I live the HVs and community MWs are great and very pro BF. In hospital however, I had a MW snap at me "this baby is starving" as I refused to let them give baby a bottle of formula - I don't know her name though so can't really complain now. I should have done at the time but I wasn't strong enough

YOur HV will know about any peer supporter training in your area. Check the vol orgs' websites for info about bfc training (NCT, LLL, BfN, ABM).

Great, thanks. Will do