Peer support

[Fibilou]

So I have passed the magic 3 months "breastfeeding experience" to become a peer supporter as advertised at my Children's Centre. What does it involve ? I've enjoyed breastfeeding immensely and am extremely passionateabout it so would like to give something back

Hi Fibilou - I trined as a peer supporter with the BfN at my local Children's centre in Suffolk and it was great. There were 9 of us doing the training and the tutor was lovely. For the peer supporter training, you go once a week for usually 2 hours (if it's the BfN) and learn the ways in which to support (not advise) women whilst breastfeeding. You learn a lot about yourself and how you come across to others and learn lots of essential skills to use once you're trained. Once our training was complete, we set up a weekly bf group in the centre and advertised locally, telling mums about when and why we were there. We made a rota to take turns so there were always 2 people there. It was great because we could take our children with us and they could use the play facilites. Whilst training, our children were looked after for us in the creche.
You can then go on to become a breast feeding supporter which involves being trained to give telephone support.