Share your thoughts about how to give babies the best start in life, and chat to Andrea Leadsom MP about the government’s Early Years Healthy Development review

[BojanaMumsnet]

Hello

As some of you will remember, last year we hosted a thread with the Rt. Hon. Andrea Leadsom MP about the support that parents receive antenatally and in the early years, and the kinds of help that parents on Mumsnet found most useful when their children are very young.

Now Andrea is leading a Review within the Department of Health and Social Care to investigate how to ensure every baby has the best start in life. (Please note that the Review is focussed on England because this policy is devolved - although thoughts from parents outside England would still be interesting.)

The focus here is squarely on health and development (not childcare) in the period of time between conception and a child’s second birthday - what some specialists call ‘the first 1001 days’.

This period sees huge changes for families and has ramifications for a wide range of issues. From differences in birth weight to social and emotional development; from adverse childhood experiences in infancy to domestic abuse during pregnancy; and from mental health impacts for parents to how the COVID pandemic and lockdown have changed family life - Andrea would like to hear from Mumsnet users about your thoughts and your experiences.

The Department of Health and Social Care says: ‘We know the period from conception to the age of 2 is critical, with the potential to provide a solid foundation as babies grow and develop. We are committed to ensuring that every baby and young child has the best start in life, and that they are supported and nurtured to be school ready and to progress in life, no matter what their circumstances. The Government will work with academics, health professionals and other experts to identify policies and services that will improve the outcomes for vulnerable babies, children and their families.’

Andrea says: ‘I’m really looking forward to taking part in the Mumsnet early years thread and talking with parents about their experiences. I am keen to hear about the real life experiences of Mums, Dads, carers and health professionals and their ideas about what can be done to improve early years provision.’

‘The Early Years Healthy Development Review is focused on conception to the age of two, known as the first 1001 Critical Days. This is where the building blocks for good emotional and physical health are laid down, and these thoughts and experiences will be essential in helping shape the Review’s recommendations to ensure that every baby gets the best start in life.’

The Review is set to report in early 2021 - so this is a chance to directly influence government policy in this crucial area.

Andrea will have a Mumsnet log-in for this thread and will be reading your comments and responding to them directly over the next couple of weeks. Her first check in will be on Tuesday 3 November at 1pm, so if you’d like to talk to her ‘live’ we’d love to see you then - but if you can’t make it at that time please just post on the thread to add your thoughts.

Andrea’s keen to focus on the first 1001 days, so while you may be bursting to know what she thinks about other political issues, we’d appreciate it if you could remain on-topic as much as possible given how critical this issue is for so many Mumsnet users.

Some starters for ten:
What is (or was) important for you in the early years, including antenatally?
What would you have liked to have access to, but didn’t? What’s missing?
What would you like to say about your experience of the period from your child’s conception to their second birthday? What were the high points and low points when it came to health, development and support?

@KiriAndLou

Properly trained breastfeeding support is patchy within the NHS. Health visitors and community midwives seem to have limited knowledge- they can show a mother how to latch in one way but don't know what to do when the mother can't replicate this herself. Knowledge of holds seems limited to cradle and rugby ball and little is known about oversupply and how to manage it- my baby was diagnosed with colic when really an oversupply was causing her gastrointestinal discomfort. No one in the NHS spotted it and I eventually worked it out myself, but by then DD had become accustomed to it. I've prevented the issue with second-born DS by using techniques advised by la leche league.

I was readmitted to hospital for breastfeeding support in the immediate postpartum period with DD and this is what saved my breastfeeding journey. I was sleep deprived and miserable, terrified I was starving my baby, and the hospital stay supported me to become properly confident with breastfeeding. At present, midwives tick a box to say baby has latched and fed and can then send new mums home. This is not enough and mums often struggle once home. Not enough is shared about what normal is- no one tells you about the prolonged nursing and crying on days two and three and that it's normal. They don't tell you that your breasts will become like leaky rocks, or that this can prevent baby latching and that a pump might be necessary to get rid of enough that baby can latch. A bank of online resources with troubleshooting would be helpful (as would cessation of the 'if it hurts, you're doing it wrong' fallacy). Some volunteer groups do absolutely amazing work- this time around I received support at midnight from a local peer support group which was invaluable. These should be signposted to. Tongue tie cutting should be more widely available very quickly- I've seen breastfeeding journeys end because tongue tie couldn't be resolved promptly and the baby needed feeding.

It's not enough to encourage women to try breastfeeding- support is needed for when it goes wrong. Otherwise, women are being set up to fail and this does not start their journey into parenthood positively.

@KiriAndLou. I really do agree with you about the vital need for good breastfeeding support, and I’m sorry you seem to have had a really tough time to begin with. Do you think voluntary help, or professional help, or a mixture would have been best for you? Did your babies experience tongue tie? Was this spotted quickly, and what would you have liked to happen differently?

Regarding breastfeeding support posts above. There are a number of different organistions which offer support for breastfeeding, which each have their own focus and identity. Some more parent led than others but all I believe evidence based information and pro choice for women.

The issue is access to expert infant feeding help in the crucial first days which is often lacking in hospital. Hospital maternity wards are not an easy place to begin breastfeeding for the first time and women just need lots more help. Culturally we also live in a society which applauds women who are back on their feet very soon after birth - shared parental leave has I think helped that issue somewhat but longer paternity leave would be better still.

@Powerof4

Also, action needs to be taken on women’s experiences of giving birth and being in hospital.

I left hospital already broken from an entire 48 hours with no sleep following major surgery and heavy blood loss. The wards were impossible to recover on - noisy, hot, I couldn’t have my partner to hold my baby overnight so I could sleep.

She cried constantly so I had to carry her pacing the area outside the ward so other women could sleep and I wouldn’t fall asleep holding her.

My experience is common!

@Powerof4. It sounds as though you had a terrible experience in hospital - I’m so sorry to hear that. Do you have specific suggestions on what would have been better? Would you have preferred to be discharged to home earlier with support at home? Do you think Mums in your situation should have a private room/area?

@EPPM

I was fortunate geographically and had outstanding bf support ante and post-natally. That isn't universal though. We also had my son's tongue tie sorted within a week, whereas my brother (completely different part of England) has had to pay privately to have both his children's tongue ties dealt with. Considering what an effect tongue tie has on how much a baby can take in through bf it is not on that this isn't diagnosed and sorted whilst the mother and baby are still in hospital from the birth. I only knew there was a problem with my son because I had already successfully bf my older child. I didn't know he wasn't gaining weight. My SIL hadn't bf before so only knew as her baby continued to lose weight, which isn't the best start for a child. There's absolutely no reason why this can't be picked up in the first couple of days. Being told that the wait to have the snipping procedure on the NHS was months was just devastating when their baby was being readmitted for failure to thrive!

@EPPM can you explain why the tongue tie wasn’t spotted please? Did your Health Visitor/Midwife look for it? Was there a delay between diagnosis and the procedure to sort it out?

I had to stay on the ward for one night after my first child was born. It was absolutely awful. Four newborns, four mothers and three male partners (mine went home). No privacy because just thin curtains and midwives doing hourly checks. Extra visitors until late. For that birth I also didn’t get a private room until I was 5cm dilated already - Until then I had spent 6 hours labouring in the shared room where people wait to be induced or come for monitoring - with their visitors too!

I booked home births for my second and third births and although I have birth in hospital both times I was very pleased to be given a private room in the midwife led unit which was perfect. Private, comfortable, attention from happy midwives who weren’t stressed and rushing. Everyone should have that.

Do you think voluntary help, or professional help, or a mixture would have been best for you?

I don't really mind whether voluntary or professional, as long as the advice given is good and the help is readily available. It'd be nice is there was no need for voluntary support because professional support was so good and available, but that's not the current landscape and I appreciate that funding could be a problem in getting that set up. There's a national breastfeeding helpline but I never managed to get through to them- their lines were all busy and there was no call waiting facility. I was very lucky to be readmitted to hospital with my first for support (the ward was quiet) and over the two days I was there I saw many different midwives who gave conflicting advice, which was rather frustrating. Eventually one came on who was confident to recommend a course of action and she made all the difference.

Did your babies experience tongue tie? Was this spotted quickly, and what would you have liked to happen differently?

Thankfully not, but I have seen other mums struggle to get diagnosis and then treatment. As a PP said- if the wait to get the tongue tie cut is weeks to months, essentially the breastfeeding journey is over unless the mother is extraordinary determined.

*extraordinarily

@AndreaLeadsomMP

Thanks for your concern. The answer to my situation was properly funded NHS care. I couldn’t be discharged - I had had major surgery and blood loss. However, if this was the answer, there wasn’t a Dr available to assess and discharge me.

I’m concerned you haven’t read the research on maternity wards which will give you data on what representative samples of women have said about their experiences and give evidence- based recommendations. There is also published research on how to support sleep on hospital wards - it can offer far more informed suggestions than I can for improving care.

The same for your question about peer to peer breastfeeding support - there’s plenty of research on what support is needed. I’d really like to see policy in this area evidence-based, as that’s what will really improve things for women.

Have you ever come across a ‘breastfeeding support group’ where volunteers are trained up by professionals to provide peer to peer support? Do you think this might be helpful to Mums who feel more comfortable with someone who has been through it all themselves? Or do you think it should only be delivered by NHS expert professionals?

I work in this area. Peer support has its place, but NHS support is completely absent in our area. My twins were in NICU and we got no breastfeeding support at all despite it being even more important. I ended up pumping for 7 months which was brutal.

Peer support should be for the basic - checking latch, offering advice on norms. But the peer supporters I know are dealing with complex issues because there’s no one else to do it unless you can afford a private IBCLC. There is no reason the NHS should not employ IBCLCs to offer support to those who want or need it. It’s a matter of priorities.

My twins are both disabled - both are autistic and one is also visually impaired and has various medical issues. Actual support before they turned 2 would have been invaluable but did not exist. The lack of children’s centres (or rather that the children’s centres that do exist no longer run many public groups as they are renting out space to other services to stay afloat) is a massive issue.

I honestly can't think of anything else which would have improved things! Breastfeeding support as people mentioned, but I was lucky and got mine through NCT/peer support groups/LLL and online.

I found my health visitor wasn't very up to date on certain things - car seat safety for example, which I appreciate is a confusing area because the legislation and products available and guidelines are constantly evolving and changing. Making sure health visitors give up to date advice is important. I tended not to ask her for guidance because I felt she wasn't a source I could trust or rely on.

The trouble with peer support is it often isn't very inclusive because of the people who are more likely to be able to volunteer. The BFing support group I attended wasn't overly helpful and I was bullied there (as I was also using formula and didn't want to increase supply to remove the formula). The peer supporter was trying to be nice but was in a very privileged position (she could afford not to work and had lots of extended family help with her children so was at the group on her own) so simply couldn't grasp that I was completely on my own for 10+ hours a day with zero help around, struggling with a tiny baby and severe post natal depression.

I looked into volunteering to do it myself once DD started school (I work part time) but because I combi-fed rather than EBF I can't, even though I BF for 3.5 years. I'd prefer to support an inclusive infant feeding group but they don't seem to exist. I've come across so many women who think they'll have to stop BFing because they're using formula and have no idea it's possible to combine the two.

Thirteen years ago, when I had my first, I saw an NHS lactation consultant on day 3 in hospital. I didn't particularly enjoy my stay in hospital, but the atmosphere was reasonably calm and although there was not enough support from midwives (more a problem with the midwives themselves rather than the staffing to be fair) things ran smoothly enough and visiting times were adhered to strictly.

I had a phone call with a breastfeeding peer supporter on day 6 when I came home. The local SureStart ran parenting courses, cookery courses, sleep clinics, baby yoga and massage, exercise classes, and half a dozen different playgroups,as well as subsidised days out to places like the zoo. I live rurally, and they operated a sort of satellite system around the villages.

When I had my second, two years ago, there was no lactation consultant, no peer supporter, the postnatal ward was crazy, and anyone's bloke seemed to feel free to wander about from 7am to 11pm, and when I brought my baby home, I found out that SureStart offer a fraction of what they did a decade ago.

So yes - bring back SureStart. Even ore covid I've found it a lot harder to meet with other parents this time round, unless I pay £££ and drive miles to do specialist baby and toddler activities. There are the usual church hall playgroups, but increasingly they're struggling as they don't have the volunteer pool anymore, everyone is going back to work and little old church ladies aren't as thick on the ground - they're probably still working too! I would say SureStart is more necessary now than it ever was. The UK frankly has a fairly horrible track record when it comes to children's mental health and happiness, and I feel that because SureStart didn't automatically fix every problem parent or family, it was consigned to the dustbin, when in fact the first SureStart babies are only really hitting adulthood now, and it's one of those services where the benefits can't always be measured or seen the way a GCSE certificate can- we need to get out of the way of thinking that rewards have to be visible and immediate

I couldn't agree more with the posters advocating proper, science based, realistic breastfeeding advice. I say that as someone who has successfully fed two children into toddlerhood. There is so much basic knowledge lacking, it's really shameful actually,because it's the sort of thing that any mum on a Facebook parenting group with six months of feeding under her belt will know due to trial and error. There's no reason why the same knowledge can't be given to mothers during pregnancy, by someone who is well educated on the subject and has no drum to beat. Feeding an infant shouldn't be the stressful journey it currently is for so many mothers, regardless of what their choices and preferences are.

The other thing I would like to see is more guidance around screens for babies and toddlers. In the last decade since I've had a toddler, tablet use in very small children has boomed. Every day there is someone on my local parenting facebook group looking for a recommendation for a tablet to buy for their child's first or second birthday/Christmas. My gut instinct, as someone who has worked with young children, is that too much use of these screens at a young age is not good for a whole lot of reasons, ranging from the lack of physical activity to the impact on concentration levels. I feel this needs looked at in greater detail.

Also what on earth is going on with health visitors? They're either really brilliant or stunningly useless. There's no in between.

That's it, I think!

Completely agree about early breastfeeding support in hospital. Luckily I persevered despite not having any and on day five a midwife at the heel prick test identified what was going on and we’re still going at nearly two.

I’d like some proper research done into the long term effects of sleep training on under twos. It goes against many mothers natural instincts but is definitely the societal norm (and often saves mothers sanity) but we don’t know if or what damage it does to the child long term.

The other thing I’d like to have is more information about what actually good looks like in the first two years. I don’t know how to make the most of the first two years and what the top shoulds and should note are, there is a lot of conflicting advice.

I think another thing should be extending paternity leave following a Scandi model of mum and dad being able to share a couple of years between them so the child is with an attachment figure for the most important years rather than being looked after in nurseries.

Maternity coaching and support for women going on leave and returning to work would also be really useful.

For me, the biggest failing at present is on the post natal wards. I have had two babies at different hospitals, and in both cases I had a dreadful experience. I was immobile, from a c section and next time a forceps delivery with stitches, catheter etc. I didn't get the help I needed because they were so understaffed. I had no pain relief as there was noone to give it. There was noone to help me feed the baby, I would sometimes be ringing the bell for an hour but no-one was available. I was left holding the baby, unable to put him back in his cot myself, biting my hand to stop myself falling asleep and dropping him.

I couldn't attend the breastfeeding support as I was in too much pain to walk unaided to the room where it was held. My son's tongue tie was missed as the staff were rushing to sign him off and wouldn't listen to my concerns about his latch (second baby, so I knew it wasn't right).

Once out of hospital I got excellent breastfeeding support from the NHS second time round. But first time round I relied on NCT and La Leche League for breastfeeding support, I agree with other posters that these organisations are dominated by people with particular viewpoints and may not be very helpful for people with serious feeding issues and that's why it's so important to have a decent NHS service.

Hi My name is Cassandra Davis

For me, the biggest failing at present is on the post natal wards. I have had two babies at different hospitals, and in both cases I had a dreadful experience. I was immobile, from a c section and next time a forceps delivery with stitches, catheter etc. I didn't get the help I needed because they were so understaffed. I had no pain relief as there was noone to give it. There was noone to help me feed the baby, I would sometimes be ringing the bell for an hour but no-one was available. I was left holding the baby, unable to put him back in his cot myself, biting my hand to stop myself falling asleep and dropping him.

I couldn't attend the breastfeeding support as I was in too much pain to walk unaided to the room where it was held. My son's tongue tie was missed as the staff were rushing to sign him off and wouldn't listen to my concerns about his latch (second baby, so I knew it wasn't right).

Once out of hospital I got excellent breastfeeding support from the NHS second time round. But first time round I relied on NCT and La Leche League for breastfeeding support, I agree with other posters that these organisations are dominated by people with particular viewpoints and may not be very helpful for people with serious feeding issues and that's why it's so important to have a decent NHS service.

@Powerof4

Also, action needs to be taken on women’s experiences of giving birth and being in hospital.

I left hospital already broken from an entire 48 hours with no sleep following major surgery and heavy blood loss. The wards were impossible to recover on - noisy, hot, I couldn’t have my partner to hold my baby overnight so I could sleep.

She cried constantly so I had to carry her pacing the area outside the ward so other women could sleep and I wouldn’t fall asleep holding her.

My experience is common!

This. And it’s still affecting me a month later.

I did get breastfeeding support in the beginning but was ignored recently when I contacted again.

Support for me as a mum, physically, isn’t there. My body is fucked and no one cares. I’m going to have problems for life I know it.
Also, everything has stopped support wise. No antenatal, no children’s and babies groups. I need to ask questions and get support and talk to other mums and not feel so lonely.

The hospital antenatal yoga was great for making friends, linking up with hospital breastfeeding class and antenatal classes, and general support. The health visitors were also great in giving breastfeeding support in my area, which was great. The children's centre drop-ins were helpful and events always interesting, yet the local council decided to try to close a couple of children's centres including an awful idea of merging with other needs, stopped by petitions. Unfortunately they've now used covid to shut one centre down. These places are so useful for being able to get help when needed, if there were more of them and more health visitors then they could help far more mothers. The health visitors also handed out lists of all local groups (church halls, breastfeeding, paid classes, everything) and that was great for integrating.

It would be useful to have a scheme through children's centres to coordinate passing on used clothes, toys, bottles, partial packs of nappies could be set out etc so anyone who needs them can pick stuff up. Once or twice there were requests locally for specific needs, but a lot of things end up in the charity shops and not everything is appropriate for that.

In my area there was no BCG jab for little ones, what's frustrating is that I couldn't even choose to pay the GP for it. Now it's been brought in, but only for babies not the older toddlers. It's only offered by a couple of specialist private GPs booked months in advance for one afternoon slot per month (and not right now, obviously). Chickenpox I could pay the GP for. Even if the NHS isn't offering these vaccinations as standard, it would help if GP surgeries were obliged to supply them paid-for on request.

It would be useful to have better coordinated information about childcare available during pregnancy; authorised facilities, addresses costs, hours, typical waiting times, detail about how government funding works. Some have to be booked over 6 months ahead of need, and pregnant women aren't always aware of that. I can't say I fully understand how to get the best out of tax-free childcare / childcare vouchers etc; there's a lot of information but it doesn't clearly explain the actual tax impacts.

Last comment is that I feel my child's needs were well taken care of by healthcare professionals, as was I while pregnant. The same is not true for my physical needs post-pregnancy, having had multiple post-birth issues. There are other threads on mumsnet where people have made good points about female health inequality, but it's a real battle to get GPs to take female health issues seriously at times and should be addresses much better. It's caused a lot of unnecessary stress and time to get very simple issues followed up on, and I don't understand why women should be in this position where pain and a whole range of post-pregnancy body changes are dismissed as standard. A quick check at 6 weeks is not adequate for post-natal care, and all issues identified should be followed up.

Child poverty affects babies too. Maybe the Government should look at how to help families afford the basics like food and warmth before anything else. A winter fuel grant for those entitled to child benefit would be a start.

For me the main issues I experienced were around getting care for myself post natally. At the six week check for my first baby, I was exhausted, bewildered, and my baby screamed through the whole appointment. The doctor did nothing to check on me or my well being, and we were in and out in five minutes. At 8 weeks I had a breakdown and the GP diagnosed PND and prescribed sertraline. I feel strongly that between 10 days when the midwife signed me off and 8 weeks when I broke down there must have been signs I was struggling, and if the GP had made time to speak to me instead of just focusing on the baby at the six week check, then it might have been picked up sooner. I strongly believe that there should be a wellness check 4, 6, 8 and maybe 12 weeks after giving birth. It would pick up so many issues like mine.

I also think that if the best thing is for baby to be at home with mum, then paid maternity should be extended. If not, then funded childcare should be accessible earlier. Too many women have to give up work because the gap between the end of paid maternity leave and the start of funded childcare at 3 years old makes it too expensive to work.

I also agree wholeheartedly with the comments about surestart centres. They were a fantastic service and an important part of the community.

Urgent need for a council run mother and pre-schooler group where you can sit and chat whilst feeding baby or toddlers play. Currently all the groups are either volunteer run by old ladies so understandably probably won't reopen for a year or more, or are private and therefore expensive.

Better funding is needed for this and other services. As previous posters said, the evidence for what is needed is out there, in fact many of these services were there until they were withdrawn due to Tory austerity policies. What is the point of asking a few mums on Mumsnet what they want? It's pointless unless the Tories are willing to reverse the austerity policies and put back all the services they destroyed.

my boy had severe reflux and dairy intolerant but wasn't diagnosed until he was 9 months after a trip to A+E. The NHS staff were incredible. in his first 9 months he refused tummy time, had horrific eczema and was underweight. This meant he didn't walk or jump until he was much older. If it wasn't for the NHS peaditric dietician, I think we would have had all sorts of food issues too. First 1001 days are critical which means every day counts. If I was listened to earlier and staff were trained to see the signs of reflux, we could have had less sleepless nights, less eczema and potentially development stages met.

Professionally I train foster carers in attachment, child development, trauma informed and behaviour support. As a parent I wasn't informed of attachment parenting, empathic parenting or research on brain development and behaviour support strategies. In fact parents/families are only offered evidence based advice when they are struggling and accessing Early Help. We can support the early intervention strategy far better by highlighting the research on parenting in preparation of becoming a parent e.g. when pregnant. I even created my own blog to share evidence based research to parents because I couldn't find anything. raising2children.com.

Many of my friends who are parents don't know how playing and interacting with their baby supports attachment - which fundamentally impacts how you behave throughout childhood and into adulthood.

Many parents have not heard of EYFS. I couldn't find a guide that broke down each criterion so I knew what to encourage at home. I ended up making a guide myself!!!

1001 critical days is a great document. Do parents know it exists? Where are the practical ideas for professionals and parents to make a piece of paper a reality.

I think parents would be open to watching short films exploring brain development, attachment and behaviour support- siren films have great clips.

My stance is: early support (through evidence based info/advice) can even reduce early 'intervention'. This in turn, can minimise the impact of trauma and insecure attachment. We want to create a secure baby > child > adolescent > adult, benefitting the individual, family, community and country. It is far cheaper to not have the issues in the first place.

Thank you for asking for our feedback. I appreciate the opportunity to offer my opinions.

Early breastfeeding advice is so important. I felt lucky to have a local breastfeeding cafe drop-in but it wasn't frequent, and it took professionals a while to pick up on my son's tongue tie (and 2 procedures over 8 weeks to sort). I was devestated for new mums to see that service close earlier this year, along with all sure start centres in my area.

I also share safeguarding concerns about lack of compulsory health visitor contact. I deligently took my son to be weighed and seen, but there was no obligation to. He's not yet 2 and if I hadn't gone to the early weigh ins, he would have not had any contact with a professional since the days following birth. Almost 2 years without anyone having record of whether he is cared for.

Stop the postcode lottery, HV universal offer varies massively. Look to Scotland! What they are doing is amazing, they value the importance of the first 1001 days. We just don't have enough HV's, we need thousands more. The notion of 5 mandated contacts is sadly, laughable. Try 2! A primary and a 6-8wk. Antenatals don't exists anymore, not in my area. 9-12m and 2yr carried out by cnn's.

I say bring back the 3-4m contact. Perfect time to talk about weaning and sleep, to continue giving messages about interaction, communication and baby brain development. Show them the importance, reduce the SALT referrals later on.

Community nursery nurses have a wealth of information - utilise them further! Bring back surestart - I miss the surestart days, it was fantastic!

Infant feeding teams need investing in - I say this as my last point but it's one of the most important.

We all know the benefits of breastfeeding and how much money we could save the NHS in the long run. My area has an infant feeding team staffed by THREE. That is absolutely appalling. They are fantastic, so skilled and knowledgable, but there's THREE of them trying to cover such a large area, It's just not possible.

Peer supporters have their place but we need more experienced NHS professionals delivering bf support.

Don't even get me started on children's social care - now that is frightening, as a seasoned professional, the risks I see being ignored, all backed by managers of course, out of my hands, that's what keeps me up at night and gives me chills.

These services are at breaking point and need money and staff pouring into them.

Couldn't agree more with @hvnamechange2000. My HV contact consisted of immediately after birth and then at 6 weeks. Otherwise nothing. Nursery forms always asked for "named health visitor" but I didn't have one. I was discharged ASAP even though I had ongoing issues with feeding and my son's tongue tie. Any support involved me going to weigh ins run out of sure start centres to get help, or going to the breastfeeding cafe. All of these have now closed in my area and are only operated on a referral basis. This is devestating. I'm concerned about how many families are out there who won't be seeking help to get a referral, and how many safeguarding concerns will easily fall through gaps.