Your thoughts on breastfeeding policy and what could be done to improve it/ increase breastfeeding rates

[JustScreamMumsnet]

Hello Mumsnetters, we've managed to get a meeting with the person running the Government's breastfeeding initiative and would like to pass on Mumsnet's top suggestions for improving breastfeeding policy and to outline the key issues.

So let rip! But do bear in mind that there's probably bugger all in the pot, so, much as we'd all love to have a one to one breastfeeding counsellor for the first 48 hours for all type thing - that's probably not a realistic suggestion at this point.

yeah that's what I was trying to say: the targets should be for still BF when signed off by MW and then at 6 week check...?

AvrilH - that's very sad - I've also heard similar stories from doctors who work in the NHS.

In the hospital where I gave birth - there was only one specifically BF trained midwife on duty at any one time. You had to really fight to get focus from her. It is a big maternity unit.

I shouted loudly enough that I got the help I needed, but the rest of the midwives were soooo keen to give DS formula.
I had shocking BF advice from the general midwifery team, was given nipple shields for no reason when DS was about 12 hours old. He and I were manhandled by midwife after midwife in an attempt to get us latched on. Bloody shocking.

So yes - training, training and more training.

Also, restaurants, shopping centers and other public places need to provide more facilities for mums to BF in private if they want to. I know several mums who gave up breastfeeding when they wanted to start getting out and about more.

absolutely, wolfie, it's the bare minimum. the drop in the amount of women who are prepared to give bfing a try in this country but are then bfing at 6 weeks is a national scandal imo.

Provide more breast feeding rooms for new mums which are properly designed! not a chair in a change room, or a tiny dark cubicle.
Up to date training to mw in hospitals, I was [shocked] at the crap advise still being given.
Provide breast feeding classes for pregnant women that include advise to the father, and provide these to all pregnant women not just first time mums.

There is a real need to be more honest about the lack of support for new mothers who are trying to breastfeed. To my eternal regret, I assumed that our HCPs knew what they were talking about.

Proper training developed for the NHS for relevant health care professionals including doctors involved in delivery (especially in CS and more difficult births) and paediatricians and midwives and health visitors, and not short courses funded by formula companies.

Consistency of training and support - hcps currently spend a lot of time and resources giving advice which doesn't help and may actually damage bf.

Baby food manufacturers not to be allowed to label foods from 4 months.

Prioritise continuing, even just to 6 weeks, as the target over initiation.

Targeting funding to breastfeeding support groups/paid specialist staff in the community such as the bf worker who runs my local group and also works with the HV team/peer support training.

Make it illegal in all Uk to stop someone feeding their infant.
Prioritise bf support in maternity wards. (in hosp for 5 days post c-section and felt I was imposing everytime I asked for help with latch - all far too busy to help except for one. God knows what it would have been like if I was home after one day).
Counter the HV attitude that it's fine for a few weeks/months, but then you should really be onto bottles. More support for women bfing for 6mths/1yr/2yrs.
All weighing charts to be updated to the ones for bf babies, as the default chart. Women stop bf if they think LO isn't gaining enough weight.
Medals if you bf at all, gold ones for 6 months! Well not really, but a bit of praise from HV/GP would go a long way, rather than a raised eyebrow.

Agree with PPs.
There is frankly little point in producing glossy posters when the health care providers in hospitals and in the first two weeks post natally may know so scarily little.

I am a breastfeeding counsellor and I volunteer on the one of the national helplines. I constantly talk to mothers who have been told things by midwives and health visitors which are utterly bizarre and show a complete lack of understanding of the most basic fundamentals of breastfeeding. When a baby is slow to gain weight HCPs often have nothing else to say other than 'give formula'. Even just ONE course of 6 hours which outlined 'when a breastfeeding baby is slow to gain weight this is what you can suggest...' and some basics on latch and positioning would go a long way. This is where the money needs to go.

Mothers are scrabbling around trying to find face-to-face support or get hold of someone on the phone meanwhile they have regular visits from midwives and a health visitor visit. 90% of women who give up in the first 2 weeks didn't want to. People call the helpline when the midwife has just walked out the door saying, 'surely this can't be right' and I have to bite my tongue from saying,'no it bloody well isn't. Thank Goodness YOU had the sense to call the helpline'. And I feel confident that midwives and health visitors would want this focus on training too. I have been shadowed by a health visitor who came to drop-in to observe and was gushing at how much she had learnt in only one hour. I have spoken to a midwife who said that when a mum in hospital asked for breastfeeding support she would dread the walk down the corridor as she felt so out of her depth.

The voluntary organizations with their trained counsellors have the knowledge to help run some basic courses that could make such a difference.

The national pot of money is being divided among some of the children's centres where I volunteer but it can't be used to train health visitors and midwives. THIS is where it SHOULD have gone.

Great one Mumsnet!

What JAMM said:
"Good support at anti-natal stage. Proper classes dedicated to breastfeeding. And tell mothers the truth. None of this "if you're doing it right it won't hurt" rubbish. More "it can be uncomfortable at first, these are things you can try to help""

i.e. it may hurt at first as you are getting used to it, but it then stops being painful and here are things you can do to minimise it.

I attended a breastfeeding class before giving birth, then spoke to 6 MWs after giving birth because I was having problems with pain even though my baby was latching on really well and only one of them was able to give me useful advice on this. Without her, I may well have given up.

And what someone else said about giving people useful advice on how to increase milk production rather than topping up with formula. I've had two friends stop breastfeeding after losing their milk because of this.

Shouldn't be allowed to go home from hospital without a member of staff asking if you are finding feeding ok, offering help. Not one for forcing it on people, but the only reason I got any advice with my first was because I refused to go home until someone had sat down with me for 20 minutes to give some advice. Still didn't work well and I was lucky to have a community midwife who was willing and able to help over the next week or I might have given up.

I don't think this needs to be a midwife - many of the health care assistants could be trained in the basics and could help reassure people, and also be trained to know when a midwife is required.

Also my sister was sent home with her first a couple of weeks ago with instructions to pick up some formula on the way home just in case bf didn't work - I understand that this is meant to reassure you at 3am when you and the baby are struggling, but IMO it just makes it much easier to stop bf rather than persevere.

HVs could also spend more time trying to help with bf (e.g. using links with baby/toddler groups, childrens centres) rather than telling you how important the library is. Not for a 3 week old it isn't!

Teach hv to disregard the charts and use common sense when it comes to a bf baby who is 'under average' weight. As a paranoid first time bf'er i was v.upset when my hv made such an issue of dd4 measuring under the average by the charts, i can see she is fleshy and healthy and feeding well but still have to have repeated weigh ins!

Education of HCPs not just in how breastfeeding works and how to support women, but also in why it is important.

I think a lot of HCPs don't really believe that breastfeeding is that much better than formula, or don't understand that an individual woman may be devastated to have stopped breastfeeding for what (in hindsight) was no good reason, or have any knowledge of the differences in health outcomes between bf and ff babies.

If they don't really get all that then they are not going to see the importance of providing proper support in the first place.

Midwives, Doctors and HV's all to be aware of the need to check for tongue tie. This has a massive impact on BF and is not fully understood by HCP's. A check a t birth would ease the issue that many people have when it is is undiagnosed and the Mum had severe pain when feeding, especially as having it snipped early on is so easy.

Better support networks out there in the real world, as part of the normalisation process. I.e. well-publicised breastfeeding cafes/support groups whose information is passed on along with the numbers of helplines etc. If you're a first time mum with no experience of bf in your family/friend group (and no one willing to support you in your bf aims - sadly too common from what I see on here ), having somewhere you can see other bf mums can be so valuable.

It has been said above, but the only decent advice I got was from the NCT BF counsellor, she visited me at home after I had called in tears as it had all gone wrong. The NHS was crap.

Also have to say am still finding the BF uncomfortable despite tons of help, for some women, it just is! I am too stubborn to give up and it is worth it to carry on - more info on how long it takes to feed and frequency of feeds over the first few weeks - just feed the baby on demand isn't that helpful! Making it out it is wonderful just makes women feel more of a failure if they are finding it challenging, so by talking about how it can be hard would be a good thing!

Definitely need to 'normalise' bf especially for younger people.

So I know that Theo Walcott (sp) did something but getting high profile figures to talk about the fact they did/are doing it does really help.

And echo what Flamingo said about it being seen as the norm in soaps etc.

And giving lansinoh/breast pads on prescription would also be nice.

More breasfeeding counsellors and more support in general. Also, perversely help if people want to do some feeds with bottles so that they don't completely give up breastfeeding.

Agree there are some people who will never want to do it so not worth targeting them.

I BF both of my DS and would not have been able to do it without the advice and help of my lovely community midwives. Although the hospital MW helped with initial latching on there was very little support offered after that. Once home my Community MW helped with bf on a daily basis, and advised me on what to do when my milk came in, engorgement etc. They were brilliant and I would not have been able to do it without them. I count myself luck, my friend had no support from her CM and eynded up bottle feeding as she was in lots of pain. MW need training to support women during bf. I didn't take up lots of extra time the advice and support was during normal post natal visits. I agree with better advice during ante-natal classes on what to expect when bf.

Yeah. Get a massive advertising agency to make a free ad, donated contributions by BF slebs. Govt pull strings for airtime as a public health announcement.

Can't hurt to try can it?

agree, training training training

in BF classes tell mums it is ok for baby to lose a couple ounces in the first two or three weeks - in BF-normalized communities (IME) mothers know this is normal (baby is adjusting to having BF meals rather than always-on placenta), I knew this was normal, my mum and MIL knew this was normal, but my HV tried to tell me that DD was in danger and I should be giving formula. if baby is otherwise well, a little fluctuation in weight is NORMAL.

also ask the HV's to stop raising their eyebrows at me when they find out DD is/was exclusively BF. honestly...

Lots of info on how to get extra support, I didn't get it with DS1 and had a terrible time. I kept asking MW and HV for help with DS2, went to a bosom buddy group etc. If they could give out better info to the HCPs so they all have the right advice to give. Not all contradicting wrong advice.

My HV was a breastfeeding Nazi. Whilst I was panicking about DS not putting on enough weight she told me to chill out about it.

fgs why refer to HV as a breastfeeding nazi scarylou