The Fertility and Birth (FAB) Network believes that it’s time for the Government to stop paying lip service to breastfeeding and put some real resources behind supporting women who want to breastfeed.
Given that both the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Department of Health (DH) recommends that for optimal health infants are exclusively breastfed for the first six months and research from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) shows that three quarters of British mothers who stopped breastfeeding in the first six months (and 90% of those who stopped in the first two weeks) would have liked to have continued for longer, FAB asks why over half of new mums have stopped breastfeeding by the time their babies are six weeks old.
World Breastfeeding Week in August this year focussed on breastfeeding support, highlighting the work of breastfeeding peer supporters. FAB member Vicki Williams, an NCT Breastfeeding Counsellor and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, believes that despite the exceptional work of the peer support schemes we’re still failing to provide women with enough support; “There needs to be a proper policy for supporting breastfeeding. A great deal has been done in recent years to promote breastfeeding, but there’s no substance behind the DH objectives. There aren’t the resources available to support all the women who need it.
“The national promotion of breastfeeding can have a negative effect on women who want to breastfeed because it pushes breastfeeding without offering women enough help to overcome hurdles. Women often don’t have enough access to the information and support that will help make their choice a reality, and often don’t realise that there are people they can go to outside of their health professionals to get help.
“Midwives are under resourced and levels of support and experience differ from region to region. Many haven’t got the time to spend with women to help overcome straightforward issues such as nipple pain, poor weight gain and positioning.
“In situations where babies need more support, for example with birth trauma or tongue tie, the support is even more limited. In many areas parents are waiting a month for something as simple as division of a tongue tie, which takes less than a minute, or having to pay privately for craniosacral or chiropractic care,” Vicki explained.
Nicola Fox fromLincolnshire had her four month old son Harry by elective Caesarean section. He had an obvious tongue tie and although Nicola had chosen to breastfeed no one expressed any concern.
When Harry started to lose weight Nicola began to research tongue tie conditions and the impact this can have on breastfeeding and found that she had all the symptoms; painful feeds, sore nipples, a colicky baby and poor weight gain. Despite this Nicola was told that she would have a 4 to 6 week wait for the tongue tie division procedure and was told by one paediatrician and doctor that the tongue tie was not affecting her baby’s feeding. “After hospital visits we were sent home to continue with what we were already doing which was trying to feed every two hours with a baby who was very tired, hard to wake and with me dreading every feed because of the pain.
“As a mother I was emotional and felt like a failure. We were about to give up breastfeeding when I contacted breastfeeding counsellor Vicki Williams for advice. She was able to help with positioning and secured us an appointment within 24 hours to have our son’s tongue tie assessed. It was diagnosed as severe and impacting on breastfeeding, with potential further issues for the future, and the tie was divided there and then, with little discomfort or stress for any of us. The next day we were back to solely breastfeeding and our son had gained weight. We are extremely grateful that there was someone like Vicki who was prepared to listen to us and to fight our corner, and because of this I am still breastfeeding,” explained Nicola.
Beverly Beech, chair of AIMS (www.aims.org.uk) says: “Breastfeeding is at the forgotten end of maternity care. Not enough resources are being directed towards helping women get off to a good start or to helping them when there are problems. It is all too easy in our time-limited culture to offer a gadget or an alternative, but what women really ask us for is someone who can help make their choice to breastfeed work for them.”
Vicki added; “Breastfeeding is the nutritionally optimal way to feed a baby and it has emotional and physical benefits for both mum and baby. If mums feel that formula is the right choice for their child, then they should have full support for their decisions and accurate and up to date information on how to feed safely. But we must not use that right to decide as a way of avoiding supporting all those mums who start breastfeeding and then stop before they’re ready. If the choice is formula or pain, then it’s not a real choice. If the choice is formula or a starving baby because no one was available to help with positioning or snip a tongue tie then you were not free to choose, and this needs to change.”
Lori Fitzgerald founder of FAB and Natal Psychotherapist said: “There’s lots of information out there now about the benefits of breastfeeding so what we need to be focussing on is making better support readily available to women.”
Lori also says; “If all women were assessed by a craniosacral therapist and breastfeeding specialist after birth it would pick up the majority of problems almost immediately. Where a women has decided to bottle feed let’s make sure it’s been an active decision, and not due to a lack of support or skills. Where a woman has been let down by the system, let her be free to say she is angry or upset at those who should have been supporting her, rather than encouraging her to divert her anger at those who have done what she was not supported enough to do.”
FAB (www.fertilityandbirthnetwork.co.uk) campaign for, and are passionate about, women’s rights, birth rights, maternity rights, and for best ethical practice in healthcare within the fertility, pregnancy, birth and postnatal arena.
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