Raising awareness about breastfeeding
Louise, our infant feeding lead midwife and Baby Friendly lead, talks about some exciting initiatives happening within maternity at Whipps Cross.
Raising awareness about breastfeeding
World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is an annual celebration which is held every year from 1 to 7 August in more than 120 countries. It was started in 1992 to generate public awareness and support for breastfeeding.
This year at Whipps Cross, we held a stall in maternity, as well as visiting different areas, sharing information to parents and staff regarding breastfeeding, including community support initiatives. We obviously had plenty of cakes and treats we gave out to every staff member who completed a quiz.
The feedback and interaction from parents and staff was so great, that this week I'm marking Colostrum Celebration Week, to raise awareness of the benefits of colostrum (early breast milk) for newborns. The main message is that women can start to harvest their colostrum from around 37 weeks gestation and bring in syringes when they come into labour. Alongside attending a breastfeeding antenatal class, this is one of the best ways to get breastfeeding off to a good start.
Stage 3 baby friendly assessment
We are starting our preparation for stage 3 baby friendly assessment, having received stage 2 accreditation in 2019.
The Baby-Friendly initiative is an evidence based, staged accreditation programme supports maternity, neonatal, health visiting and children’s centre services to transform their care. Stage 3 focuses on specific ways to transform care for families and entails an assessment, which involves interviewing mothers about the care they have received. Over the coming few months I'll be carrying out more sessions and activities to increase awareness of the Baby Friendly maternity standards, so keep an eye out.
Getting to stage 3 would mean more parents being supported to get breastfeeding off to a good start, and also to enable parents to make an informed decision regarding the introduction of food or fluids, other than breast milk.
The continued support by all maternity staff for the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative is valued.
For more news, and updates, follow Louise on Twitter: @louise_midwife
...and if you know a parent to be, let them know that we are running free antenatal classes at Whipps Cross.