Who needs government funding? Last month midwives and peer support workers across the country celebrated a successful breastfeeding awareness week thanks to support from the RCM, Mothercare and a variety of other businesses, despite the government’s decision to stop funding the initiative.
Some of the activities used to engage mothers and pregnant women included a sponsored ‘toddle waddle’, cakes shaped like breasts and the chance to talk to volunteers and midwives at special stalls in Mothercare stores across the country.
Annmarie Thomas, a peer support worker at Parents in Partnership South Wales, used the opportunity to reach pregnant women and start educating them about the benefits of breastfeeding.
‘It’s important to educate pregnant families at an early stage so that they know our support groups are available when they leave hospital,’ she said.
Giving mothers-to-be a realistic, open and balanced view of what to expect of breastfeeding means that they are more likely to stick with it, Annmarie said.
It is also a chance to reassure mothers-to-be that they can ask for help at any stage. ‘A lot of mothers said that they felt unable to ask for help, not that it was unavailable. Speaking from my own breastfeeding experience, I know that people feel like breastfeeding is something that, as a woman, is supposed to come naturally.’ If it doesn’t, it can be hard to admit this, she said.
‘So we explain up front that not everything will be fantastically easy at first and that it is always okay to ask for help.’
Knowing that there may be tough patches – and knowing that they can be overcome – means that women will be more likely to persist than if they think that something is wrong or they are facing an insurmountable hurdle.
It is also important for health professionals working with new mothers to refer them to local breastfeeding support groups even if they do not appear to need any help. ‘Just be aware that women may say ‘everything is fine’ while they are on the ward but then go home and find that they need support,’ said Annmarie, who hopes to study midwifery at university next year.
Many of the women who visited the stand in the Mothercare store in Douglas, Isle of Man, were mothers who had not breastfed their first child, but were eager to find out more about doing it next time, said Barbara Roberts, the lead midwife for infant-feeding at Noble’s Hospital.
‘The majority of people who spoke to us were mothers who said ‘I tried it last time’ but did not stick with it for one reason or another,’ she said. ‘The two most common reasons were sore nipples and ‘not having enough milk’, so we talked about the importance of position and attachment to ensure that sore nipples don’t happen in the first place, and the importance of that to good milk supply.’
Both the store and the manager of the shopping centre in which it is located were very supportive, she added. ‘The shopping centre manager put information up on the centre’s website and put posters on the noticeboard to say that we were there.’
She is now investigating the possibility of continuing this work year-round. ‘We are talking to the Mothercare store manager at the minute about whether we could put midwives in the store once a month so that we would be there to answer any questions the women have,’ she said. ‘It would give us an extra way of reaching women in the community.’
Barbara is also looking at ways to extend her reach beyond mothers and pregnant women to include those close to them.
‘Husbands and partners are very influential, as are mothers-in-law,’ she says. ‘We often see mothers-in-law putting women under pressure, saying ‘if you give them a bottle, they will sleep better.’ One thing we could do in the future is move into education for the grannies, who are from a generation where breastfeeding rates were very low.’
Clare Whitehead, infant-feeding lead at the Wirral Community NHS Trust, did just this as part of the week. ‘We decided that we wanted an all-ages approach to the breastfeeding week. So we had a stall in Birkenhead Market that reached an older age group. We worked with them to help them learn how they could support others to breastfeed.’
Primary school children also took part by designing posters promoting breastfeeding. Introducing the topic into schools gave teachers the chance to address the health and nutrition benefits of breastfeeding alongside those of eating fruit and vegetables, said Claire.
‘We had a lot of discussions with heads about how to approach this issue. I explained that breastfeeding was not a sexual activity and that lessons could be learnt about healthy ways to feed your baby. The posters we got back showed that they had really discussed it. They were lovely. The one that won was about ‘natural nutrition’, which is really insightful for a nine-year-old.’
Other parts of the week included a ‘milk crawl’ in which mothers visited local businesses that support breastfeeding, a raffle and a two-day stall at Mothercare. ‘We had that ethical dilemma about the fact that they do sell bottles, but at the same time the opportunity to have contact with young families and people who were pregnant was fantastic.’
A poster board with pictures of celebrities who breastfed their babies was also popular, Clare said. ‘It helps younger mothers realise that these people who they consider icons breastfed.’
She also praised local businesses for backing the week, for example by donating prizes that could be used for raffles. ‘We have to work with very little funding for community work. One of the hardest things about the government withdrawing support was that I had nothing to give people – not even a sticker to say ‘I support breastfeeding’. All we had were leaflets.’
Other activities run year-round include working with peer support workers who visit mothers at home, breastfeeding groups and preparing for parenthood classes. Clare is also working with local businesses to set up an incentive scheme through which women would be given vouchers from local retailers for every week that they continued to breastfeed.
Next yearMothercare intend to support breastfeeding awareness week next year. If you have any ideas on possible community activities during this week, then please contact:
elizabeth.day@mothercare.co.uk
