"Breastfeeding support for my premature baby"

Overall breastfeeding support was very good, however what frustrated my husband and I was the varying advice and opinions of staff members. Our son was born five weeks early, he took to breastfeeding amazingly, but due to his size needed top up feeds to ensure he was getting enough milk.

Different staff allowed us to care for our son in very different ways for example, night staff were very laid back and encouraged us to be as involved with his care as possible - phoning me to come up to breastfeed when he needed, showing me how to use the electric breast pump.

Some members of the day staff on appeared to be reluctant to let us have much involvement advising us he needed to rest when we could see cues that he needed feeding or a nappy change. It was difficult enough dealing with the shock with being away from our first baby born early and being downstairs on a ward without him while other parents had their babies with them, without someone restricting our contact.

We followed what the neonatal staff advised us on the amount of top up and followed this when we moved to wheal fortune ward. Each day/night there would be different staff due to shift changes, few accepted what we were doing as OK as was advised by neonatal, however some staff would question why that amount and how much they thought he should be having varying from only 5ml to 20ml leaving us feeling extremely frustrated. There was never any set plan for or son and no continuity.

Helen helped me tremendously one evening with breastfeeding showing me different positions and how to keep him latched on and to feed well, also identifying his tongue tie. She allowed me to be independent through giving him his top up milk myself rather than calling a midwife to do it for me. When being sent home we agreed a plan for feeding at home with the Doctor who we had seen quite a lot. Feeding at home is going well.