"Excellent postnatal/infant feeding care"

After receiving excellent care at the glasgow princess royal maternity unit, I was discharged back into the midwives care based in north lanarkshire. I also received incredible support there, and after noticing some trouble was having feeding my child, my midwife referred me to the infant feeding team. I received two video calls of support where they helped me with positioning and attachment. They also came by for a home visit in the midst of Covid to see me in person as my son was having difficulty putting weight on. Eventually, a tongue tie was assessed, and corrected. After that, my son began gaining weight and his feeds became more efficient- from around an hour to ten minutes! 

When a friend recently had a baby in a different council and was struggling with her own feeding, I told her about the support I received and tried to find her a number for her own area. I was shocked to learn that the infant feeding team was an outlier in Scotland and she didn’t have one locally.

The expert advice snd support I received, along with the resources from the online community and my peer supporter meant I could continue breastfeeding my son. He has recently turned 6 months old and is still primarily breast fed.

The fact that the incredible care and support I received is not available to women across Scotland and the UK is a shock! In light of the recent announcement to ensure parity between men and women’s healthcare in Scotland, the NHS should introduce a feeding team within every council area in the country. 

Most women who try to breastfeed have to stop earlier than they wanted to due to lack of support. There is no doubt in my mind that but for the help from the infant feeding team I would have stopped breastfeeding within the first few weeks. I can’t thank them or brag on them enough. Their advice has been exemplary.