"Great maternity service but poor breastfeeding..."

I had a good experience of QE maternity services with the exception of breastfeeding support.

In pregnancy my baby was quiet with no set movement pattern so I went in for monitoring a few times. I was never dismissed and always seen, monitored and reassured. For my actual labour I started off in the birth centre which is lovely but after failing to progress moved to delivery suite. In addition I had a haemorrhage after the birth. I was looked after very well by the lovely midwives and when there was an emergency the room filled with capable staff ensuring the wellbeing of myself and baby. I'm so thankful for this. My midwife and the consultants were very good.

The criticism I have is that I was given no breastfeeding support at the hospital. I could not latch my baby on and when asking midwives for help they weren't able to either. One midwife gave my baby a dummy, the other took it away. I eventually could manage a feed using nipple shields but was told not to use them and to express for baby instead. I asked to see the infant feeding specialist but was told she had a lot of people to see and I might have to stay another night in hospital if I wanted to see her. I didn't want to do this so I was discharged with the advice to express. As I was quite anaemic I couldn't leave the house for drop in groups for further help and support. The community midwife diagnosed my baby with tongue tie on day 3 but I wasn't referred and was not given any at home support to move off expressing to breastfeeding. As it is at 2 months old my baby is fed expressed milk from a bottle and I have to make expressing a priority throughout the day and night. I wish the hospital would note if a mum wants to breastfeed and support them after to make sure this happens successfully. Especiallly for first time mums. If there are issues an appropriate care plan and help should be put in place before discharge, and tongue tie should be diagnosed and treated in the hospital before discharge if possible as it seems very common.