This is Care Opinion [siteRegion]. Did you want Care Opinion [usersRegionBasedOnIP]?
Care Opinion

Breast feeding support

Story from nhs.uk

"Breast feeding support"

About: Birmingham Women's Hospital / Maternity care

I have recently had an elective caesaerean section.

The offer of pain relief was quite sporadic and I was left in quite a lot of pain for long periods.

But the breastfeeding support was awful!

I did not have any help and advice from any of the midwives and no one stayed with me to assure me that I was doing it right.

The only advice that I had the whole time that I was on the ward was that the second night "would be hell".

This was a support worker that gave me the advice.

I was so tired and scared that I wouldn't be able to cope so the support worker gave my baby a bottle.

All of the women that were in the room with me ended up bottle feeding their babies because there was no support or interest in helping with breastfeeding.

I was told that the hospital had baby friendly and should be offering all this support, but I had none at all and neither did the women around me.

More about:
nhs.uk logo
Do you have a similar story to tell? Tell your story & make a difference ››

Responses

Response from Birmingham Women's Hospital 6 years ago
Birmingham Women's Hospital

Submitted on 14/04/2018 at 11:48
Published on nhs.uk at 12:06

Thank you taking the time to provide your valuable feedback. Firstly we are sorry to read that adequate pain management was not achieved after your caesarean section. We are currently looking at several options of enhancing pathways for women who elect to have their baby by way of a caesarean section. This will include antenatal discussions on pain management and expectations and self-administration. This however does not detract from the responsibility our staff have to ensure all women receive medication appropriately. Drug rounds occur regularly on the postnatal wards at 07:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 17:00 and 22:00 and I can only apologise that this did not facilitate adequate pain management for you. On admission to the Wards, staff should identify the call bell system to all our women and highlight that this can be used at any time to ask for assistance with any element of your care during your stay. We are very sorry that on this occasion, this did not happen. With respect to your experience of breast feeding after the birth of your baby, this falls below both our high expectations and standards and I would like to take this opportunity to reassure you that we will use your feedback to shape and guide improvements within our Breast Feeding service. Our staff will reflect on your feedback as we know offering a bottle without appropriate support can undermine a woman’s efforts to breastfeed her baby. We are proud of our Baby Friendly accreditation; however we are aware that additional specialists are required to support our women and babies with their feeding needs. We are sorry that your experience did not meet our usual high standards and that you felt unsupported with your choice to breast feed your baby. As part of the improvements we are working hard to implement, we always invite those that have experienced our services to contribute further to how improvements can move forward and as such I would like to invite you to join our Patient Experience working group. If you would like to discuss this, or any element of your care or experience further, please do not hesitate to contact Inpatient Matron S Ayre on sarah.ayre@bwnft.nhs.uk.

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful
Opinions
Next Response j
Previous Response k