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

friends and family survey filled in before I...

Story from nhs.uk

"friends and family survey filled in before I..."

About: St Mary's Hospital

I feel that the antenatal, community midwives and breast feeding support services at St Mary's hospital fails the 1 in 10 babies in Manchester that have tongue tie. I repeated asked several people to check, before discharge from the postnatal ward, with the breast feeding support team, infant feeding team and the community midwives to have a look for tongue tie. No one even looked, the best I was told was to get the latch right and other things would follow, except that my baby had tongue tie and couldn't physically get enough breast in his mouth to get the latch right. I am angry that I have had to pay hundreds of pounds privately to get this sorted and that no one believed me and did a quick check for this when I directly asked them. I am 3 weeks down the line and have to re-start everything from a worse position because no one gave me the time to listen to me properly and have a quick look at my babies mouth.

Also I am annoyed I can't resubmit a friends and family feedback because the midwives are lovely and overworked, but I gave them glowing feedback, but as I stat here I now feel that all these services fail babies with tongue tie in Manchester.

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

Responses

Response from St Mary's Hospital 5 years ago
St Mary's Hospital

Submitted on 05/02/2019 at 16:19
Published on nhs.uk at 17:06

Thank you for taking the time to highlight the areas of concern that you experienced following the birth of your baby. We were sorry to learn that your experience was not as positive as we would want it to be. It is important to us to receive feedback which we see as an opportunity to make changes and improvements wherever possible. It is also important where we receive positive feedback that we are able to share this with staff.

Your concerns have been raised directly with the Lead Midwife responsible for the Inpatient and Antenatal Services. Unfortunately we have received feedback from other mothers too where their babies have had varying degrees of tongue tie and some mothers would rather have access to the surgical procedure in a more timely manner. We have taken advice from the paediatricians and there is a body of evidence which states surgical intervention (called frenulotomy) should only be undertaken when essential and for some this is not required. In acknowledging that there will be some babies who require this procedure we are now planning to train midwives to undertake this which will reduce the waiting time for parents and will ensure breast feeding can still be promoted.

Your baby’s tongue would have been reviewed when your baby had the detailed examination following birth; however, not all tongue ties are easily identifiable or require intervention. We do refer babies with tongue tie to the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital for frenulotomy free of charge and we hope to be able to provide this service to babies within Saint Mary’s Hospital in the next 12 months. We would be happy to review your medical records to see if the correct advice was given regarding baby’s feeding if you would like to discuss your experience with us in more detail, please do not hesitate to contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) on 0161 276 8686 or by e-mailing pals@mft.nhs.uk quoting reference number PO18/0250

Mrs Karen Connolly

Chief Executive Officer Saint Mary’s Hospital

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