"Aftercare and breast feeding help at East Surrey Hospital"

Our Daughter was unexpectedly born 4 weeks earlier than her due date! All was well and we were discharged the following day. Unfortunately a week later during a routine midwife home visit our Daughter had lost weight and was very jaundiced. So we had to go back to hospital for light therapy treatment. She was dehydrated and had lost more than 10% of her birth weight so I had to ensure I fed her every 3 hours and express the remaining milk after each feed. This was exhausting and upsetting as she would only take a small amount at a time and keep falling asleep.

Luckily I met one of the loveliest and most patient breast feeding counsellors during our stay! She made me laugh and lightened the situation whilst really helping me to ensure my Daughter was properly 'latching on' and that I ensure when feeding her the expressed milk from a bottle that I was doing it properly to ensure she drunk it! I. e. that the teat was right in her mouth, positioned correctly. She also showed me a great way to hold her for winding etc.

So I wanted to say a huge thank you to Nicky Marks for helping me and giving me confidence and most of all making me laugh!

You work in a tough environment and to keep a light hearted approach is a breath of fresh air: -) My daughter is now 8 weeks old and I had her weighed this morning and I am so pleased with her progress and happy to say she is still breastfed only and it's going very well.

Thanks again very much and I hope you get recognised for the fantastic work you do!