The integrated infant feeding teams have been celebrating Scottish Breastfeeding Week by letting families know about the benefits of breastfeeding and the support available to them.
The maternity infant feeding team, based at Ayrshire Maternity Unit (AMU) were busy chatting to families about the benefits of breastfeeding and support available, before and after baby arrived. The team are on hand to offer guidance and support after you have your baby or your midwife might ask them to provide extra support when you are at home.
Out and about in venues across Ayrshire, the community infant feeding team were hearing first hand from families about their experience and stories of breastfeeding and the support received when their baby started to breastfeed. Your health visitor or family nurse can ask the infant feeding nurses in the community team to provide extra feeding support and they can visit you at home.
Whilst the peer support team, working as part of an integrated infant feeding service, were in the Howard Park, Kilmarnock. The peer supporters are all mums who have breastfed and want to share their experience. They can provide home visits and phone support and the service is offered to every mum in Ayrshire when going home with their baby.
Ruth Campbell, Consultant Dietitian in Public Health Nutrition explains: “Breastfeeding has the potential to greatly improve the health of our population; therefore it matters a great deal to us.
“Our aim is to remove any barriers that stop women who want to breastfeed and to make sure that women in Ayrshire feel supported to make their own decisions based on the best information and advice available.
“We recognise that the decisions mums make are shaped by other mums in their social circle and by society. If mums speak to other women about their real experiences of breastfeeding, it can remove fears, anxieties and unrealistic expectations.”
If you are having a baby your midwife, health visitor or family nurse will be able to give you all the information you need about classes and groups available before the baby is here and for support available after baby has arrived. You can also find information about Breastfeeding and about the Ayrshire Bairns app by visiting – https://www.nhsaaa.net/services/services-a-z/breastfeeding/
Image: Alyson Baillie and Annie McInnes student midwife at Irvine Library