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Health Visitor
Joy Grice shares information with local mums who drop by at the
breastfeeding market stall. |
The local celebration
of this nationwide annual event highlighted that breastfeeding is
the healthiest feeding option for babies and mothers. It also
encouraged friends, family and health professionals to provide
support and encouragement for breastfeeding, both at home and when
out and about. The Breastfeeding Peer Supporters of SureStart
Chatham switched their regular Breast Friends Drop-In for a
special gathering at Latino’s Coffee Shop in the Pentagon and were
thus able to reach out with their message to the wider public who
dropped by to join them for coffee and cake.
This year the campaign focused on encouraging women to access the
support that will help them to breastfeed for longer so the
breastfeeding groups at Milk and Biscuits in Strood,
Feeding Friends in Rainham and Breast Buddies in
Sheppey staffed stands at Morrisons, Lloyds Pharmacy and the
Sheppey Market. As well as good information about breastfeeding,
they gave away free pens, fridge magnets and flyers with local and
national phone lines. By phoning these, mothers and pregnant
women can receive help with their breastfeeding challenges through
mother-to-mother help from breastfeeding counsellors.
It is a fact that if a baby’s father and grandmother know of the
overwhelming significance of being breastfed, their attitude and
support can make all the difference to the breastfeeding outcome
for that baby. The NCT saw to it that a fantastic poster display
welcomed all pregnant women and their partners attending the
Medway Maritime Hospital antenatal clinic and a wave of
enthusiastic breastfeeding mums were there to chat to couples as
they waited.
There is ample
evidence that mothers who want to breastfeed are more likely to
carry on if they have contact with other mothers who are enjoying
a successful breastfeeding relationship with their own babies.
Hence, Medway midwives and health visitors are seeking to refer
mums to their local breastfeeding groups. Two more such are
groups are Breast is Best at Gillingham’s Sunlight Cafe and
Bosom Buddies at Lordswood Library. Both groups are
grateful to their hosts for their generous provision of venues all
through the year. On this special occasion they each had parties
to mark National Breastfeeding Awareness Week. In Lordswood they
rounded it off with a sponsored toddle which has raised money so
the group can buy books on starting breastfeeding, weaning,
breastfeeding and working, nighttime parenting etc which they will
offer to lend to members.
The strapline for
this year, 'Breastfeeding: every day makes a difference to your
baby', reflects the message that each day a women continues to
breastfeed is another day the child receives important health
benefits from its mother’s milk. Rochester based La Leche
League adopted this theme for its meeting held in
Breastfeeding Awareness Week. Mothers shared the reasons why they
intended to breastfeed their babies another day and then were
inspired to look at it from their babies’ points of view. They
said their babies would want to be breastfed for another day
because they liked the various tastes as mum ate interesting
foods, it was growing their brain, it kept infections and hospital
admissions at bay, they were protected from things that triggered
allergies, it kept their mums protected from getting ill in the
future, it helped them get to sleep and it meant they were sure to
get lots of special ‘mummy time.’ To help all local mums have
access to good, accurate and timely help when they are wondering
if they can manage to breastfeed for ‘one more day’ La Leche
League (LLL) was especially delighted to accredit their newest LLL
Leader, Karen Maher who now volunteers as a breastfeeding
counsellor and facilitator of their breastfeeding group.
The local events for National Breastfeeding Awareness Week were
hosted by the six local breastfeeding groups, facilitated by
various accredited peer supporters, health visitors, community
nursery nurses, midwives and breastfeeding counsellors. To
receive a card detailing the groups and their activities, which
are open to all interested mothers and pregnant women: Phone
Deborah 01634 814221 or email
lll.rochester.publicity@googlemail.com |
