BCHC staff with child and parent image

Services

Children's services

Infant Feeding Team

The Infant Feeding Team is a service dedicated to supporting and promoting breastfeeding and safe formula feeding practices in line with UNICEF’s Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI).

About our service

The infant feeding team is a service dedicated to supporting and promoting breastfeeding and safe formula feeding practices in line with UNICEF’s Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI).

 

Breastfeeding is an important public health issue and as such the Government recognises that breast milk is the best form of nutrition for infants and supports breastfeeding through its Healthy Child Programme.

 

 

Aim

The infant feeding team is working closely with the health visiting teams and early years health and wellbeing service to make breastfeeding the norm, by every child getting the best start in life and to ensure a supportive environment in which all parents make a positive choice and are enabled to breastfeed for longer.

 


How do we do this?

  • We provide breastfeeding training to staff for enable them to have the knowledge and skills to assess and support breastfeeding. We support staff to develop a plan of care for women experiencing breastfeeding difficulties.

  • We work closely with health visiting teams to show the proportion of babies being breastfed at 6-8 weeks to evidence this with data of at least 95 percent coverage each quarter as part of the Department of Health Vital Signs Monitoring Returns.

  • We provide and co-ordinate a volunteer programme by training mothers who have breastfed to support new mothers to breastfeed, within a local setting. Once trained, colleagues in the children’s centres will support the volunteers in their new roles, after receiving guidance from the breastfeeding peer support programme lead.

  • We monitor and audit the service quarterly by interviewing service users, staff, training and policies in line with the Baby Friendly Initiative Audit Tool.

  • We ensure that staff and the early years health and wellbeing service comply with the International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes. No advertising of breast milk substitutes, teats or dummies are permitted within the facility in line with the breastfeeding policy.

  • External expertise and point of contact for staff with queries regarding breast or bottle feeding.

 

 

Further information

Breastfeeding and Antenatal Advice

Why is breastfeeding important?

 

 

How does breastfeeding help your baby?

  • breast milk helps protect your baby from illness, for example chest, ear and tummy infections
  • breast milk reduces the risk of constipation or tummy upsets
  • breastfeeding helps your baby regulate their appetite, reducing the risk of obesity as they grow older

 

How does breastfeeding prevent obesity?

  • Breastfeeding offers a good start to learning appetite control. 
  • Breast milk contains hormones that program your baby’s regulation of food intake
  • Breastfed babies control the amount of milk they drink and stop drinking when they are satisfied. 
  • Breast milk also introduces tiny amounts of flavour. This can influence taste preferences and food choices later on

 

Why breastfeeding is good for mothers?

  • reduces your risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer and diabetes
  • is protective to your bone health, helping to keep them stronger for longer
  • is good for your mental helth. Breastfeeding hormones promote feelings of love and calmness
  • helps stimulate responsive mothering behaviours towards your baby. This helps to create a strong bond with your baby and for baby, in turn, to feel safe and secure
  • helps your postpartum recovery and burns calories, which may help you return to your pre-pregnancy weight

 

Useful services and links

If you wish to access antenatal courses, breastfeeding groups, one-to-one breastfeeding support and more, please contact your local Children’s Centre.

 

Information videos

AllerGen NCE: The CHILD Cohort Study and a baby’s microbiome

 

Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative: Meeting baby for the first time

 

Breastfeeding Support in Birmingham

Birmingham Forward Steps

 

Health visiting teams

Our Health Visitors are nurses or midwives who work with families to give pre-school-age children healthy lifestyles and prevent illness. Our Health Visitors can provide valuable advice and links to breastfeeding support available to you. When you are discharged from hospital and you are home with your baby you may have questions and need support to get baby attached effectively to ensure a successful breastfeed.

 

Antenatal infant feeding workers

Birmingham Forward Steps Antenatal Infant Feeding Workers are available to support, motive and empower you along your breastfeeding journey from those vitally important early days and beyond.

 

All mothers are welcome to access support at home, via the Breastfeeding Loungese that run Monday to Friday either face-to-face and / or virtually across the city. All services are provided via the Children's Centres.

 

At times some mothers and/or babies may face particular challenges and will require extra help with breastfeeding and maintaining lactation. The Infant Feeding Leads within the Maternity units provide ‘specialist’ support to meet those complex needs.

 

If you are still under Midwifery care contact your Midwife using the contact number you were provided on discharge from hospital. If your baby is over 14 days old, speak with your Health Visitor.

 

If you need to be seen by the Infant Feeding Lead a triage call will take place solutions offered over the phone in the first instance. In the event that you and baby need to be seen back at the hospital that will be arranged to ensure you get the support and help you need.

 

Maternity units breastfeeding support

  • Good Hope Hospital – Direct referral only by Community Midwife or Health Visitor Monday afternoon specialist clinic
  • Heartlands Hospital – Direct referral only by Community Midwife or Health Visitor for Monday afternoon specialist clinic
  • City Hospital – Infant Feeding Team Call 07816061633 to access services Monday to Thursday, 7.30 am to 5.00 pm. Drop-in clinics, Telephone and Video support
  • Birmingham Womens – Antenatal Infant Feeding Workshop’s Wednesdays 6pm-8pm via Eventbrite. Support 07770542174, Mondays. 07788361515 Text Only 

 

National Breastfeeding Support services

Infant Feeding Resources

Relationships and Baby Brain Development

An introduction to understanding your baby

 

Why bonding matters

 

Pregnancy

Useful videos

Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative: Importance of relationship building

 

AiMH UK: Bonding before birth, involving family

 


Support during Pregnancy

Antenatal support

 

Baby Buddy app

The free Baby Buddy app is your personal baby expert who will guide you through your pregnancy and the first six months of your baby’s life. The app has been designed with parents and professionals to help you give your baby the best start in life and support your health and wellbeing.

What are the features of the Baby Buddy App?

  • Bump/Baby Buddy – your virtual expert on all things pregnancy/baby so you can ask her a question at any time. Tap on your Buddy and she will read the app content aloud to you
  • Today's information – daily bitesize chunks of information tailored to your stage of pregnancy/your baby's age (available in the web version)
  • Ask me – type in any question and your Buddy will answer with expert
  • Information (available in the web version)
  • Remember to ask – allows you to keep track of the questions you want to ask at your next appointment
  • What does that mean? – you can find out what a word means (available in the web version)
  • Your appointments – you can enter the details of all your appointments and set yourself reminders to make sure you never forget an appointment
  • You can do it! – you can set yourself goals and your avatar will help you keep track of how things are going
  • Videos – a range of short videos you can watch (including From Bump to Breastfeeding, Out of the Blue and Small Wonders) (available in the web version)
  • Bump/Baby Around – with this geo-location feature you can find out about useful places near to you such as support groups
  • Bump/Baby Book – you can write about your thoughts and feelings of everything you've been doing during your pregnancy and the first few months of your baby's life. You can even add photos and share pages with friends and family
  • Edit me – you can edit your avatar to look like you
  • Need more help? – list of useful organisation and support groups and their contact details

 

Birmingham and Solihull United Maternity and Newborn Parnership (Bump)

Are you pregnant? Do you have any questions that you want to ask a midwife? Join the monthly ‘Ask the Midwife Zoom sessions’ with midwives from Birmingham Women’s Hospital, Heartlands Hospital and Good Hope Hospital.

To register:

 

 

Birmingham maternity services

Contact Details:

  • Birmingham Women’s Hospital: switchboard - 0121 472 1377
  • City Hospital: switchboard 0121 554 3801
  • Good Hope & Heartlands Hospital: switchboard 0121 424 2000

Responsive Bottle Feeding

Information about bottle feeding:

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