Chapter 1: Give every child the best start in life

To help mothers and babies to start breastfeeding, it's important to discuss the importance and management of breastfeeding with pregnant women and their families. It's also important that staff have sufficient knowledge, competence and skills to support breastfeeding. Maternity and early years services in Gateshead have infant feeding policies in place which are routinely communicated to staff and parents and provide support to initiate and maintain breastfeeding and manage common difficulties.

In Gateshead, we are committed to providing the highest standard of care to support expectant and new mothers and their partners to feed their babies and build strong and loving parent-infant relationships. 

The service recognises the deep importance of early relationships and parent-infant attachment to future health and wellbeing, and the significant contribution that breastfeeding makes to good physical and emotional health outcomes for children and mothers. All pregnant women have the opportunity to discuss feeding and caring for their babies with a health professional. This discussion will include:

1. The value of connecting with their growing baby in utero.
2. The value of skin-to-skin contact for all mothers and babies.
3. The importance of responding to their baby's needs for comfort, closeness and feeding after birth, and the role that keeping their baby close has in supporting this. 
4. Feeding, including the value of breastfeeding for comfort, protection and food, and getting breastfeeding 'off to the best start'.

Growing Healthy Gateshead has received accreditation for Stage 2 of the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) in September 2021, gaining excellent feedback about the team and their communication skills used in antenatal discussions and beyond. BFI provides a roadmap for services to improve care and through the staged accreditation programme, services are enabled to support all mothers with feeding and help parents build a close and loving relationship with their baby. Supporting the BFI is the maternity service, which has achieved UNICEF Stage 1 accreditation and is now working towards Stage 2.

Growing Healthy Gateshead is now going for Stage 3 of the award and will be assessed against the standards in December 2022. Once passed, the service will receive the prestigious Baby Friendly award, recognising excellence in the care of mothers and babies. There is a team of passionate breastfeeding champions within the service, who offer more specialised support to mothers and their partners who may be struggling with breastfeeding. 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Growing Healthy Gateshead adapted and offered face to face, telephone and virtual support to women and families including support on infant feeding. Daily proactive telephone calls continue to be offered to breastfeeding mothers during the first weeks after birth and continue to be based on each family's needs and requirements.

Many women feel nervous about breastfeeding whilst out and about, which can impact on their decisions about breastfeeding and may cause them to stay at home and start to feel isolated. Embarrassment and negative public attitudes have been found as the main barriers to breastfeeding in public, even though the right to breastfeed in public spaces is protected by law, and most women have positive experiences surrounding this.

Infant feeding friends' groups have been set up in partnership with the children's centres in Deckham (Elgin Centre), Blaydon and Chowdene. An infant feeding champion is available to offer support around breastfeeding (positioning, blocked ducts, cluster feeds, attachment) and peer support from other mothers.

The Boob Club is a friendly social group which provides a supportive space for breastfeeding women with an aim to create a 'breastfeeding support village' where mothers can meet, chat and make new friends. It is free to attend.

LINKS Growing Healthy Gateshead also offer support through Facebook and a dedicated app