Each year, 1-7 August marks World Breastfeeding Week. This year’s theme focuses on ‘Closing the gap: breastfeeding support for all’.
At Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, we are proud to provide a wealth of information and resources around feeding and nurturing. Our infant feeding team work with parents to help them make informed decisions about feeding their babies and support them with their preferred choice of feeding.
The feeding and nurturing padlet they have produced provides parents with an online resource hub to help parents which has received recognition from the NHS Rainbow Badge report. The padlet contains details about the classes we offer, the support available, how-to guides and more.
The team offer a range of face-to-face opportunities that allow birthing people and their partners to speak with an infant feeding specialist to get support and ask any questions they may have. They have also been working closely with a local mosque to develop bespoke feeding support to our Muslim community.
In addition to working with our community, the infant feeding team work closely with our maternity and neonatal staff to achieve each stage of the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) accreditation process. The Initiative recognises the efforts of staff in supporting parents with feeding and developing close bonds with their new baby.
They have recently supported colleagues working in the Neonatal Intensive Care (NICU) who successfully achieved the The Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative Stage 2 accreditation, where the team were recognised for prioritising family integrated care and supporting the gradual progression to fully responsive feeding for babies being cared for in NICU.
The value of breastmilk cannot be understated, especially for vulnerable babies that require neonatal intensive care. Collaborative working between our maternity and neonatal services remains key in empowering families to feel close to their babies, alongside optimising their potential to produce breastmilk for their baby.
The infant feeding team continue to support the NICU team in achieving Stage 3 BFI accreditation where parents experiences of neonatal services are reviewed. The maternity and child and young people services are working towards BFI Gold accreditation which will look at the support offered to parents throughout early years.
Access our Feeding and Nurturing resource.
