Cuts to Breastfeeding Support in Suffolk and Waveney

You may have seen the recent Facebook posts from dedicated community Peer Supporters who discovered, with little notice, that funding for this service was being withdrawn from East Coast Community Healthcare (ECCH) by Suffolk County Council (SCC).  
Cuts would include not only the paid Breastfeeding Practitioners who until recently visited the homes of women that were struggling,  provided one to one support as well as being qualified to diagnose and refer for Tongue Ties, (missed diagnosis in the newborn checks being an issue we hear about often), but the equally hard working unpaid volunteers who run community based Baby Cafe's for pregnant women, new mum's and their families to attend were also being cut. The cafe's provide a haven where mum's can comfortably feed their babies without fear of any negativity towards breastfeeding; building up confidence to feed publicly, they meet UNICEF accredited Peer Supporters who can help mum's to correctly latch their baby and give heaps of useful information like expressing and safely storing milk. Not just that, they know how it really feels to have been up all night the previous night, they're mum's too, giving up their time and a listening ear.

The Facebook posts were very emotive and we could see how angry local parents were at this service being withdrawn, not to mention the disappointment from the volunteers who were not involved in any way in the discussions around the service being withdrawn.

We felt that due to our unique position of regularly interacting with the stakeholders who are key in Maternity Services decision making, we could provide a platform for Peer Supporters and local women by bringing all of the right people together in one room. 

Here are some of the outcomes- 

•  Ian Rhodes the Peripatetic Lead for local Children's Centres committed that existing Baby Cafe's would continue to run, the finer detail is still being eked out and it is planned that more café’s will be introduced while the existing groups are maintained. A Peer Supporter and Children's Centre worker will run each café. 

 

• We are suspicious of the claim from SCC that the peer support model is not effective and have asked to see the evidence of this claim, as we do not agree and clearly neither do over 150 local women who kindly completed our Poll and shared their stories (all of which have been anonymised and passed on to the relevant stakeholders). All 18 pages of stories of how the Peer Support Model has in fact supported women. 

 

• SCC did not hold a public consultation before making the decision to cut funding and were honest about the fact they did not realise (until reading all of your feedback and hearing from women at the meeting) how often Tongue Tie presents an issue. They didn't realise how difficult it can be to get a diagnosis and the referral for treatment, then all of the subsequent support needed. 

 

• JPUH Head of Midwifery, Jayne Utting, made the point that while the cut was from SCC budget, this could mean a potential spending increase from their side, she was also not consulted or made aware until after the decision had been made, this does not represent joined up working. 

 

• Jayne Utting committed to taking on the community based Peer Supporters to continue the great work they do joining up with the hospital based Peer Supporters. This does mean those who are community based will have to undergo DBS checks and induction training that all JPUH volunteers must complete. 

 

• For now, all Peer Supporters will maintain their UNICEF training through JPUH as they are now all considered JPUH volunteers, it is unclear what will happen within the community for future community only based Peer Supporters. 

The fact that Baby Café’s will continue to run and that the JPUH are benefitting from additional Peer Supporters (and still recruiting more to support at the hospital) is great news for local women.

It's not the same level of service that there previously was though, where Breastfeeding Practitioners would do home visits and were able to refer for tongue ties etc. We will monitor feedback from women and if it becomes clear that this reduction in service is affecting local parents, we will feed this back to the relevant decision makers and push for change. 
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