Where it is the mother’s intention, breastfeeding is best for infants. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exclusive breastfeeding until an infant is at least 6 months of age, with the gradual introduction of solid food around this time and ideally continued breastfeeding up to 2 years of age or longer.

If a patient comes to see you with any issues related to breastfeeding and you are uncertain, please have a very low threshold for contacting/directing them to the infant feeding team for advice and support.
Breastfeeding has benefits for both the mother and infant - beyond nutrition, immunological benefits and bonding.

• Benefits to the infant include: a reduction in the incidence and severity of infections, asthma, and atopic eczema. As well as improvement in cognitive outcomes, reduction in early years obesity, leukaemia, coeliac disease, cardiovascular disease and SIDS
• Benefits to the mother include: reduced rates of breast and ovarian cancer, T2DM and reduced incidence of obesity.
• It has also been shown to have significant cost savings to the NHS (see Renfew 2012)
  Specialist support

Breastfeeding issues may have a number of underlying causes, and more than one problem may co-exist at the same time. Assessment should include history and examination of both the mother and infant, including observation of the woman breastfeeding by a person with appropriate training and expertise.
Dumfries and Galloway has a dedicated infant feeding team who offer 1-1 consultations in both the hospital and community setting, drop-in support groups across the region and workshops/classes for expectant/new parents, in addition to staff training.

To refer please contact:

Eithne Clarke (RM SCPHN IBCLC) - Infant Feeding Team Coordinator. Tel 07765657807.
dg.infantfeedingteam@nhs.scot  eithne.clarke1@nhs.scot  

For any urgent OOH queries, please contact the National Breastfeeding Helpline – for both patient and HCP enquiries 0300 100 0212