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Care Opinion

Breastfeeding ‘training’

Posted By Ftmhardwork

"Breastfeeding ‘training’"

About: King Edward Memorial Hospital / Maternity

(as a service user),

I write this in hope it just provides some feedback regarding the ‘help’ provided for breastfeeding. My experience was at KEMH.

I was looked after amazingly by the diabetes gold team throughout my pregnancy and they were all great. However, they never taught me anything about how my diabetes impacted breastfeeding including the probability your milk takes a number of additional days to come in. In addition, the breastfeeding course I attended prior to birth never mentioned this. Nor did it teach you that if your baby is taken from you at the start and you can’t feed, you should be expressing or pumping. I wasn’t even offered a pump until my second day post-birth. I just think they could teach more than just positioning. Nothing about flat nipples either or other ways to offer milk than a bottle. 

The worst part was when I was in the ward post-birth. I tried to attend the daily classes they had that the midwife recommended. When I went to it, I was told it was full and refused. As I understand it, it was full because mothers had their mums or partners. In my opinion, that would be fine but the fact that I, a mum that couldn’t initially breastfeed, was refused a place over partners or parents of mums actually is disgusting. My midwives seemed to completely agree and said they would raise my concern. 

Just some feedback for the hospital. Might I add the breastfeeding centre was amazing but I was only lucky enough to get a consult 2 weeks post-birth due to a cancellation. I believe the government definitely need to put in more funding! 

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Responses

Response from Jodi Graham, Executive Director, Sir Charles Gairdner Osborne Park Health Care Group 3 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
Jodi Graham
Executive Director,
Sir Charles Gairdner Osborne Park Health Care Group

Submitted on 24/08/2021 at 3:23 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 4:30 PM

picture of Jodi Graham

Dear Ftmhardwork,

Congratulations on the birth of your baby and thank you for reaching out to us via Care Opinion to share your experience with the Women and Newborn Health Service (WNHS).

I am pleased to hear how well you were cared for during your pregnancy by the Diabetes Gold Team, though it is disappointing to hear that you did not receive any education regarding the potential impact of diabetes on breastfeeding and your milk supply by the team or in the breastfeeding course.

Mothers are generally provided education regarding diabetes and breastfeeding by the Diabetes Educators during pregnancy and I am sorry that this was not the case in your experience. I am also saddened to hear that you were not provided with the means to commence expressing soon after the birth when you were separated from your baby, as that is the normal practice on the postnatal ward. I understand that it was distressing for you to be turned away from the breastfeeding class. Whilst we have to limit numbers in the classrooms due to COVID-19 restrictions, I agree that mothers should be prioritised to attend. This will be followed up with the staff who provide the sessions and our processes will be reviewed.

I am pleased to hear that the staff in the Breastfeeding Centre of WA were able to provide the support you needed in your breastfeeding journey. We are currently recruiting more lactation consultants to the Breastfeeding Centre of WA in an endeavour to reduce the wait times for mothers having their first appointments with the service.

I appreciate the time that you have taken to provide me with your feedback, which has been taken very seriously. So that an individualised investigation into your experience with KEMH can be undertaken, I encourage you to contact the WNHS Consumer Liaison Service on (08) 6458 1444.

Once again, many thanks for your feedback, and I wish you and your family well in the future.

Kind regards

Jodi Graham

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