Breastfeeding Babes, Bursledon and Fair Oak » Uncategorized

Breastfeeding linked to infant temperament

admin — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:08:08 +0000

You may have seen the media coverage today of a piece of research which, according to the BBC website, shows that “Breastfed babies ‘are more cranky and cry more’ “. Another classic example of the British media undermining breastfeeding! As this article shows, the research actually showed that breastfeeding results in normal infant behaviour (as we would expect, as they are being fed in the normal way after all!) and that formula feeding results in suppression of these normal behaviours. You can read the study in its entirety here.

Group arrangements for Christmas 2011

admin — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:43:56 +0000

During the festive period, our Bursledon group will continue to run each week, from 1pm until 2.30pm as usual. Due to the closure of the Children’s Centre where we run our Fair Oak sessions, there will be no Fair Oak group until Thursday 5th January. If you need any advice or have any questions while the group isn’t running, please feel free to either come along to our Bursledon group, email us, or contact us through our Facebook group.

Everyone at Breastfeeding Babes, Bursledon and Fair Oak would like to wish you and your families a very merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2012.

Change of day and time for our Fair Oak group

admin — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:39:42 +0000

Due to room availability, our Fair Oak group will now be running from 10am until 11.30am on a Thursday morning. We apologise for any inconvenience that this might cause.

Breastfeeding Babes branches out!

admin — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 21:12:40 +0000

We are thrilled to announce that Breastfeeding Babes is expanding to cover the Fair Oak and Bishopstoke areas. From 16th November 2011, we will be holding sessions at Little Coppice Children’s Centre, Fair Oak, between 1 and 3pm each Wednesday. Our team will be there to offer support and we hope that it will develop in to a social group as our Bursledon group has too. Our bra fitting and breastpump hire services will be available at both venues.

New lending library at Bursledon Breastfeeding Babes

admin — Mon, 30 May 2011 19:23:23 +0000

We have recently bought several new books to add to our ‘library’ – all of them are available for to you borrow at no cost, other than “Medications in Mothers’ Milk” which we need to keep at group for reference purposes. We hope you find them useful!

Ask the UK Government not to abandon mothers and babies

admin — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 11:12:48 +0000

The UK Department of Health is planning to scrap its Infant Feeding Coordinator posts and its support for National Breastfeeding Awareness Week. Please send a message to the Secretary of State for Health asking him to reverse this decision, not least to save taxpayers money at this time of limited budgets.

Many countries have similar posts as part of their commitment to the Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding and the Innocenti Declaration. This work is being stopped in the UK to help cut the country’s budget deficit, but will lead to medium and long-term costs to the health service and growth in health inequalities. The National Health Service spends millions of pounds every year treating some of the extra illness amongst formula fed babies (according to NICE, the National Institute of Clinical Excellence).

The Department of Health was not only promoting and supporting breastfeeding, it was working to help mothers who bottle feed. The Infant Feeding Coordinators have just updated the guide to bottle feeding that Baby Milk Action used the basis for the guidance in the Infant Formula Explained DVD produced with partners in the Baby Feeding Law Group (alongside guidance from the World Health Organisation). The DVD is in line with the updated guidance and suitable for use in UNICEF Baby Friendly accredited facilities.

Please complete the form found on the Baby Milk Action website which will be forwarded to the Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley.

Breastfed babies ‘more intelligent’

admin — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 17:16:09 +0000

An article in today’s Telegraph states that “the most comprehensive British study of breastfeeding to date shows that it continues to have an effect on a child’s mental ability right through secondary school.” Click here to see the whole article.

Researchers find that exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months reduces incidence and severity of infections

admin — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 19:59:31 +0000

This BBC article highlights some recent research which proves that exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life reduces the incidence and severity of infections. Not that we didn’t know that already, but always nice to have some more proof to back these things up

‘The case for breastfeeding is clear’ according to Kate Evans

admin — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:23:34 +0000

This is an excellent article by Kate Evans which was published in The Guardian. Two facts that stand out are that only 1% of British babies are exclusively breastfed up to the age of 6 months and that if 90% of Mums in the USA breastfed exclusively for the first six months, then more than 900 lives would be saved a year. The latter is a shocking statistic when you consider how often you hear people saying that ‘formula doesn’t pose a risk in developed countries’.

Campaign to scrap the ‘breast is best’ slogan

admin — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 10:44:31 +0000

The Breastfeeding Network have started a campaign to scrap the ‘breast is best’ slogan and are calling for breastfeeding to be portrayed as the biological norm instead. Read more about the campaign here.