I pay for "Breastfeeding Coordinators"!

kabayiri

Future women should be genetically engineered to produce not breast milk, but Maccy D 'shakes from one breast and McFlurrys from the other.

The adoption rate for breast feeding would surge. As a bonus, many children would find the transition over to Maccy D solid foods an easy process at 18 months too.

lisyloo

i'm afraid it is that simple. some people can't breast feed. that is the end of it.

So you don't believe there are any ladies for whom it might be difficult but might be able to persevere with the right advice and assitance to massive benefit all round?

bylromarha

IMHO this is a waste of money post.

Any woman knows if you have problems with early breastfeeding, you don't go to the NHS.

You go to La Leche, NCT and other charities which are excellent at supporting breastfeeding. Look at the families board on here...no one advises going to the NHS for help on this matter.

Radiantsoul

bylromarha wrote: »

IMHO this is a waste of money post.

Any woman knows if you have problems with early breastfeeding, you don't go to the NHS.

You go to La Leche, NCT and other charities which are excellent at supporting breastfeeding. Look at the families board on here...no one advises going to the NHS for help on this matter.

The NHS clinics are open on different days to the charity drop in centres. I guess if you have a hungry baby you go to whichever one is open that day.

Generali

Doozergirl wrote: »

Pretty valuable resource IMO even if they only help a relatively small number of people, those people will be extremely grateful.

The trouble is, would they be more grateful to have help breastfeeding or for Granny to have better cancer meds or for brother in law who was shot in Afghanistan to get proper physio?

Spending on one thing has to mean not spending on another.

British people and politicians like to pretend that medicine is free. It isn't.

The_White_Horse

lisyloo wrote: »

So you don't believe there are any ladies for whom it might be difficult but might be able to persevere with the right advice and assitance to massive benefit all round?

Let's face it, it isn't that hard to do. you squeeze the nipple and hold the baby in various different positions, to see what works. hold the baby like a rugby ball. that works best imo. but i guess it all depends on the size of the breast. also, use a pillow to lay the baby on.

use nipple shields. babies like that. makes the nipple like a bottle.

if that all fails, express and use the milk and put it in a bottle.

if it all fails, use formula.

hardly worth paying someone 40k a year to advise on that. THE HEALTH VISITORS AND MIDWIVES DO IT ANYWAY!!!! you are paying two people for doing one job.

Billions of people have managed to survive over the years without breat feeding co-ordinators. even in the dark ages of the 80's and 90's i don't recall many deaths from starving kids in this country.

Wheezy_2

Horsey would be perfect in that role.
"Just hold the baby like a rugby ball and squeeze the nipple ma'am. Next!"

casper_g

Generali wrote: »

Spending on one thing has to mean not spending on another.

British people and politicians like to pretend that medicine is free. It isn't.

Preventive healthcare, like vaccinations and, perhaps, support for breastfeeding, can be better than free, if it's paid for by the same NHS that would have to fork out much more money to cure the problems that would otherwise arise. This isn't left-wing claptrap, it's economic reality.

For the same reason, health insurance providers (e.g. Prudential, Boots, BUPA, Aviva) often give free or heavily discounted gym membership to their members. I don't see their members complaining that they're doing this instead of giving them cancer treatment.

Doozergirl

The_White_Horse wrote: »

Let's face it, it isn't that hard to do. you squeeze the nipple...

Got it wrong already...

PasturesNew

I think one of the issues is whether many jobs are created, that all overlap, with nobody actually achieving much except managing to tick boxes to meet targets.

If you look at the total number of people a pregnant woman comes into contact with from the "think I might be" all the way through to, say, a kid starting school, how many of them are just ticking boxes and handing out leaflets, and how many are actually imparting useful knowledge and skills. And is it better to bring those under one good roof, or to continue to enable 100 offshoots all with different management structures, hours, buildings, leaflets.

There was a 'news' story the other week about somebody who's invented a "breastfeeding doll" for practice.