I pay for "Breastfeeding Coordinators"!

leftieM

Would you rather have someone given an extra 6-12 months to live with a new cancer drug or pay a year's salary to a breastfeeding coordinator?

The return in terms of public health from an increase in breastfeeding rates would mean that fewer people in the future required cancer drugs as cancer rates would fall. So, on that basis, a breastfeeding coordinator would be a better investment.

And, are you also in favour of jailing someone for not paying taxes while knowing it is being spent on this job?

That's a total no-brainer - yes.

The idea that prevention saves NHS money is shown to be false time and time again. In 1950 the NHS cost 2% of GDP, it now costs 8.5% of GDP.

The NHS costs more now because we have made huge advances in medical science in terms of what we can do now to prolong life, and we live longer, so we require more healthcare. It has nothing to do with prevention not working.

PasturesNew

ILW wrote: »

Even I know that you have to be careful when breastfeeding and make sure you hold your cigarette at arms length. Can I apply for the job?

Your cigarette should be in the ashtray beside you, with your fags/lighter - so your toddler can pass them to you if you've got your arms full..... of baby or stella.

PasturesNew

delain wrote: »

Because the co ordination is a full time job, to make sure there are enough volunteers at each time and you can't expect people to work full time for free.

No, but a coordinator's job isn't really rocket science. It can easily be done by a competent person for £20-25k.

In fact, in many areas, you'd find a competent person gagging to work for £16-18k.

So there's no shortage of people who can coordinate armies of people across regions to perform tasks.

Generali

kabayiri wrote: »

But when the coallition got into power they stated that the NHS budget would be ringfenced (something which I disagree with).

As an action that kind of sent out the message that yes, you can continue to have the NHS you are used to, without change.

I believe it was disingenuous at best.

Probably. Unfortunately people in Britain seem to have gotten it into their heads that medicine is free. Politically it's impossible to refute. Clearly if you're going to cut Government spending you need to tackle the biggest parts of the budget, health and welfare payments.

TBH I was pretty impressed that both parties started talking seriously about how to cut pension promises.

ILW

PasturesNew wrote: »

Your cigarette should be in the ashtray beside you, with your fags/lighter - so your toddler can pass them to you if you've got your arms full..... of baby or stella.

Very wise, a ciggie that has had milk dribbled on it is very difficult to relight and tends to taste a little odd.

neverdespairgirl

ILW wrote: »

Why, if there are volunteers prepared to do it?

Because volunteers are rarely full-time.

the_flying_pig

I sense an emerging consensus: (1) this is a useful, important job; but (2) it's almost certainly overpaid.

RenovationMan

Mr_Mumble wrote: »

You can talk of medical benefits for, say, foodstuffs and exercise regimes too. There are dietricians and physiotherapists but are their an army of coordinators for them as well? If there are they need sacking too. If you have a problem with breastfeeding, your diet or physical recuperation then your GP can direct you to the specialist. There is no need for these administrative middlemen.s.

Have you actually looked at what the job entails? The lady mentioned is a co-ordinator for Ashton, Leigh and Wigan, which covers quite a large area as far as my google map is concerned and probably encompasses a large number of hosptals.

The co-ordinators aren't people who have walked in off the street, they are highly qualified mid wives who provide training and support to other midwives and medical staff to make sure that some of the breat feeding horror stories listed in this thread become a thing of the past.

I don't know what some people want our NHS to be, but it seems to be something equivalent to a garage where people rock up when something is broken. I would rather thave a health service that invests in the prevention rather than just the cure (or often a temporary fix) and promotes good health. To use the garage metaphore again, I'd rather get my car serviced regularly and learn that I need to check my oil, tyre, brakes and water levels before a long journey than to just ride about until it either breaks down or crashes.

As far as the pay is concerned, I googled and saw 2 jobs in London at a range of something like £40k to £50k. Tube drivers in London can earn as much.

gauly

Really2 wrote: »

I did at a nurse, watching a baby crying of stalvation at 5 days old and still going on at my wife of not giving it chance.
They finally gave in and said he could be "topped up" did that and he necked the bottle in no time. (so fairly obvious there was something wrong).
My wife still tried but it was to late we were on of the traitors and my son had moved to the dark side.

To be fair, breastfeeding is really, really hard for the first week or two and all mine have lost between 5% and 11% of their birthweight, plus cried and wanted food almost non-stop. They would certainly have swiftly drunk a bottle of milk given a chance, so that is not a sign there is something wrong.

I'm sure your situation was much more severe than you have made it sound, but the way you have described it here is my normal experience of the first week of breastfeeding (it's a bit of a nightmare!) I wouldn't like someone to be put off breastfeeding because their baby is hungry or is happier drinking from a bottle. My experience was that after a couple of weeks the baby (and mother) get the hang of things and it becomes considerably easier. If I use a bottle I find the amount of milk I produce goes down considerably which is probably why the midwife is not keen on mixed feeding - plus some of the smarter baby's realise that the bottle is way easier and then refuse to breastfeed!

Really2

gauly wrote: »

I wouldn't like someone to be put off breastfeeding because their baby is hungry or is happier drinking from a bottle. My experience was that after a couple of weeks the baby (and mother) get the hang of things and it becomes considerably easier.

although I am sure you mean well, this is the kind of blinkered point when things don't happen that causes all the problems.

He lost 1.2lb in 5 days, was not getting any ware enough liquids let a alone milk so a bottle was unavoidable unless we could have got a warm steralised water breast.

What happened to the idea that some just can't lactate enough or that the milk is no good?

My wife still tried at home, it just never happened.
But we now have a happy healthy 4 year old, so although some may view us as a failure he is happy and healthy and I am happy we made a right decision.

Breast may be best, but to what point is it not best? I would say the point where the child's health is declining.