If you attended the 2015 Unicef UK Baby Friendly conference you may have noticed, or taken part, in the informal World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi) competition to guess the final assessment score. Sue Ashfield is the winner as her estimate was closest to the actual score of 50.5 out of 100 for Indicators 1-10.
The score is a measure of how the UK is performing against the implementation of key policies and programmes to support mothers who want to breastfeed and the healthcare professionals who help them.
Sue is the lead and Specialist Health Visitor (Infant Nutrition) of First Community Health and Care in East Surrey. Sue is a winner in a much bigger way than the WBTi competition because her community team was reaccredited by Baby Friendly earlier this year and they also supported 10 local children centres in achieving full BFI accreditation in one year. The formal presentation of the award was on March 14th. Sue pays tribute to the hard work of her colleagues for the achievement but it also reflects her commitment and leadership. Read more here.
Her team is a brilliant example of what the WBTi UK report recommends for Indicator 6 (community-based support). There is close, integrated working between 0-19 public health team, breastfeeding counsellors, peer supporters and children centres at the three Baby Cafes, which have been runnning for 10 years.
Practitioners from the 0-19 team work at the Baby Cafes on a rota basis, alongside the breastfeeding counsellor. When they see mothers at home or at drop-in clinics they encourage them to attend the Baby Cafes for social support or more specialised support or just to chat to one of the peer supporters. The breastfeeding counsellors at the Baby Cafes have now trained over 200 peer supporters and this has increased the breastfeeding knowledge and skills within the local community.
The photo above shows Sue holding the Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) accreditation plaque along with some members of the 0-19 team, some senior managers and their BFI Guardian. Since April, all three community services in Surrey have come together as Children and Family Health Surrey to deliver children’s services.
Sue comments that she found particularly useful the information in the WBTi report about interventions and investment offered in the past and also Report Cards and the summary gaps and recommendations. She will use the findings in the report to inform local commissioners and disseminate information to staff and other stakeholders.
An integrated service like this is needed in all areas, yet in so many places services are being cut, particularly peer support programmes and breastfeeding support drop-ins.
Many congratulations Sue.
Cover photo credit: Paul Carter
Patricia Wise is an NCT breastfeeding counsellor and a member of the WBTi Steering Group
Breastfeeding trends (UK) 
