Day: April 20, 2015

Breastfeeding support – what makes it good.

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I’m reading  a lot of research that considers  the best ways to prepare and support women to breastfeed.

Truth is, we really don’t know for certain what’s the most effective way to do it.

One theme that seems to be coming through is that the what isn’t so much of an issue as the how.

When women are asked about what care was helpful to them, they talk about having their feelings acknowledged and being listened to.

Graffy and Taylor (2005) undertook a randomised controlled trial in the UK to measure the outcomes from a particular model of breastfeeding support. As well as this, they asked the women in the trial about what they thought constituted “Good Breastfeeding Support”.

The authors summarised it in 5 points:

1. women wanted good information about the benefits of breastfeeding. This was so they could defend their decision to breastfeed when they were questioned (as they expected to be) by their family and friends (!).*

2. women, as I mentioned above, wanted their feelings acknowledged and wanted to feel listened to.

3.  women wanted practical tips for breastfeeding such as different positions for feeding.

4. they also wanted reassurance and encouragement to breastfeed.

5.  Provision of resources for what to do if they were having trouble – someone to call or make contact with.

Not a bad list.

I would defy any midwife to not know how to provide the elements these women were after.

One of the big points here is that women aren’t expecting a huge amount from their caregivers. Mainly time, patience, a listening ear and some encouragement. You don’t need to solve all their problems….but hey, preventing some would be excellent.

As midwives, we can do this by helping them get to know their new baby – to read the baby’s cues, to offer the breast when the baby is quietly alert, to hold the baby close any time.

To believe them when they say they have tried to feed.

To stay with them when they are going to try.

You don’t need all the answers – you will have seen enough babies to know the range of what is normal – and be amazed by the immense variation in this!

Something I tried to mention to women in clinic when we were talking about breastfeeding at the 26 week visit (probably should have had a chat about it at every single visit…) was: “as midwives we know a lot about lots of different babies …but not so much specifically about yours – you will very quickly become the expert on your baby – you can use us midwives to help along the way with figuring it all out”.

My experience as a volunteer breastfeeding counsellor and then training to be a lactation consultant helped me realise there are more important things than “knowing all the answers” to breastfeeding problems when we are supporting women to breastfeed.

So much more is about walking beside them on the journey.

 

*just by the by…I think this issue needs unpacking (and highlighting) a bit more.  Never mind criticism of the health message “breast is best” – when women are being judged on their decision to breastfeed by their own families!

10 things I want to tell you about midwives.

Aaah…listicles. The favourite friend of the blogger.  I’ve got some thoughts to share about midwives. Thought you oughta know.

1. Midwives are trained to care for the “normal” in pregnancy and childbirth.

“Normal”, however, is a setting on the washing machine.  Midwives actually have the skills to provide care for ALL women during pregnancy and childbirth. Sometimes this care is in collaboration with a qualified or trainee obstetrician, and sometimes other medical specialists too. Midwives can stay focused on the woman’s transition to motherhood – psychologically and emotionally, while others provide their expertise.

2. Midwives like looking after “normal” pregnancy and birth.

Often the midwife’s work is to keep pregnancy and birth normal or even take steps to bring it back to normal when things go astray. Sometimes this can be bloody hard work, especially when other forces seem to be pulling in different directions.

3. Midwives take postnatal care seriously.

It’s neither “dramatic nor technologic” but it matters. To mothers, to families and to our world. And midwives do it. No other group of professionals have the expertise or passion that midwives have to provide this care. But women have low levels of satisfaction with their postnatal care, compared to other episodes of maternity care. We don’t know why…is it the care or is it something else – like the questions we are asking…or comparing it with other episodes of maternity care?

4. Wherever midwives are recognised care providers in the world, normal birth is advocated for.

http://midwives4all.org promotes the evidence that proves midwifery care assists in reducing maternal mortality and morbidity rates and neonatal mortality rates. All women deserve midwifery care.

5. The world needs more midwives doing research into midwifery.

There is very little encouragement for midwives to do postgraduate study and learn how to do research. Consequently the research focus in many maternity hospitals is determined by medical staff.  Midwives need to be equipped to do their own research – that way they can investigate the issues that matter to them as a profession and find solutions to clinical problems that matter. Dollars and pathways are needed.

6. Midwives are revolutionary by nature.

Even when they work in institutions, midwives know they do their best work when then follow the needs of the women they care for. This means they often have to defy the needs of the institution in which they work. When midwives work outside of institutions, they are criticised for doing ‘risky’ work.

7. Midwives are often oppressed by the structures they work in.

This can be especially problematic when the policies of that institution prevent them from providing the care for women that is needed and wanted. This makes them seem rebellious at times, and difficult to manage. Sometimes they go “underground” in order to do their job.

8. Midwives gain immense satisfaction from the work they do.

This means they often put up with a lot of criticism and confrontation to keep doing their job.

9. The work of midwives has consistently been undermined by others with vested interests in their sphere of care.

These interests are invariably about the amount of money to be made by providing alternative care to that of midwives, not in providing safer or better care for women. When history is read from the point of view of hospitals and the public health service they have provided, it may appear that they were trying to protect the interests of women. Complication rates were initially very high in these institutions, however, and were patronised by women who were too poor to even give birth at home.

10. Midwives have a significant role to play in public health.

Midwives provide primary health care at a significant time in a woman’s life. They have the potential (often realised) to encourage significant health behaviour change in a woman and her family during this time (think: smoking, nutritional choices, illicit drug use, general exercise and activity levels). Midwives primarily enact these changes through their care relationships with women.

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