"Thanks for support from the breast feeding drop-in groups "

I wanted to thank the time and support I received from the numerous breastfeeding support workers across the children's centres in Bromley and Bexley. There appeared to be a seamless service across the boroughs and this was most helpful to a first time mother who had difficulties in breastfeeding my baby for the first 18 weeks. No-one was concerned who my GP was or where I lived in a way to signpost me to a specific children's centre or prevent me from accessing services over two boroughs. I had many difficulties and complications which I will not go into here. However, having access to services provided across Bromley and Bexley meant I could get support on more days throughout the week. I did however often find I would start to panic on Friday worrying I would not have support at the weekends. This did result in two occasions where I had to visit out of hours GP for antibiotics to treat a related infection at a weekend. They should consider more access to out of hours support.

I particularly thank a Support worker at Blenheim children's centre who spent time in supporting me and reassuring me and assessing the baby for tongue tie etc. as well as advising me on baby weight and setting me short term goals and plans for where I could get support from for the rest of the week before going back to her the following week. I am proud to say that with this support, against all the odds, I persevered and breastfed for the first 3 months exclusively and remained to feed until the baby was 8 months. I know without the support of the many support workers, I would not have achieved this.