"Could tongue tie be resolved quickly to avoid distress to mum and baby?"

After all the hype about how "breast is best" and all the various benefits it is supposed to offer, I was and still am very surprised to learn that the support for medical conditions that seriously hinder breast feeding is severely lacking.

I find the clinic that runs once a week and has only just been opened shocking and not helpful to me in the slightest, especially as the treatment for tongue tie is simple and extremely quick.

The social support for breast feeding is fantastic, but really, I have found no amount of help with latching on, different positioning and stimulisation will help if the baby simply cannot suck, as my baby couldn't. As a direct result of tongue tie my baby became very ill with jaundice and I know that newborns are supposed to lose a little weight after birth, but a pound in just a few days is ridiculous. I would have continued to breast feed and I believe that the hospital stay could have been avoided if the tongue tie was treated within a day of her birth. I simply cannot fathom why such a common place problem is not routinely checked for at birth and treated, it is hardly a new phenomenom.

The NHS is supposed to be trying to be saving money and such a simple and quick procedure would prevent such short term and long term conditions, including speech therapy, cancer, obesity, diabetes, post natal depression, etc. As it is, luckily my baby was able to take a bottle so I have had to give formula and I was told if a baby is not able to take a bottle then they are tube fed, such unecessary trauma and expense would be avoided if a tongue tie was treated much sooner. Any health benefits that me or my baby could have recieved have now been taken away and will probably cost the NHS more money in the long run.

My experience of breast feeding has been deeply distressing and traumatic, and I seriously doubt I will attempt it again. I tried to express but the amount was pitiful, and I quickly realised if I tried to re-establish breast feeding then the stress alone would probably bring about post natal depression.

I do hope that this problem can be resolved, it really does mystify me and others why babies have to wait for such a long time.