The Infant Feeding Team

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About the infant feeding team

All staff in our maternity, neonatal, and transitional care areas are trained to give you help, information and advice on feeding your baby, however you choose to feed.

The Infant Feeding Team is here to provide specialist support with feeding your baby in some of the more challenging circumstances including tongue tie.

We can also provide information and advice for other healthcare professionals who may be supporting you

We’re extremely proud that Maternity services achieved full UNICEF Baby Friendly accreditation in 2012, and our neonatal team in 2019. Together, we’re now working towards the UNICEF Gold award. More information on the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative here.

How we can help

We work with families both before (antenatally) and after (postnatally) birth and can support you with a wide variety of issues that are affecting feeding, including:

• debriefing in pregnancy if a previous feeding experience was very difficult,
• hand expressing and specialist support before you give birth in certain clinical situations,
• inducing lactation,
• help to establish or continue breastfeeding if normal midwifery care is not sufficient,
• help to express and maintain milk supply in certain clinical situations,
• assessing tongue tie, and division if it’s affecting feeding,
• improving effectiveness of feeding if baby has greater-than-average weight loss or their growth is slower than expected,
• support to feed babies with some congenital anomalies,
• help you understand which medications you can take while breastfeeding your baby.

We adapt our support to fit the requirements of the individual family. We focus our support on babies under neonatal, transitional and maternity care, and also see babies for tongue tie assessment until they are up to12 weeks of age. If you and your baby have been discharged from maternity care then your Health Visitor or local Breastfeeding Peer Support Group can give advice on feeding and caring for your baby.

We can also provide information and advice for other healthcare professionals who may be supporting you.

How to get help from the infant feeding team

You need to be referred to the Infant Feeding Team. We accept referrals from any healthcare professional working with you and your baby (for example your GP, midwife or health visitor). You can also be referred to us by peer supporters and holistic care practitioners.

We aim to respond to referrals within 72 hours of receiving them, but this can take longer during periods of high activity.

Infant feeding team staff

We are a small but passionate and highly experienced team consisting of midwives (some of whom are also International Board Certified Lactation Consultants and tongue tie practitioners), a neonatal nurse, and paediatric health care assistant.

We are based at the Royal Cornwall Hospital and offer support to feeding parents across the hospital including in Maternity, Neonatal Unit, and the paediatric wards.  We also see families from the community with complex issues as outpatients.

Infant Feeding Team Co-ordinator – Katie Hicks RM, IBCLC, Tongue Tie Practitioner.

UNICEF accreditation

We’re extremely proud that Maternity services achieved full UNICEF Baby Friendly accreditation in 2012, and our neonatal team in 2019. Together, we’re now working towards the UNICEF Gold award. More information on the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative here.

More information and support on feeding your baby

If you need support to breastfeed your baby at any point in your feeding journey, you should contact your Midwife or Health Visitor, but also consider attending one of the Cornwall Peer Support groups for breastfeeding support and advice if you feel this is appropriate for you and your baby.

There are also independent groups running, so also explore these via your local community centres and social media groups for feeding support.

• Breastfeeding Peer Support in Cornwall (Support in Cornwall website) mother to mother support for all families. Friendly, welcoming breastfeeding support groups in your local Family Hub and online.
• Off to the best start leaflet from the Department of Health with key information about breastfeeding
• Guide to bottle feeding leaflet from the Department of Health with key information about bottle feeding, including how to make up formula safely
• First Steps Nutrition guide to responsive feeding and to choosing formula
• Breastfeeding Network is a source of valuable information to parents including support with medications and breastfeeding
• La Leche League GB – valuable source of evidence based information for parents including common problems such as mastitis and sore nipples

Clinical guidelines and support for healthcare professionals

Guidelines

• Infant feeding policy
• Management of babies reluctant to feed
• Alternative methods of giving breast milk to babies
• Tongue tie – clinical guideline for assessment and management
• Weighing newborn babies and pathway for babies with significant weight loss
• Breastfeeding Person Admitted to Acute Setting
• Antenatal Hand Expressing Guideline

Other guidance

• Weight loss guidelines from the GP Infant Feeding Network (UK) is a superb source of information for General Practitioners and other healthcare professionals seeing postnatal women and their babies.
• Breastfeeding network is an independent source of support and information for breastfeeding women and others.
• Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine is a worldwide organisation of medical doctors dedicated to the promotion, protection, and support of breastfeeding.