I would urge anyone setting up a breastfeeding support group to be really 
careful about including scales, particularly when they are just int he 
corner of the room and available for women to weigh their own babies. 

First: weighing a baby is not necessarily just plonking it on the scales, 
you might want a tad of technique.  Best practice for weighing includes it 
being the same person and same scales:  if women are having their babies 
weighed in another care setting (I know this appears to be totally different 
in different countries) the weights conducted at the group may confuse the 
picture. 

Also, do you want your physical equipment to say to women 'this is a medical 
space' or 'the success fo breastfeeding depends on your baby and your 
breasts matching the constructed centiles of a growth chart'?  In my 
experience, women often go to groups to escape that kind of stuff, though, 
again, that may not chime with other countries. 

When I did my PhD study, I observed sessions in a breastfeeding support 
group which took place in the clinic and where scales were present and used. 
If only I had the money and support, I could use this data to help write 
something about 'how not to set up and run a breastfeeding support group'!!  
the scales were not the only issue, but I could clearly see how they made 
some women feel uncomfortable as they were furtively weighing their babies 
who were not gaining and avoiding the conversations about weight that the 
scale gave rise to. Of course, some women loved the scale, and weighed 'even 
though I am going to the clinic for a check tomorrow and he will be weighed 
then' and all sorts of other strange behaviour. 

Of course, if a baby comes to the group and her mother is concerned, there 
should be space (separate room), time, expertise and equipment to conduct an 
unhurried, thorough assessment of breastfeeding, which might include 
weighing, or discussing previous weights conducted.  But that is not a part 
of the social supportive aspects of the *group*, more the aspect of using a 
group as a breastfeeding *clinic*.  These two uses often get conflated here 
in the UK, cos we have such a paucity of either resource in our communities. 

Magda Sachs, PhD
Breastfeeding Supporter, The Breastfeeding Network, UK

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