Rachel

Thanks for your congratulations!  I'm personally ecstatic about the 
new black-and-white policy guidelines for the UK.  I've already 
quoted whole chunks in the concluding recommendations of a report I 
made following a recent infant feeding assessment.  I think that the 
Department for Children, Schools and Families, Department of Health 
(UK)  Commissioning Local Breastfeeding Support Services document, at 
<http://www.dh.gov.uk/dr_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digitalasset/dh_106497.pdf>http://www.dh.gov.uk/dr_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digitalasset/dh_106497.pdf 
is something British breastfeeding supporters can celebrate and 
_use_as the basis for some very powerful advocacy to combat the 
current very wishy-washy support of breastfeeding that currently 
prevails.   But will we?  The document acknowledges that Britain has 
the lowest breastfeeding continuation rates _in the world_ and the 
sad truth is that British mothers are just not _expected_ to 
breastfeed.  It will take some soul-searching, I think, and not a 
little humility, to recognize that something needs to change.

There is such public support for bottle-feeding, free vouchers for 
formula for low-income mothers which no-one will condemn, and Code 
violations everywhere you look.  But it seems to me they fall on 
fertile ground, reflecting the pervasive attitude that mothers' needs 
for sleep, freedom to choose how to feed their babies, and an easy 
life trump the needs of babies every time for mothers' milk, constant 
caring and contact.    I remain convinced that mothers truly do want 
to do the best they can for their babies - as long as they know what 
that is!   But in British society, I'm appalled to see that so few 
are prepared to speak up for babies;  the fear of engendering 
maternal guilt strikes us dumb.

I think that the new document is a crucial tool that we could use for 
just this purpose.  What I'm not yet sure about is whether it will be 
recognized as such, and whether it will be exploited as well as it 
could be.  It's certainly an excellent foundation stone.  Now it's up 
to the rest of us to - yes - really celebrate it - and build on it!

Pamela Morrison IBCLC
Rustington, England

At 05:00 18/10/2009, you wrote:
>Date:    Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:09:11 +0200
>From:    Rachel Myr <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: UK shows real commitment to BF (was 'commissioning local BF 
>support services')
>
>Magda Sachs quoted the strategy document for the UK on breastfeeding:
>"Breastfeeding saves lives and protects the health of mothers and babies
>both in the short and long term."
>
>And then she comments that 'this is a plain statement and represents our
>Department of Health being
>very very clear about this as a national priority!' Hear, hear.
>
>I can add my exhortations to check the document you'll find at the URL
>below, and have someone trustworthy near you to verify that you really are
>reading these words and not just hallucinating them after beating your head
>on that brick wall one too many times.  It's like they actually GET IT about
>what needs to be in place to enable women to breastfeed.
>
>Magda posted on this two days ago with no responses so far, and I just have
>to say how much I admire the UK health services approach to improving BF
>rates.  This really shows how policy can be formed and implemented if you
>don't have a market-driven service that profits from ill health to contend
>with.  I'm pretty impatient with being asked by Europeans to explain why
>there is such vehement opposition in my own country to any sickness industry
>reform containing a 'public option' (because how should *I* know what that
>opposition is about?).  A document like this just points up the difference
>in approach when disease prevention benefits the policy-making body as much
>as it does the populace.
>
>http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digita
>lasset/dh_106497.pdf
>
>Read it and weep, unless you live in the UK, in which case you can read it
>and celebrate.
>
>Rachel Myr
>Happy to stay an ex-pat in Kristiansand, Norway

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