We have something called NHS Direct in the UK which is successful in
that it is very popular; it is a free phone-in service where trained
personel- not always nurses - give 24/7 advice. It is fairly recent,
and the studies so far are not conclusive as to whether it relieves
or increases pressure on the health service.

Our local area had one of the national call-centres and our bf
co-ordinator arranged a visit to it where she saw the algorhythms for
bf (the questions and the route through them that personel called up
in a screen to 'help'). She nearly died when she saw what was on
there - really terrible stuff about feeding more often than four
hourly meant supplementing, and other horrors. Apparently it had been
bought as a package from an overseas company and no one had checked
that it was written by competent people, or checked it out against
practice here. Well, breastfeeding isn't important enough for that,
right?

This has now changed, mainly due to her intervention, and I have
tested it out twice as a 'concerned grandma' - my voice isn't young
enough to pass for a new mum ; ) - and been reasonably happy with the
info. They appear to have abandoned the algorhythm method and any
attempt at triage, and breastfeeding callers go to a midwife or at
least someone who seems to have had some basic training. None of my
colleagues have reported any mothers saying NHS Direct has told them
anything awful.

I suspect that bf support doesn't lend itself to triaging very well,
though that is no more than a gut reaction.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK

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