>Hi, all. I have the mother's permission to post...I'm looking to see
>if anyone knows of an IBCLC that lives or works in or around
>Kettering, Northamptonshire in the UK. A woman I know of (admittedly
>online only) is facing a meeting with SS on October 25. The biggest
>concern she has related is that her daughter (~10 months IIRC) has not
>gained weight "sufficiently" and her health visitor has insisted she
>formula feed her daughter, threatening to call SS (and eventually
>doing so)

We don't have many IBCLCs in the UK, and the few that exist are 
mostly healthcare workers such as midwives or health visitors, or 
also working as a trained breastfeeding counsellor with one of the 
vol. organisations.

Your contact needs to get in touch with one of these organisations, 
Liz - her baby is 'too old' for midwifery care and if she has been 
assigned a particular HV then that is who she is stuck with unless 
she makes formal attempts to change. She should have the nos. of all 
the organisations if she has done research, as you say, into 
breastfeeding. For what it's worth, the NCT breastfeeding line is 
0870 444 8708.
>
>She has done a lot of research into breastfeeding, does not feel that
>her daughter needs the solids or formula.


Why does she not want to offer solids? At 10 months, it makes sense 
to make solids available to the baby. It certainly does not make 
sense to deliberately withhold them, except in cases of allergy.

>She has had her breastmilk
>analyzed, and has been found to be of good quality.

How has she had this done? I know of no service  in the UK that would 
do this, or how they would do this.

>
>She is worried that without someone "qualified", that she will have no
>chance against SS, her health visitor, doctors, etc. She feels that
>the only people on her side are her psychiatrist, and her midwife.
>Neither of whom, she has been told, are considered "qualified" in the
>matter of breastmilk.


This makes me concerned, Liz. Does she have mental health issues? Why 
is she still in touch with a midwife? This is virtually unknown in 
the UK - midwives have no duty of care beyond 6 weeks, and very few 
are in touch with mothers *at all* after 10 days post partum.

There is more to this than meets the eye. Health visitors, generally, 
are not well-trained in breastfeeding support, but they can spot 
genuine failure to thrive, and I would not discount the HV's 
judgement in this case at all.  This baby may well need more than 
breastmilk at this point, and a mother insisting on withholding 
solids at 10 months with no apparent clinical reason for doing so may 
need professional help, as may her baby.

Heather Welford Neil

NCT bfc, tutor, UK

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