Magda is correct - in the UK test weighing is no longer regarded as a way
of gaining any important information about bf.  It has not been done
routinely here for healthy term babies for over 20 years.  Of course plenty
of other questionable stuff *is* done - but test weighing is truly 'dead'
over here.

There is quite a lot of research to show its limitations - for example, the
Royal College of Midwives publication Successful Breastfeeding gives 3
references in chapter 5, where Test weighing is listed under 'factors which
have been shown to be unhelpful' (that is, to bf).  There's a couple more
references in Henschel and Inch's Breastfeeing:A Guide for Midwives.

Riordan and Auerbach in the brown book)  only mention test weighing with a
pre-term baby in special care. It is not mentioned as an intervention in
any other context (as far as I can see) and even the baby hospitalized
because of FTT is weighed not before and after a feed but at the same time
every day (this would be done in the UK, too, in this rare situation). This
is clearly not test weighing.

While the research is important, equally important, surely, is what we also
know to be true psychologically and physiologically, about bf.  We know the
calorific content of breast milk is hugely variable - and in any case there
is no 'norm' (unless you take formula milk as the norm - and why on earth
would you do that? ).  We also know that volume is hugely variable, and
again we don't know what a 'normal' volume would be. We know from all areas
of human behaviour that testing anything affects 'performance', so it is
likely that a mother, knowing her bf will be tested,  will feed/behave
differently. There may be effects on the baby and his interaction with the
mother.

I too shared Magda's surprise that test weighing seems to be so common in
the US...are we getting a correct impression from Lactnet? Is there
something that test weighing does or shows that should cause us to think
again about UK practice?

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK