I spoke to Mike Woolridge today (well-known bf person, now at the Univerity
of Leeds). He was presenting at a study day near me.

The news on his paper - this is the (for UK bf world) the long-awaited
paper called Enabling Women to Breastfeed, commissioned by our Department
of Health some years ago, and now in the press.

Mike W. and Mary Renfrew (and I notice that Helen McGill is named as one of
the authors now) were asked to look at what was already 'known' about
supporting breastfeeding and assess its importance and relevance and
reliabilty. It is similar to what childbirth folk  know as 'ECPC' - the
tome by Eirse et al on Effective Care in Pregnancy and Childbirth.

They have taken studies as far back as 1945 - it amounts to a bunch, as you
can imagine - with a view to educating the bf world to base all
interventions aimed at changing behaviour and supporting bf on good
evidence...and to show where the gaps are so new research can be done.

It will be published by the UK govt. Stationery Office in '6-8 weeks' says
Mike.  We are agog for it here.

The latest delay was because the Stationery Office had printed each page
with a nice little logo of a doctor with a stethoscope....and when that met
with gasps of horror from the team, they swapped it for a nurse with a cap
on. It had to go back again for something  which did not echo the medical
model....: )

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK

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