Those tricky questions. page 7

Baby Café NewsAutumn 2015

Picnics, pop-ups and fun. page 4&5

Baby Café helped us.

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page 2

In this edition...Baby Café helped me! page 3 Everybody’s talking about it: pages 4&5 news from the Baby Cafés In the news: snips and clips page 6Q&A: those tricky questions page 7Latest highlights page 8

Midwife Susan Stephenson Calderdale Baby Café, and everyone who works with Baby Cafés elsewhere, were very sad to learn of the sad death of Susan Stephenson.

Susan had worked with mothers at Calderdale Baby Café in West Yorkshire, for 13 years. Her close friend and midwife colleague, Marilyn Rogers, was invited by Susan’s family to deliver the eulogy at her funeral. Marilyn has given permission for us to take some quotes from this, highlighting the wonderful work Susan did with the Baby Café. Marilyn said how much Susan loved giving support and encouragement to mothers to establish breastfeeding and to ‘form close and loving relationships with their infant. Baby Café was the perfect place for Susan and Susan was the perfect midwife for Baby Café […] she nurtured hundreds of women at Baby Café encouraging them to enable their babies to develop secure relationships […] She held the moment, as if holding the mother and child in her hand, gently, lovingly, allowing them to feel safe and find their way together, protecting them and nurturing them, empowering them to keep going through difficulties and empowering them to be proud of breastfeeding and connected to their baby.’

Hello everyone!I hope you have all had a good summer and

managed to have a break.

This edition of Baby Café news will be ready in

time for November’s UNICEF Baby Friendly

conference, this year held in Harrogate, North

Yorkshire. So a warm welcome to conference

delegates perhaps reading us for the first time!

Baby Friendly sets the international standards

for breastfeeding support across all types of

maternity, health and community services, in

hospital maternity units and outside of them, in

community settings. I’ve been looking at the way

Baby Friendly enables health visitors to observe

and evaluate breastfeeding drop-ins. Baby Cafés

are, of course, ‘breastfeeding drop-ins’, so we can

certainly be assessed according to those standards.

I was so pleased to see that the quality standards

we have developed for all our Baby Cafés are

actually higher than the ones asked for by Baby

Friendly.

This means that for those of you in areas where

your healthcare professionals and their services

are aiming to achieve Baby Friendly status, Baby

Café can be part of your evidence. If you have a

Baby Café that’s met our own standards, in

other words, you can be confident it more than

meets Baby Friendly’s standards, too.

We went mobile in September with a pop-up

Baby Café in the exhibition hall at NCT’s

‘Babble’ event, the charity’s annual conference.

We were overwhelmed with cake, visitors and

interest from people wanting more information.

Thank you so much to everyone who helped out

at the event. You can see pictures inside this

newsletter. Spot the clever use we made of bras

- they made great bunting,... or is it ‘bra-ting’?

Trina - Baby Café co-ordinator

Hello!

page 3

Karol McCaul, who works for the NHS as a communications specialist,

has two children, Robert aged five and one-year-old Elizabeth (pictured).

‘I knew about the Baby Café already, because I’d been with Robert, and I

started attending again with Elizabeth when she was just a week old. I

really like it - it’s supportive, with a friendly atmosphere, and it’s in a good

location, just near the supermarket so I can get some shopping done on the

same outing. ‘It’s helpful to go to the Baby Café, just to see different positions, to see

what people wear when they’re breastfeeding, to get general support. It

was nice to be able to take Robert in the school holidays, as well - I think

he thought going to the Baby Café meant all the babies would be sitting

round drinking coffee!

‘Elizabeth was easier than Robert, and latched more comfortably straight

away, but just as with her brother, I had concerns about her weight gain.

She was gaining weight more slowly than a lot of babies. This time round,

though, I found the health visitors were not so quick to suggest formula,

and instead were happy for me to continue breastfeeding only. That’s

what you get from the Baby Café, too - that support and encouragement.’

Real life stories

Baby Café helped me!

Baby Café offers friendship, a listening ear plus encouragement and support. This can be important

for mums struggling with confidence and worries. This issue, we hear from two mothers in

Peterborough’s Hampton Baby Café, who share their stories.

‘The information from Trina and Abigail at the Baby Café was excellent, and every session is relaxed and unpressured. Each time I went, it gave me the heart to continue ‘one more week’ and then by the time Rowallan was about four months, I realised I didn’t need to worry any more. I had the confidence just to do it, without the worries, and to stand up to people around me who were critical. OK, breastfeeding is ‘natural’ and we know that doesn’t always mean ‘easy’, but it’s so worth it.

‘I stopped breastfeeding when Rowallan was nine months, as we hope to have another baby. If we do, I plan to breastfeed for much longer. I miss it. I miss the closeness. I almost mourned it when I stopped.

I’m so glad I had the experience, and that my older children have learnt that breastfeeding is normal and enjoyable.’

Cherie McCormick is an early years practitioner. She formula fed her first two children, now teenagers, but really wanted to breastfeed her third child, daughter Rowallan, now aged 14 months.

‘I did try breastfeeding with the first two, but I didn’t last long. It was no more than a few days - I had no confidence in it, didn’t understand how it worked, and none of my family were breastfeeders. In fact, my mother was mortified at the whole idea of it, and I don’t think she’s changed her mind, even though breastfeeding has gone really well with Rowallan.

‘The Baby Café made such a difference. When I first went, I realised I wasn’t alone. I wasn’t the only one who was fearful about not having enough milk. That was my biggest worry, right from the start.

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Popping up in the park Here’s a great idea to copy for next summer – take a leaf out of the Southampton Baby Café team and pop up in your local park. In Summer, the team, plus health visitors and Sure Start workers, staged a pop-up Baby Café complete with picnic on Southampton Common. 25 mums and babies shared the sunshine and support, as part of World Breastfeeding Week. ‘The Picnic in the Park allowed us to show in numbers our support for breastfeeding. It was a brilliant chance for mums to come along with their sandwiches to share their experiences and celebrate breastfeeding and its many benefits,’ said Rosie Wilson from NCT.

In Southampton around 48 per cent of mums are breastfeeding at six to eight weeks and the aim is to push this number over 50 per cent. ‘We want to get people talking about breastfeeding and these events are a fun way of spreading the word about the benefits of breastfeeding, as well as being a great chance to let mums know there is lots of help and support out there for them if they need it,’ said Lisa Jackson, a breastfeeding coordinator for the Solent NHS Trust Health Visiting team in Southampton.

Babbling about Baby Café

Here’s the Baby Café corner, before and

after at Babble, NCT’s annual conference,

where the Baby Café team served tea,

coffee and cake and showed delegates just

what goes on - see Trina’s letter on page 2

of this issue.

Everybody’s talking about it...

Close-up look at New York State Baby Cafés

Erie County, in New York State, sitting right

on the Canadian border, is one of the spots

hosting the US branch of the Baby Café family.

This year, the prestigious Journal of Human

Lactation reported on the development of a

network of Baby Cafés in Erie County.

Erie County has one of the lowest rates of breast-

feeding in the state. Funding from a number of

sources supported training and staffing, and over

just seven months, six Baby Cafés got going,

co-ordinating their locations and opening times,

to enable 11 sessions a week across the county. One

Baby Café in Buffalo was noted for its reach with

a particularly needy population. ‘They have many

success stories of young moms and homeless moms

who felt that the Baby Café provided them with

support and valuable information that gave

them the confidence to breastfeed their babies,’

say authors Barbara Dennison and Kyle Restina.

Duis sed metus et eros sagittis volutpat vitae at massa. Phasellus sit amet luctus libero.

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Fight for survivalBrilliant news from Oxfordshire. Threatened

with closure through lack of funding, Baby

Cafés across the county have been saved,

after an intense several months of writing,

campaigning, and pressure.

Said IBCLC (International Board Certified

Lactation Consultant) Lisa Mansour, project

lead for the Oxford Baby Cafés group, ‘We have

supported many families to achieve or surpass

their breastfeeding goals over the last decade or

so, and are well thought of amongst our health

colleagues, with many referrals coming from

midwives, health visitors and GPs. So it was

very concerning when we were faced with

potential closures due to the very uncertain

future of local children’s centres, which fully

fund our service.’

They did lose one Baby Café in the summer, and

the threat to others was real.

Lisa added, ‘we tried to get assurances from the

local authority and explore other funding options,

but the summer rolled on and the pressure was

mounting. As IBCLCs and breastfeeding

supporters, our strategic and campaigning skills

are pretty nascent (but we’re learning fast), so

we turned to the best resource we have: our

Baby Café mums!’

Mothers expressed their concerns in letters to

the local authority, public health department,

local councillors and MPs (including the Prime

Minister David Cameron).

‘The local press took up the story,’ said Lisa, ‘and

our Facebook group really helped to coordinate

the campaign and gather momentum. Some of

our mums are doctors and, along with colleagues

who also support breastfeeding mums and babies,

several of them sent a letter outlining the

importance of our service and the impact closing

it could have on the health of their own families

and that of their patients and therefore increase

pressure on their clinical settings. Local midwives

were poised to follow suit, when we heard that

our contracts have been extended till the end of

March 2016. Thank goodness!’

Of course the fight is not over. Lisa and colleagues

want to avoid being in the same position in March.

But for now, they have time to come up with a

good plan and to make strong proposals for

future funding.

Shout out to Dallas The Baby Café in Dallas, Texas has a great addition - a dads’ lounge!

The addition is a chill-out corner for dads to use if they want to, alongside a toddlers’ play area. Co-ordinator Sandra Rodriguez sent us a great update plus pics about the Baby Café held all day, 8.30am to 5pm, three times a week, and open for phone support outside those times, too.

...events and happenings

around Baby Cafés

Picnic in PeterboroughPeterborough’s health visiting team celebrated their Baby Friendly accreditation for the second time this summer, and shared their celebrating with National Breastfeeding Week.

A breastfeeding picnic, organised with peer supporters and Baby Café team members, attracted large numbers of people, invited from parent and baby groups across the city. Together with NCT breastfeeding counsellors, they met at Ferry Meadows with food, drink and plenty of cake. When it rained, the park café offered refuge. ‘The venue was soon full of breastfeeding mums and children,’ said Jennifer Radford, trainee peer supporter. ‘I grabbed a table with a friend and we were joined by another lady that she knew from their local baby group. One of the things that really stood out for me was that, because of the common purpose of those attending the picnic, there was a really supportive atmosphere with people discussing tips and tricks for successful feeding and sharing their experiences. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to test out my newly-learned skills and offer some peer support to a new mother - hopefully I was able to be of some use!’

For crying out loud

A new book, “Finding your way with your

baby”, by Dilys Daws and Alexandra de

Rementaria, looks at the ‘emotional life of

parents and babies’.

Among a wonderful explanation of how parents

and babies develop their relationship, it has some

great stuff on crying and calming. The authors - both

child psychotherapists with years of experience in

helping mothers and babies - share the important

insight, ‘crying is not a criticism of you’.

They offer some practical pointers to get through

difficult times: ‘It will help [your baby] to know

that you are getting in tune with her feelings, if

you can tell her in words what you think she is

feeling, and what you are trying out to help her.

Your tone of voice tells her more than the words.

Putting it into words helps you feel there is some

limit to what is going on between you. It is no

longer endless misery.’

“Finding your way with your baby”. Dilys Daws

and Alexandra de Rementaria. Routledge, 2015.

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In the news...

...snips and clips about babies, breastfeeding and more

Smile, please! Dental researchers looked at the oral health data of a cohort of babies tracked from birth to age five years - and discovered that the longer the breastfeeding, the better the teeth.

Specifically, the researchers examined the incidence of malocclusion - imperfect or problematic positioning of the teeth. The best teeth were seen in children who had breastfed exclusively to six months, and they did better than children who were breastfed for shorter times, or alongside formula feeding, and alongside dummy use.

For more information, see Exclusive Breastfeeding and Risk of Dental Malocclusion, doi: 10.1542/peds.2014-3276

New videos from Baby FriendlyIt’s just four minutes long, but this brand new video Meeting baby for the first time explains the theory behind the benefits of skin-to-skin contact for all babies and shows how mothers and babies (and fathers, too) can enjoy it as a basis not just for early breastfeeding, but as a great start to close, loving relationships as well.

Intended mainly for healthcare professionals who want to explain skin -to -skin to pregnant and new mums, the video will also be useful for peer supporters to share with mothers... in fact, anyone who likes seeing happy mothers and babies getting to know each other will enjoy it. Watch it on You Tube - put ‘Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative: Meeting baby for the first time’ in the search box.

Q - Why is the Baby Café only for mothers who

breastfeed? A - The Baby Café is a group whose main focus

is supporting breastfeeding mothers, it’s true.

This is because mothers can often struggle to get

breastfeeding going and to continue breastfeeding,

and being with other breastfeeding mothers can

really help. In addition, Baby Cafés often have

trained peer supporters to listen and share good

information plus a healthcare professional working

alongside them, so anyone needing more help can

find it on the spot. Mothers who are breastfeeding,

or thinking about it, know the Baby Café is a

safe place to ask questions - no matter how big

or small. Mothers are welcome however they are

breastfeeding - using expressed breastmilk, or

using formula alongside breastfeeding, too. It’s

also for anyone not breastfeeding at present, but

wanting to know more about it.

Q - But isn’t formula just as good for babies these

days? Surely mothers struggling with breastfeeding

should be encouraged to switch to the bottle?

A - There are important differences between

formula and breastmilk. For example, formula is

made from cow’s milk, and it doesn’t offer the

health protection of breastfeeding. If a mother

has problems breastfeeding, then it should be up

to her whether she uses formula or not - no one

should judge her one way or the other. We do

know, though, that for some mothers, breastfeeding

is something they really want to do. Often, the

help and support they find at the Baby Café

enables them to continue breastfeeding - not

because of anyone telling them to do it, but

because they find solutions and the confidence

they need.

Q - My friend’s pregnant and she is not sure she

wants to breastfeed or not. If she comes along to

the Baby Café, she’s a bit worried people will put

pressure on her. A - Lots of women are just not sure about

breastfeeding. Maybe it is something that’s just

not been done in their family before, or they

have worries about what to wear, and where to

do it. They don’t want to commit to doing it until

the baby is actually born. No one will put

pressure on your friend. Peer supporters at the

Baby Café are trained to listen, not to judge, and if your friend has questions, they will do their best to help. Seeing mothers breastfeeding their babies comfortably and in a relaxed setting will help your friend see if it’s something she thinks she might be able to do.

Q - My sister is having huge problems breastfeeding, and she is scared to come along in case everyone there is f inding it all really easy, and she worries they’ll think she’s a bad mother, not managing to breastfeed. What can I say to explain it’s not like that?A - Some mothers do feel afraid that everyone else will be organised and sorted - it goes to show that being a new mother is an emotional time. Tell your sister that plenty of other mothers will have been in the same situation as her, and they will understand exactly what she’s going through, and the peer supporters and breastfeeding counsellors involved in the Baby Café know it can be difficult. It’s a big myth that everyone who trains to help other mothers has breastfed problem-free.

Q&A...

page 7

...some ideas on how to answer those tricky questions!

Baby Café report:

DES449

Baby Café News is published quarterly by NCT.We welcome contributions to Baby Café News.

Editor: Heather WelfordGraphic design: NCT Design Team

Baby Café News is published by NCT, Alexandra House, Oldham Terrace, London, W3 6NH

© 2015 NCT Baby Café is a trading name of The National Childbirth Trust Limited company registered in England and Wales: 2370573 Registered address: Alexandra House, Oldham Terrace, London, W3 6NH

Registered charity in England and Wales: 801395 and Scotland: SC041592

The researchers carried out a total of 36

in-depth interviews and five focus groups

with users of eight Baby Cafés in the UK.

Many women felt that they had been given

unrealistic expectations of breastfeeding by

professionals keen to promote the benefits.

Mothers valued the combination of expert

professional and peer support provided by

Baby Café services.

The study provides evidence for the benefits

of social support, alongside reassurance

and guidance from skilled practitioners, to

help women to overcome difficulties and

find confidence in their own abilities to

achieve their feeding goals.

Mothers expressed feelings of pressure,

guilt and blame regarding their feeding

experiences, and reported conflicting

advice and varying levels of support from

health professionals, friends and family.

Many of the women were initially

anxious about attending a group

situation and unsure of what to expect.

Once they had made the initial effort

mothers often felt that the Baby Café

provided a supportive environment.

Further work is needed to ensure that

services such as Baby Café are readily

accessible to women from all sectors of

the community.

Baby Cafés in the UK have been under

the research spotlight recently, with

an NCT team of researchers checking

out experiences by asking mothers

themselves what they think of the

support they have had. Here we list

some of their findings.

For more information, search on the

internet for ‘Fox et al. BMC Pregnancy

and Childbirth (2015) 15:147 DOI

10.1186/s12884-015-0581-5’

Breastfeeding on the webOur favourite websites for breastfeeding mothersthebabycafe.org Loads of information, facts and figuresnct.org.uk Search on ‘breastfeeding’ for information sheets, short articlesnct.org.uk/parenting/whats-your-babys-nappyThe useful ‘nappy sheet’ which tells new parents what to look for in the first week, to help check feeding’s going wellkellymom.orgUseful and comprehensive, it will answer a lot of your questions

Ring ring… Breastfeeding helpline numbersNCT Helpline 0300 330 0700National Breastfeeding Helpline 0300 100 0212Breastfeeding Network Supporterline 0300 100 0210Drugs In Breastmilk Helpline 0844 412 4665La Leche League Helpline 0845 120 2918Association of Breastfeeding Mothers Helpline 0300 330 5453

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