Woollen boobs help with breast feeding (From This is The West Country)
Get involved! Send your photos, video, news & views by texting COUNTY GAZETTE to 80360 or email us
Woollen boobs help with breast feeding
5:30pm Monday 31st May 2010 in Somerset By Steve Sowden
Infant feeding specialists Louise Stickland (left) and Julie Scracher (right) are pictured with Shirley Dibbs of the Somerset Mothers’ Union
MUMS and babies in South Somerset are benefiting from the knitting skills of the county’s Mothers Union.
But it’s not woollen baby clothes or blankets which are being gratefully received – its woollen breasts!
It’s all part of an innovative idea taken up by local NHS Infant Feeding Specialists in Somerset to help teach breastfeeding mums how to better express their breast milk and overcome some of the common problems experienced by new mothers, such as blocked ducts and mastitis.
NHS infant feeding specialist, Julie Scrancher, who works across the South Somerset area, said: “In the past our breastfeeding trainers had to use balloons to demonstrate feeding skills.
“But when my colleague Louise Stickland heard the Mothers Union did knitting of clothes for premature babies, she asked if they would be prepared to knit 150 breasts so we could make them available as a training aid to every health visitor, community nurse and nursery nurse involved in supporting new breastfeeding mums.
“To our delight, they agreed and enrolled four of their best knitters, who have done an outstanding job.”
Somerset’s Mothers Union liaison officer, Shirley Dibbs, said: “Our members across Somerset were very pleased to help with this. Many of our members are mothers themselves and we all recognise the benefits of breastfeeding brings new members.”
The knitted breasts are now being distributed to health visitors, community nurses and nursery nurses across Somerset to use as a training aid with new mothers.
