Breast milk for Preterm babies

For preterm babies milk is not so much food, it is a medicine to protect the undeveloped gut, to develop immunity.

Preterm babies are at a higher risk of infection and breastmilk reduces this significantly. Having a baby early and unexpectedly can come as quite a shock and due to the delivery and recovery, breastmilk is often not the first concern. We are aiming to offer support with expressing as soon as possible. Even if the baby is too unwell to feed, they will still benefit from breastmilk being used as mouthcare, and any unused breastmilk can be stored and used for when baby is able to feed. Early expressing also helps build up a good supply for those who wish to carry on breastfeeding their baby.

• Milk is Medicine
• More information about infant feeding
• National Breastfeeding Helpline
• Breastfeeding your Premature Baby
• Chestfeeding if you’re trans or non-binary
• Bliss – for babies born premature or sick

Perinatal Pelvic Health

The PPH team is made up of pelvic health physiotherapists, midwives and doctors

The PPH team has developed new antenatal education classes that will be available this summer – you can come and join us in person or drop in online.  In these classes, you will learn what your pelvic floor is and what can happen if it isn’t working well.  We’ll teach you about pelvic floor exercises, what happens in pregnancy and labour, how to look after your bladder and bowel, how, when, and why, to do perineal massage, and how to care for yourself after you have had the baby.

Additional training is being delivered to staff to support aftercare and pelvic health and they, in turn, will be able to talk to you about any concerns you may have and put you in touch with the people who can help you further.

Exercise in Pregnancy

Our programme provides you with exercise videos and useful resources to refer to during your pregnancy and after you have had your baby. We hope you will find the programme useful and that we can help encourage you to stay fit and well during this important time.

Premature Babies

Prem 7 is an initiative with the purpose of optimising preterm birth, where it cannot be avoided.

There are 7 elements of focus, which if optimised, will lead to better outcomes for these babies. These include –

• Ensuring women and people are in the right place when their baby is born.
• Supporting staff in encouraging babies that are born before 34 weeks to have their umbilical cord attached (not clamped and cut) for as long as safe.
• Promoting that well premature babies have skin-to-skin contact at birth to help keep them warm and promote bonding.
• Babies born under 34 weeks receive maternal breast milk within 24 hours.

Equity & Equality

We are working with staff and service users to identify areas of inequality and work together to establish meaningful, coproduced solutions.

We work closely with the Maternity Voices Partnership and local councils to provide a joined-up approach to tackling inequalities.

To support service users with learning difficulties, disabilities, and those whose first language isn’t English, we develop the LMNS website which offers a bespoke accessibility toolbar with options for users with sensory impairments, and translation into over 100 languages. For a detailed breakdown of what is available please read issue 1 of this blog where there is a deep dive into the functionality we offer.

Issue 1: The New LMNS Website