Help for mums and babies

A support group for mums and their babies has been boosted by the creation of a financed role to help drive their efforts.

Perth and Kinross Breast Feeding Peer Support Group secured funding to develop its work on breast-feeding peer support which has paid a role now taken up by Hannah Dalgety, a nurse and midwife.

Hannah will be based at HomeStart Perth, starting in post in April, and will focus on areas such as its Breast Buddies project.

Funding for this project comes from the NHS Community Innovation Fund and Maternal Infant Nutrition budget.

A spokesperson said:“This project offers an exciting and innovative step forward in building on, developing, and supporting the work that is currently done by a team of enthusiastic and passionate volunteers and NHS staff in this area.

“Breast-feeding is widely recognised as having a positive impact on the health of mothers and babies but often a range of barriers means that it can be difficult to establish and maintain. Effective peer support is widely recognised as being a significant contributing factor to successful breastfeeding.”

The funding will be used to employ a coordinator of the Breast Buddies project with the aim of developing the co-ordination and support of breast-feeding in Perth and Kinross.

Key aims of the project are to improve the support to breastfeeding mothers in Perth and Kinross via social media pages, to promote breast-feeding friendly environments in local communities, and to improve mother satisfaction with breastfeeding support and experience.

This will include building on the current training and support programme for volunteers and look at developing the way support is offered to new parents at the earliest possible stage.