Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Practice Practice Pointer

Providing effective evidence based support for breastfeeding women in primary care

BMJ 2021; 375 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-065927 (Published 01 November 2021) Cite this as: BMJ 2021;375:e065927

Rapid Response:

Re: Providing effective evidence based support for breastfeeding women in primary care

Dear Editor,

I was interested to read Marshall et al's Practice Pointer (BMJ 2021;375:e065927). The authors noted that "seeking care for a baby who is crying may reflect anxiety over feeding, poor support, or both." While this may be true, it may also be a reflection of appropriate parental concern. Caring for an unsettled infant can be an overwhelming experience, particularly when one or both parents may also be recovering from trauma related to a difficult or stressful birth experience. It is not unusual for there to be concerns about infant weight loss in the weeks following birth and there can be many conflicting opinions and advice offered from different health care professionals in that time. Wider societal knowledge (in the UK) regarding physiological infant feeding behaviour has largely been lost and parents and carers will hear many conflicting ideas about infant feeding.

In this context it is not surprising that new parents may seek support from a trusted healthcare professional to ensure that their child is not unwell. Primary care teams can not be expected to address all these barriers to breastfeeding but the importance to being able to support and direct parents to local in-person or trusted online sources cannot be overemphasised.

Competing interests: No competing interests

01 December 2021
Mairi Finlay
Junior Doctor
Dundee