Infant feeding
About our infant feeding service
Welcome to infant feeding, we have a team of specialists ready to help you with your feeding journey. Here you'll find useful information about feeding your baby.
We provide feeding support for the first 28 days after having your baby, or whist you are under the care of a community midwife.
Closeness and skin to skin contact frequently helps you learn about your baby’s feeding cues. You can expect your baby may feed 5 to 6 times in their first 24 hours. After this point, your baby will start to feed more frequently taking 8-12 feeds over a 24 hour period.
It’s useful to keep a diary for feed times, length of feeds if breastfeeding, amounts of milk if bottle feeding and if your baby has had a wet or dirty nappy.
We recommend that you feed your baby responsively rather than sticking to a strict regime for both breast and bottle fed babies, ensuring babies have 8-12 feeds in 24 hours. For breastfed babies, periods of cluster feeding is very normal and can occur during the day or night. During this time your baby may feed quite a lot during a 3-4 hour period.
Support you will receive from us
- we will help you to understand the importance of closeness and responsiveness for mother/baby wellbeing
- how to hold your baby for feeding
- information on responsive feeding
Breastfeeding support
- how to hand express
- understanding the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding
- understand when your baby is getting enough milk
- how to access help and support when you have been discharged from hospital
Formula feeding support
- how to sterilise equipment and how to make up feeds
- feeding your baby first formula milks
- information and importance of paced bottle feeding
- the benefits of limiting the number of people who feed your baby
Blocked ducts
Sore breasts can be a painful and can occur when the milk flow in your breast is blocked. This can happne if you breastfeed or formula feed.
Your breast may feel tender, there may or may not be redness or a hard spot or sore lump in your breast. If the area becomes swollen, painful, hot to touch or you have flu like symptoms you may have developed an infection known as mastitis. If you develop any of these symptoms seek help from your midwife or GP.
Observing your baby’s nappies is a really good way of knowing if your baby is getting enough milk.
Off to the best start breastfeeding leaflet.pdf [pdf] 4MB shows images of how your baby’s poo changes during their first week. If you feel concerned about any feeding issues please contact your midwife. Our specialist midwives will be able to provide extra support.
If you are under the care of your midwife and need support with breastfeeding please contact:
- Infant Feeding Specialist Midwife Leigh-Anne Hartley on: 07824 417 802
Meet the infant feeding team
Hello, our names are Leigh-Anne, Zoe and Racheal... we are the Infant Feeding Coordinators and Baby Friendly Leads for our Trust’s maternity and neonatal services. Our role ensures the Trust is upholding the Baby Friendly Standards set by UNICEF, and supporting good standards of education and knowledge for both staff and families.
In May 2023, our maternity service was accredited as Baby Friendly, and our neonatal service is currently working hard to achieve this accreditation. Our goal is to create a healthier population for the next generation and to support women and families to make informed decisions about how they feed their baby.
We run a weekly Specialist Feeding Clinic at Dewsbury and District Hospital. Here, we see families with complex feeding needs. This clinic runs alongside our Tongue Tie clinic, where Zoe and Racheal work as Frenulotomy Practioners, providing assessment of tongue function and division of any restriction if required. This clinic is supported by the Specialist Feeding Clinic, meaning parents can access the feeding support required post-division straight away.
We also support babies under the care of the neonatal unit and transitional care, as well as those babies who are readmitted to the hospital with feeding issues or weight loss, providing specialist support to help sustain breastfeeding rates.
Hello, my name is Corinne... I am the Infant Feeding Midwife working alongside the coordinators. My role is to support women with more complex feeding issues, in both the hospital and community settings, to provide high standards of care and to reduce hospital readmissions. I also support the team with the education of staff and families and with auditing our services, ensuring we are working to the Baby Friendly Standards.
Hello, my name is Fidelma… I am the Maternity Support Worker working within the team. My main focus is supporting the running of the Tongue Tie clinic, helping Zoe and Racheal during procedures, providing aftercare advice and breastfeeding support to parents, and speaking with them one week post-op to ensure no concerns or further support is required (where this is the case, I refer them back to our Specialist Feeding Clinic). I also focus some of my time to auditing, ensuring the information women and families receive is consistent and to the UNICEF Baby Friendly standards.
FAB - Breastfeeding support
We know how beneficial additional breastfeeding support can be to new parents.
Our amazing charity partners FAB (families and babies Wakefield) join our maternity team at Pinderfields Hospital and provide support new parents with breastfeeding.
If you don’t get chance to meet one of the FAB team’s Peer Supporters, please ask one of our midwives and they can put you in touch. They offer telephone, one-to-one support and home visits if required. They also run weekly breastfeeding support groups.
FAB are available 24/7 on 01924 851 901
Contact details
Visit FAB in Wakefield
31 All Saints Walk, The Ridings Centre, Wakefield, WF1 1US
9.30am – 3.30pm Monday to Friday
12.30pm – 3pm on Saturdays
10.00am – 3pm on Sundays
Infant feeding support organisations
Health Visitors
If you are under the care of your health visitor and need support with breastfeeding please contact the following services
Wakefield single point of contact 01924 310130
Kirklees single point of contact 03003 045555 or Text for support 07520 618867
Support organisations
- Auntie Pam's support mums-to-be in Kirklees. They offer help, guidance and information for mums and families through centres in Dewsbury and Huddersfield.
- The Baby Buddy App provides trusted, evidence-based information and self-care tools to help parents build their knowledge and confidence during the transition to parenthood and throughout the early stages of parenting.
- Baby Café is a network of breastfeeding drop-in centres. Find your nearest drop-in by entering your postcode
- Bliss is a special-care baby charity that provides vital support and care to premature and sick babies across the UK The Breastfeeding Network provides breastfeeding support and information
- FAB provide peer support services offering evidenced based information & support to help improve health & well-being within families. They offer antenatal classes and breast pump hire.
- First Steps Nutrition Trust is an independent public health nutrition charity that provides information and resources to support eating well from pre-conception to five years.
- La Leche League offers mother-to-mother support with breastfeeding. Lactation Consultants of Great Britain can help you find a lactation consultant near you.
- National Childbirth Trust (NCT) is a charity that provides information and support on all aspects of pregnancy, birth and early parenthood, including breastfeeding.
- Sure Start Children's Centres Some local children’s centres offer breastfeeding support groups for families. Use the link to find your nearest centre.
- Twins and Multiple Births Association (TAMBA) has information about feeding twins and triplets.UK Association for Milk Banking has information about using donated breast milk if your baby is premature or ill, and how to donate breast milk.
- West Yorkshire Sling Library An independent carrier resource based in Leeds and Wakefield, we have been working since 2011 to offer families safe and comfortable carrying solutions. Our drop-in sessions around Leeds and Wakefield offer free sling and carrier advice and fitting services.
Antenatal Feeding Education:
The following places offer online resources / courses free of charge for families. They provide parents-to-be with excellent information and knowledge so that you can fully prepare for your feeding journey.
Online breastfeeding course (click on the play icon to begin)
Thriving Kirklees offer free online resources to parents living in North Kirklees
Locala also support breastfeeding
Breastfeeding Helplines:
National Breastfeeding Helpline 0300 100 0212
Association of Breastfeeding Mothers 0300 330 5453
La Leche League 0345 120 2918
National Childbirth Trust (NCT) 0300 330 0700
The Breastfeeding Network supporter line in Bengali and Sylheti: 0300 456 2421
Key achievement
Our Trust has been awarded the prestigious Baby Friendly Award, having gained recognition from the UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) Baby Friendly Initiative.
This award demonstrates our commitment to effectively implement the Baby Friendly standards and to improve patient care and experience.
