I am passionate about infant feeding. I am compassionate empathetic and am very good at effectively communicating with staff and birthing people and their support networks.
I believe that all children deserve the best possible start in life, which begins with their nutrition from birth. All parents deserve relevant evidence-based information with which they can make an informed choice regarding their feeding choices.
I use my experience to have open and honest conversations with parents regarding their feeding journeys. I am compassionate to everyone’s experience and am very aware that parents are complex, and each have their own needs and issues that may need to be resolved during their feeding journey.
Being a child of immigrant parents, I can empathise with parents who do not have English as a first language and understand the frustrations which can be caused from not understanding how to access support or information.
Equally, having family in another country has enabled me to understand how a different culture supports and nurtures infant feeding. I was lucky enough to take my son to Chile while I was still feeding him and feel that this gave me a different perspective on how breastfeeding is treated in a culture that sees it as the normal method of feeding children. I am also lucky enough to be bilingual in Spanish.
Having completed the ‘Train the Trainer’ course in January of this year, I have created a training plan and lesson plans to accompany the training that I provide. Training currently includes the NICU nurses while they are organising their own feeding specialists. I have received some really positive feedback regarding the training, and have noticed some small changes to the ward culture, which is heartwarming.
I have created a training timetable including all maternity and NICU staff so that staff familiar with the standards and progression to accreditation. I have also created spreadsheets documenting where staff are on their training programmes.
I also deliver information at all Maternity Update days, as well as attending all staff meeting and delivering all relevant infant feeding information.
I liaise with NICU and offer practical feeding support with parents whenever I am asked to do so.
As I am ward based, and approachable, colleagues know that I am happy and willing to provide support to both parents and colleagues alike when needed.
I also provide feeding support over the phone when parents need added support. I have developed a good working relationship with the local peer supporters, and am able to refer parents to them when relevant.
I have also written the latest Safer Sleep guidelines, that have no been published trust wide. During this process, I was able to research and read relevant and up to date information regarding the latest safer sleep research.
I trained to become a health visitor.During this training I: