Staff and patients at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospital’s Maternity and Neo-Natal Units celebrated the opening of two new baby feeding rooms at the Trust today with a visit from model and breast feeding supporter, Danielle Lloyd.
Danielle, who is married to Wolves player Jamie O’Hara brought her sons Archie and Harry along with her, remembered the care Harry had been given when he was born at just 30 weeks at another unit.
“I’m really pleased to have been asked along and to meet with the neo-natal nurses and other mums, its lovely to be involved and brings back a lot of memories of the early days with Harry,” said Danielle.
The Liverpool born model posed with cakes made by nurses on the unit in a ‘Great Boob Bake Off’ before cutting ribbons in the two rooms and chatting with nurses and other hospital staff.
One new room is on the neo-natal unit and aims to give parents of babies on the unit a quiet place where they can feed,
express milk or just enjoy skin to skin contact with their little ones. The second room is on the main corridor and is open to anyone staying at or just visiting the hospital and provides a private space to feed babies and change nappies.
Nurses at the Trust have had a week of events surrounding the visits, all promoting breastfeeding. A special ‘Great Booby Bake Off’ challenge was held and staff and families produced an array of delicious cakes which lived up to the name of the challenge.
One of the event’s organisers Infant Feeding Sister, Louise Thompson explained: “We want families coming through the maternity and neo-natal unit to know what help and support is available to them around breast feeding and also to celebrate the opening of our two new rooms. One room is on the neo-natal unit and is specifically for mums to breast feed, express milk and have skin to skin contact with their babies on the unit in a relaxing environment. The other is a general feeding room and nappy changing space for anyone visiting or staying in the hospital and is on our main corridor.”
Specialist Midwife, Christina Lewis, added: “There is a lot of information and support available to new parents and we want to highlight that. Our new rooms offer a quiet and private space where mums can feed their babies or even just take the opportunity for some skin to skin contact, which is particularly important for premature babies.”
Throughout the week the Maternity and Neo-Natal Units are having displays about feeding and be offering lots of free goodies for interested parents and babies.