Specialist Infant Feeding Team (Brighton and Hove)

Our purpose - To improve feeding experiences and population health by providing specialist breastfeeding support to families, guidance to health professionals and by developing the HCP infant feeding community, including the peer support programme. 

We are a specialist team within Brighton and Hove Healthy Child Programme, working closely with, acting as a resource for, and providing training for, Health Visiting Teams (this includes health visitors, staff nurses and community nursery nurses). We also work closely with Children's Centre teams and midwives.

Our support includes:

• Breastfeeding Support in the City. Due to COVID-19, several face-face breastfeeding drop-in services remain closed. There is virtual, online and face-face breastfeeding support available. Please see our latest update for details.

• The Breastfeeding peer support volunteer programme. We recruit and train volunteers to provide mother to mother breastfeeding support. Volunteers work on the postnatal ward and in several community groups.

• Facebook. Our page offers information about breastfeeding and local updates about drop ins across the city. It also shares inspiring and affirming messages and links to media stories. We do not offer breastfeeding support directly through the page, though we may discuss common concerns and themes you can relate to. If you are facing challenges, contact your midwife, health visitor or Children's Centre team.

• Brighton Breastfeeding Initiative (BBI). This is a network of health professionals and voluntary groups/organisations who are working to support breastfeeding within the city.

The team includes Charlotte Crisswell, Infant Feeding Lead, and Julia Redburn and Zoe Faulkner, Breastfeeding Peer Support Co-ordinators.