5 Easy wins with expectant parents
How do you make the antenatal infant feeding and relationship-building information that you know you need to share, really be heard and understood by the parents you are working with, in the short time you have available?
Renowned Infant Feeding Specialist and NHS Baby Friendly Initiative lead Shel Banks knows how tricky it is to deliver this key information alongside everything else you need to do in your allotted time with parents-to-be.

Session 1 – What we know and understand about the issues of getting antenatal feeding information across to expectant parents
The latest evidence base, including recent breastfeeding research from The Lancet, shows the reality of breastfeeding initiation and continuation rates globally. The report recommendations highlighted the changes we can work towards to embed information around choices for infant feeding with new parents.

At Anya, we understand the evidence base, we understand the requirements of Baby Friendly accreditation and we understand the challenges of communicating the right messages in the time available: we know staff are spread thin in terms of time and resource management.

We recognise that as healthcare professionals, you often have too many things to do in not enough time, and with not enough staff. We also recognise that the traditional ways of reaching people don’t work for everyone - and might not impact on the individual family in front of you.

Session 2: What can we do to facilitate fully informed choices around infant feeding and relationship building, for all the families in our care? We will share our top tips on how to get this information across in an inclusive and meaningful way, without negatively impacting your workload.
This session will include our top tips to be smart, use time and resources wisely, get the important infant feeding and relationship-building messages across AND make a big difference to the experience of your local families as well as improvements to wider public health outcomes.

How can the Anya app help?
As an evidence-based digital solution already in use in the NHS with monitored outcomes, we’ve got some excellent ideas along with a suite of evidence-based resources in different formats, suitable for different learning styles. Our app, containing the unique interactive 3D breastfeeding animation tool LatchAidTM, has already demonstrated improved breastfeeding initiation and continuation rates - and we can show you how it works.

We’re also working with government-funded SBRI Healthcare to research how our digital solution can improve access to support and reduce health inequalities in maternity care. This has seen us broaden our antenatal information in accessible, plain English formats, increase our inclusion of black women, young parents, and low-income families, and develop new features to deliver continuity to our users.

Join us, and together we can help make antenatal feeding information land in the right way, at the right time.

Hosted by:
Sue Macdonald, Midwifery Expert, Mayes Midwifery

Contributions from:
Shel Banks, IBCLC Infant Feeding Specialist, Clinical Director, Anya

Biography:
Shel Banks
Shel Banks is an IBCLC Infant Feeding Specialist working to support improved infant feeding outcomes for families everywhere. Shel works part-time for the NHS, has a small private practice, is Clinical Director to Anya, and provides teaching, writing, and other expertise to a number of national charities and organisations. Shel has written a book and been involved in 3 Cochrane systematic reviews and the development of 3 NICE guidelines, and alongside her Anya work, is doing a Ph.D. part-time.

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