Breastfeeding bolstered as Auburn Hospital expands midwifery roles for expectant mums

The new role of Breastfeeding Support Midwife has been added to the Unit with the dedicated aim to empower and equip women and families on their journey as new mums.

The role will be shared among three midwives, equipping them with additional skills to support women with their breastfeeding.

Within 30 minutes of birth, babies have skin-to-skin contact and had started breastfeeding.

Stephanie Wright is one of the midwives at Auburn Hospital who is assisting with breastfeeding.

She says the benefits for mothers are incredible, as well as for baby. 

"If mothers breastfeed after a pregnancy with gestational diabetes, they have a lower chance of getting type 2 diabetes later in life,"

Stephanie said. 

The benefits to baby are well documented.

As Auburn Hospital currently does not have a lactation consultant, this role assists new mums on their breastfeeding journey. 

One of the components of the role is to assist mothers who have elective caesareans, to help with skin-to-skin and breastfeeding support. 

Stephanie says the most common reason for mothers to elect for a caesarean birth is having had a caesarean in a previous birth, which has occurred either due to an emergency caesarean or a particularly long labour. 

“A lot of these women are having their second caesarean as their first elective caesarean after possibly a really long labour or an emergency caesarean last time,” Stephanie said.  

Emergency caesareans can lead to mums being separated from their babies for a short time to perform additional health checks or offer support to the baby, but this separation can lead to distress for the mum. 

“Birth trauma is such a big thing, and this is one way of making a really big difference to people's experiences of elective caesarean section,” Stephanie said.  

“The satisfaction that mothers have in their skin-to-skin and breastfeeding journey is probably the reason why I'm doing this role,” Stephanie said. 

Adriana Diab Acting Clinical Midwifery Consultant says the creation of these roles will empower women regardless of how they birth. 

"I think that first hour, particularly after birth, is such a massive moment for a woman and her baby,"

Adriana says. 

“It's such a powerful moment and [for mums] to be able to have their baby there with them and we just see the relief, the smiles on their faces, it’s amazing,” Adriana says.

Education classes are another way these women are supporting new mums. 

“We're starting to run breastfeeding classes for women on the maternity ward as well,” Adriana said. 

Stephanie runs a parenting class on a Friday afternoon, where one of the sessions is about breastfeeding. 

For expectant mums, you can sign up to those classes.