Feeding your baby

We are very proud that the Countess of Chester Hospital is a UNICEF Baby Friendly hospital. This accreditation indicates that we meet best practice standards to support breastfeeding and close parent-infant relationships.  We want to ensure that all parents feel able to make informed decisions about feeding their babies and are supported and encouraged in their chosen feeding method.

During pregnancy, your midwife will discuss your thoughts and feelings around looking after and feeding your baby and give you information to help you make informed choices, and get your feeding journey off to a good start.

Our infant feeding and antenatal education teams have developed an antenatal education workshop to provide you with lots of information to help prepare you for your feeding journey.

You can book onto our online sessions by contacting us on 01244 363646 or you can browse through the information workshop information by clicking here.

In hospital, staff including midwives, nurses, maternity support workers and breastfeeding peer support volunteers, will help you learn how to put your baby to your breast, hand express your milk and how to tell if breastfeeding is going well. If you choose to bottle feed, they will teach you how to bottle feed as safely as possible.

Your community midwife will visit you at home or contact you by telephone to assess how well your baby is feeding and support you with any difficulties.

Your health visitor will see you at home after the birth and continue to review your child’s development at a child health clinic. They will give ongoing support with infant feeding, starting solids from six months and going back to work.

If you have questions or concerns in relation to feeding your baby, please get in touch with our Infant Feeding team 01244 363646

Our Infant Feeding Padlet has lots of information, resources and links to support groups to help you through your feeding journey. Take a look using the link: https://padlet.com/chester_classes/COCH_InfantFeeding