Wigan Borough Service Update

We are posting with an update on some changes happening to the Breastfeeding Support provision across Wigan Borough.

Breastfeeding Together have been commissioned by Wigan Council since 2015 to provide a Breastfeeding Peer Support Service, the contract has come to end with the Council and the service we are currently commissioned to provide to families will stop on the 5th August 2020.

Breastfeeding Together are currently in the process of transitioning from being a council funded to a privately funded service once the contract with Wigan Council ends.

Breastfeeding Together will continue their work as a Charity by seeking external funding. Breastfeeding Together continues to be committed to the families of Wigan Borough.

From the 5th August there will be a new offer in place, led by Maternity and Health Visiting Services, to develop an integrated infant feeding offer as part of the Start Well offer to all parents in the borough. The new offer will mean mums and families are given support from Start Well services from the moment they access antenatal care. This includes the new Start Well digital offer that enables families to access information, advice and guidance during pregnancy, the early years and beyond this.

Specific support will continue to be available for mums with breastfeeding. In addition to this, support will be on offer for bottle-feeding and a number of other topics such as sleeping and introducing solid food. Throughout the offer, families will be signposted to helpful apps and resources, including the Baby Buddy app, and the Start Well Digital Offer. Parents of children with a disability will also be able to access support via the SEND Local Offer website.

Families who continue to require specialist infant feeding support will receive support from the Infant Feeding Leads in Maternity and Health Visiting Services, which will include home visits where required.

Our Big Feed 2020

Our Big Feed was our final event of this years breastfeeding awareness month. This year wasn’t quite the same as previous years, but we weren’t prepared to let social distancing stop us! We asked our mums to join us virtually by sending in brelfies, and join us they did- We had so many we had to make a full 4 collages!!

We’d like to thank everyone who took part and also everyone who liked, commented and shared our posts on social media throughout June as well as those who donated to help us continue our work.

If you’d like to support us by making a regular or one off donation you can find full details here Every penny helps us to continue supporting families across the uk.