Press release – issued 21 July 2023
2023/016

Invitation to parents and families to celebrate World Breastfeeding Week at the Courtyard Theatre 

Wye Valley NHS Trust’s midwifery team are delighted to invite parents and families to celebrate World Breastfeeding Week at The Courtyard in Hereford on Friday 4 August, from 10am until 12pm. 

The event aims to raise awareness of the benefits breast feeding can bring for the health and welfare of babies and the importance of supporting parents to breastfeed for as long as they wish.  There will be information stands on the support available locally for parents and families across Herefordshire. 

8 out of 10 parents report that they stopped breastfeeding before they wanted to.  There are many different demands on busy parents, meaning that women who may want to breastfeed their babies haven’t always got the support to continue this. Busy working schedules, alongside the many other challenges that modern women face can mean that women don’t always feel that breastfeeding their child is something that is an accessible option to them. 

In Herefordshire, alongside Wye Valley NHS Trust’s Baby Friendly Accreditation, their midwifery team is working very hard to provide excellent support services for parents who want to breastfeed.

Arwen Nixon, Public Health Midwife at Wye Valley NHS Trust, said “We are delighted to celebrate World Breastfeeding Week and to raise awareness of the support available to parents to enable them to make informed feeding choices, which includes breast and bottle feeding.  We have a fantastic, experienced and trained team of midwives, maternity support workers, health visitors, and volunteer breastfeeding peer supporters, who offer support and guidance to parents before and once their baby is born, in hospital, when they go home and at community locations across Herefordshire.   

“Please come along to the event at the Courtyard Theatre on Friday 4 August, 10am until 12pm, to meet our infant feeding team and visit the following stands - health visiting team, Herefordshire Children’s Centres, Maternity Voice Partnership, Anya app – free 24/7 feeding and parenting support on your phone, Baby et al providing infant feeding support, along with a children’s entertainer from Magical Experiences and free refreshments. There is no need to book a place, just turn up on the day.” 

To find out more about the support available locally and to access the free infant feeding app visit www.wyevalley.nhs.uk (search maternity, infant feeding).  

Ends

Notes to Editors WVT:

• Wye Valley NHS Trust is a provider of health services across Herefordshire and beyond. The Trust exists to improve the wellbeing, independence and health of the people we serve.
• By working closely with our partners, we can make good our promise to deliver a quality of care we would want for ourselves, our families and our friends.
• With an estimated annual turnover of around £295 million, we employ around 3,000 staff. We aim to build new relationships between our staff, patients, service users and their carers with the wider community. 

For further information please contact:

Fiona Gurney, communications officer, or John Burnett, Communication and Engagement Manager, Wye Valley NHS Trust: 01432 372928