About breastfeeding

Breastfeeding offers many benefits to you and your baby, including helping you build a close and loving bond.

For the first 6 months of your baby’s life, breast milk alone can meet all of your baby’s nutritional needs. It also increases your baby's ability to fight infection and disease. Breastfeeding can also soothe your baby for while they have injections and blood tests.

Our commitment to breastfeeding

‘Ten steps to successful breastfeeding’ promotes and supports breastfeeding in maternity and newborn services and is a World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) initiative.

Fiona Stanley Hospital supports this initiative by:

  • having a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all healthcare staff
  • training healthcare staff in the skills they need to implement the policy
  • informing pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding
  • placing babies in skin-to-skin contact with mothers immediately after birth for at least an hour, with mothers encouraged to recognise when their baby is ready to breastfeed and offered help as needed
  • showing mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain breastmilk production (lactation), even if separated from their baby
  • only giving newborn babies breastmilk to drink, unless medically required
  • practicing rooming in (where the baby stays in the mother’s room) is practiced so mothers and babies can remain together for 24 hours a day.
  • encouraging breastfeeding on demand
  • not offering artificial teats or dummies
  • referring mothers to breastfeeding support groups on discharge from hospital.

Supporting you to breastfeed

Women booked to give birth at Fiona Stanley Hospital are encouraged to attend our ‘Breastfeeding matters’ online forum as part of their parent education classes.

To encourage successful breastfeeding, you are encouraged to have lots of skin-to-skin contact between you and your baby as soon as possible after birth.

Your midwives will support you to breastfeed by:

  • and your baby
  • encouraging you to wear loose comfortable clothing and positioning yourself comfortably in bed or a chair when feeding
  • showing how to get your baby correctly attached for feeding
  • understanding how to allow your baby how often and how long to feed for
  • helping you learn how to tell if your baby is feeding well.

Read more about getting started with breastfeeding (Healthy WA) and other breastfeeding advice (Healthy WA).

If you gave birth at Fiona Stanley Hospital, contact the Helpdesk on 6152 2222 and ask to speak with the Outpatient Breastfeeding Clinic (8.00am to 4.30pm, Monday to Friday).

You can also contact:

More information

Find out more about caring for your baby or return to the Maternity page.

 

Last Updated: 07/03/2024