Breastfeeding Help: Who to Call and What They Do

Start here if you need someone now

The National Breastfeeding Helpline is 0300 100 0212. The Breastfeeding Network, which runs it in collaboration with the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers, says the main helpline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all year. Calls are answered by trained volunteers who have breastfed themselves. Support is also available in Welsh and Polish from 9.30am to 9.30pm — call the same number and press 1 for Welsh or 2 for Polish. The NHS lists the same number on its breastfeeding help page.

British Sign Language users in Scotland can reach the helpline through contactSCOTLAND-BSL, and elsewhere through a third-party interpreter service.

Who does what

• Midwife. Your first line in the days after birth. Can assess a feed, check weight and refer on.
• Health visitor (UK) or public health nurse (Ireland). Takes over after the midwife, does weight checks, and is the usual route to an infant feeding team.
• Infant feeding team or infant feeding lead. NHS specialists in feeding problems. Ask to be referred; you can ask directly rather than waiting to be offered.
• IBCLC lactation consultant. The highest clinical qualification in lactation. International Board Certified Lactation Consultants assess feeding in depth, diagnose problems such as ineffective transfer and oral restriction, and write a plan. Some work in the NHS, many work privately.
• Breastfeeding counsellor. Trained by a charity — NCT, the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers, the Breastfeeding Network, La Leche League — to a substantial standard, offering listening and information rather than clinical diagnosis.
• Peer supporter. A local parent trained to offer practical support and reassurance, often at a drop-in group. Free, and often the fastest to reach.
• GP. For anything medical: mastitis, thrush, vasospasm, medicines, your own health, your baby's health.
• Tongue tie practitioner. Usually accessed via the infant feeding team or an IBCLC. Assessment should be based on function during a feed, not just appearance.

UK and Irish contacts worth having

• National Breastfeeding Helpline: 0300 100 0212, 24 hours.
• NCT: 0300 330 0700, listed by the NHS as offering support on all aspects of pregnancy, birth and early parenthood including breastfeeding.
• La Leche League GB: local leaders, groups and online meetings, listed on its Get Support pages.
• HSE (Ireland): breastfeeding support groups, a support group search, and an "ask our breastfeeding expert" service staffed by lactation consultants.
• Your local infant feeding drop-in. Ask your health visitor or public health nurse, or search your local NHS or HSE site.

Medicines: use a proper service

This is the most common question and the one where general websites are least reliable. The NHS's position is that most medicines can be taken while breastfeeding without harming your baby, and that you should always check with a pharmacist, GP or health visitor before taking anything. For anything more complicated than that, use a service that specialises in it:

• The Breastfeeding Network's Drugs in Breastmilk service, which publishes detailed factsheets and answers individual enquiries. Since 2017 the service has run by email and social media enquiry rather than by phone.
• UKDILAS, the UK Drugs in Lactation Advisory Service, which advises healthcare professionals — ask your GP or pharmacist to contact them.
• LactMed, the US National Library of Medicine database, which is free and used by clinicians worldwide.
• MotherToBaby, which produces plain-language fact sheets on specific exposures.

We do not give doses on this site. Bring the name of the medicine, the dose you have been offered and your baby's age to whichever service you use.

What to ask for, and how to be heard

• Ask for a feed to be observed, start to finish, rather than described. Most problems are visible in a feed and invisible in a conversation.
• Ask for a weight check with a plan attached — what would trigger action, and when.
• Ask "what is causing this?" rather than accepting "keep going". Pain and poor transfer have causes.
• Ask for a referral by name — infant feeding team, IBCLC, tongue tie clinic.
• Ask again if the answer does not fit. Contradictory advice is extremely common, and a second opinion is reasonable.

When it is urgent

Contact your GP, NHS 111 or an out-of-hours service the same day for a red, hot, painful area of breast with a temperature or flu-like symptoms, or for a lump that does not settle after feeding. Seek urgent help for a baby who is very sleepy and hard to rouse, has a temperature, is not feeding, has significantly fewer wet nappies, or seems unwell in any way.

You are entitled to this help

You do not have to be exclusively breastfeeding to use any of these services. Combination feeding, exclusive pumping, relactating, stopping, feeding a toddler and feeding after surgery are all things these services exist for. Asking early is easier than asking late, and nobody will think you are making a fuss.

What good help looks like

You should come away with an explanation of what is happening, something specific to try, and a point at which it will be reviewed. Advice that consists only of "keep going" or "just top up" is not enough on its own, and it is reasonable to ask what is causing the problem before accepting either.

Online and in-person groups

Local breastfeeding drop-ins and support groups are usually free, do not need a referral, and are often the fastest route to someone watching a whole feed. La Leche League GB runs local groups and online meetings, and the HSE lists support groups and a support-group search for Ireland. Online groups can be good for company but are not a substitute for someone seeing your baby feed.

Keep a note of what you are told

Contradictory advice is one of the most exhausting parts of getting help. Writing down who said what, and when, makes it far easier to work out which advice to follow and to show the next person what has already been tried.