Carolyn Westcott

I was a founder member of UKAMB and became a Trustee when the association was granted charitable status, later becoming the Vice Chair. Prior to my retirement in 2006 I worked as the Infant Feeding Adviser and Milk Bank Manager at the Princess Anne Hospital in Southampton. I started work on the neonatal unit in September 1989 as the Infant Feeding Advisor, a role that incorporated responsibility for running the milk bank. Prior to this official link, I had collected milk for the bank for several years in my capacity as an NCT breastfeeding counsellor. The Infant Feeding Advisor would give me the names of donors and once a fortnight I would ring them all to see who needed a collection. I kept supplies of bottles and cool boxes at home and as the hospital didn’t have anyone in post to get the milk from the mother’s homes, I did all the collections at that time. I built up quite a relationship with the donors and my mileage expenses were paid to the NCT by the neonatal unit. My very old Morris Traveller did not have a working heater so in the winter I didn’t need cool boxes and I even drove with a hot water bottle on my lap! When I took up the post it seemed easier to continue the collections myself and I felt it was important to maintain the rapport with the donors.

In 1993 I took the IBCLC exam, the first time it could be taken in the UK; there were just 10 candidates. A few years later I was a founder member of Lactation Consultants GB and remain a committee member. Also in ‘93, I attended the conference in Birmingham, held to commemorate the closing of the Sorrento Maternity Hospital and the Sorrento Milk Bank’s move to the Birmingham Women’s Hospital. This notable day led to the development of national guidelines under the stewardship of Dr Sue Balmer. Their publication in 1994 by the British Paediatric Association gave an added authority to their contents. During my time in charge of the milk bank in Southampton it expanded considerably. The growing need for donors was in part filled as a result of the regular talks that I gave to local breastfeeding support groups. Meeting the growing demand for donor milk was not always easy. Unlike some other milk banks we didn’t ever have purpose built premises and life was often made more difficult by having to move milk from one room to another as it progressed through the system. Shortly before I retired it became even more difficult as the milk bank rooms were on different floors of the hospital.

In addition to my milk banking role, I was also actively involved in research into the best solution to the feeding related problems associated with tongue-tie, and later the provision of a unique training programme for the division of tongue ties. I have continued in a part time capacity with this work since retiring. The results of the first ever randomised controlled trial into tongue-tie and its effect on infant feeding carried out in 2002 by Dr Mervyn Griffiths, Monica Hogan and myself was published in the Journal of Paediatrics & Child Health. We have since followed up this work with a further RCT and the results have been submitted for publication.

In retirement, I am as busy as ever. In addition to my continuing voluntary work on behalf of UKAMB, I maintain my training and clinical roles with the Tongue Tie Clinic in Southampton and together with Sarah Brown (also an IBCLC) run breastfeeding courses for health professionals and breastfeeding supporters; work which takes us all around the country. The business pays for our trekking holidays – the latest of which was in Nepal! But it is also good to be able to pass on experience and skills to the next generation coming along. Boy, does that make me sound old!”

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