BCA Clinic of the Year nominee 2022 – Village Chiropractic Clinic

During the last 12 months our clinic has endeavoured and developed our infant feeding community support. We have continued our existing parenting groups, reflected and strived to deliver further excellence in infant healthcare and parenting support.

The main project we have been involved in is our breast / chest feeding support groups. These are offered monthly as face-to-face groups in the clinic and are free of charge to all who utilise the service. The groups are staffed by peer supporters who have been trained in liaison with the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers and their funding paid by our clinic. We also have regular visits from midwives, health visitors and lactation consultants. Our principal chiropractor Jennifer Hudson has spent the last 12 months in further training in infant feeding with Breastfeeding London and has recently taken the IBCLC (international board-certified lactation consultant) examinations, in order to offer this expertise to the local community.

Our clinic has a very active breastfeeding support group on Facebook alongside a safe space WhatsApp group, to be able to offer 24-hour support both from peers and many healthcare professionals including paediatricians, neonatal nurses and SLT’s who have given their time voluntarily to help.

Our clinic now receives referrals from a wide range of HCP’s who are now understanding better the role of Chiropractic in infant feeding and in working with the mother-baby dyad.

The charity SOFT (Support Organisation for Trisomy) have asked Jennifer as a Chiropractor, to be a professional advisor. This has been wonderful both in being able to support families going through very difficult times and also to work alongside other incredible healthcare providers in understanding the complexities of Trisomy 13 and 18.

Our clinic and chiropractor have become members of the Staffordshire Infant Feeding Leadership Group. We’re working voluntarily alongside the NHS in order to best understand the needs of parents in Staffordshire and have identified the need for the development of a peer support café to be set up at the Neonatal Unit at the Royal Stoke Hospital, this is work in progress but we are hoping to staff this with volunteers from a range of local organisations including the Breastfeeding Network and our own peer supporters. More recently Jennifer Hudson has been asked to participate in a larger NHS and public health infant feeding team to review the current services in the county and to understand how we can best improve these.

We hope to take these projects forward and allow Chiropractors who have undergone further training to be fully recognised as part of infant feeding teams in the county.

Nominated by Jennifer Hudson