Staff at a baby-weighing clinic in Thamesmead barred a mum from warming her 8-week-old son's bottle due to "health and safety" fears, it has been claimed.Oh noes! 'elf n' safety gawn mad, innit?
The mum-of-five said...Five?!?
...when she first arrived for the centre's baby weighing clinic, she was given a waiting number of 13, meaning a wait of at least half an hour.
She said: "My son was due a bottle around 1.30pm so at 1.20pm so I asked a member of staff if I could warm his bottle.
"At first I was told to wait and the staff member would find somewhere. Then after five minutes when my son became very impatient I asked again to which I was told 'No, I'm sorry we can't warm bottles due to health and safety'.
"I then asked what could possibly be so dangerous about warming a bottle in a microwave for 30 seconds?
"I was treated as if my request was totally unreasonable and shown absolutely no compassion."Gosh! That's so unprecedented, isn't it, for the NHS?
The 35-year-old said her son was unable to keep cold milk down and so she was forced to take him home again and come back later.
She said: "Could you imagine if a first time mum experienced that who didn't live so close? It's just dreadful.
"To me it's just like going into KFC and they've got no chicken."Errr, well, no. The purpose of KFC is to sell fried chicken. The purpose of a mother & baby clinic isn't to pander to your desires and whims of your child, but to weigh the damned thing!
As a commenter (comments are generally unsympathetic) points out:
"How about taking responsibility and accountability for your own baby and not think the world should revolve around you because you have had a baby."It seems people are generally fed up with the demands of these people - the Southend 'Echo' had to close comments on a similar story, so unsympathetic were they to the bleats of the outraged party!
Angry Exile on Twitter points to a possible 'Breastapo Backlash' but I wonder if it's a bit more than that...
Storm in a C cup.
ReplyDeleteThere is I believe a totally different and separate story here too. That seemingly nobody dares heat baby bottles because of H&S.
ReplyDeleteWe recently went for a pub meal with friends who have a young baby. They had checked it was Ok with the pub because baby was only just on solid food which they would bring.
But when asked to microwave a pot of baby food to warm it you would have thought the end of the world was threatened. Can't do it, not allowed, Health and safety won't allow it! Unbelieveable.
It's a baby weigh clinic. They have kettles. The bottle is perfectly safe if stood in warm water and in any case, it's not their decision. Their job is to get on with weighing babies and to consider the welfare of the child first which in this case involved providing a jug of hot water to stand the bottle in. Not too technically advanced, is it? The health and safety thing is tosh; feeds are made in batches and consumed quickly.
ReplyDeleteI think there is a sub-text here where the staff are trying to deliberately inconvenience parents who decide to bottle-feed.
So yes - breastapo.
I notice that in both cases the mothers are white. Probably not relevant but I wonder what would have happened if they had been of a duskier shade?
ReplyDeleteThe Southend story is slightly worrying - has a precedent now been set that will compel all commercial premises to provide breast feeding areas ?
ReplyDeleteWhat a silly moo. Thinking that a National Health Service establishment was intended to help mothers and babies be healthy? Whatever next?
ReplyDeleteThe National Health Service exists to provide cushy jobs for worthless vermin.
see how the establishment is bleating about working weekends; which is to say at times convenient to those paying for the service,rather than those benefiting from it.
If she had gone to the nearest pub I know she would have been given a jug of hot water on request (as long as she had a glass of wine while she was waiting). Well thats my experience anyway!
ReplyDeleteThe claim about H&S to not warm up the milk is most likely an excuse for not wanting to do it because it would be too much bother and anyway the NHS doesn't do things like customer service.
ReplyDeleteHowever even though the center is only weighing babies, I would have thought that if it was private and run commercially they would do things like provide facilities that mothers and babies might need whilst they were waiting. Mothers aren't entitled to them, but it would be nice if they were available.
The clinic is reported to be held at the Gallions Reach Health Centre, where the GP service (a separate organization) shares with the Health visitors.
ReplyDeleteIt remains a disgrace that they can't manage a jug of hot water between them and must be assumed to be more a case of won't than can't.
Here are the names of the obstructive people:
http://www.thamesmeadmedical.org/health_visitor_clinics_t31956.html?a=0
They have the cheek to say they can advise on infant nutrition.
"Storm in a C cup."
ReplyDeleteLOL!
"That seemingly nobody dares heat baby bottles because of H&S. "
Is it really 'H&S' & the threat of compo culture? Or is it - as SBML points out - more a case of not wanting to be bothered?
We don't really do customer service very well, do we, for a 'nation of shopkeepers'...?
"I notice that in both cases the mothers are white. Probably not relevant but I wonder what would have happened if they had been of a duskier shade?"
Me too! No-one sits at the back of the OUTRAGE! bus after all, do they?
"The National Health Service exists to provide cushy jobs for worthless vermin."
ReplyDeleteIndeed!
"If she had gone to the nearest pub I know she would have been given a jug of hot water on request (as long as she had a glass of wine while she was waiting)."
And would then be tarred and feathered by the 'mothers with children shouldn't drink!' crowd.. ;)
"...I would have thought that if it was private and run commercially they would do things like provide facilities ..."
Possibly. But 'customer service' in the UK isn't what you might think.
This is pretty common - We went to Greggs for some pasties, they were luke warm so we asked if they could warm them up for us (used to happen all the time) - the answer "sorry we cannot, company policy due to H&S restrictions).
ReplyDelete