REAL Baby Milk, the UK's second fastest growing Social Enterprise which provides support to breast feeding women, has teamed up with Royal Cornwall Hospital and the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust to trial a support service for new mums in Launceston.

The 72-hour infant feeding programme is initially being delivered in Launceston, St Agnes, Perranporth, Redruth and Liskeard with a view to rolling the project out more widely across Cornwall over the next 12 months if it is successful.

Within 72 hours of coming home from hospital with their new baby or of having a home birth, women will get a telephone call from a Peer Support Worker at Real Baby Milk to check how the feeding is going and to provide support and information.

The service is not exclusively for women who chose to breast feed, it is designed to provide support and identify where and how to get extra help and information if it's needed. The fully trained telephone workers will be working alongside Midwifery and Health Visiting services to help give mums as much support as possible.

Louise Hunt, Director of Real Baby Milk and Project Manager, said: "This is the first time a 72-hour infant feeding telephone support programme has been trialled in the UK and we are very excited to be able to offer it to Mums in parts of Cornwall. We hope we will be able to roll it out across the rest of the country later this year and would also like to see other parts of the UK adopting the same concept.

"The first few days after giving birth can be quite daunting and we hope to provide a reassuring voice and helpful advice and support at a very early stage. Our Peer Support workers are all Mums themselves who have been trained to support, encourage and make sure parents have up to date information about infant feeding.

"This is an additional layer of support to new mums on top of the already excellent maternity services afforded in the county. We are very grateful for the co-operation of both trusts in getting this service up and running.'

The 72-hour infant feeding programme is a free service. Depending on peoples' own preferences it can involve just the one call, or it can be the start of a longer term support programme, providing ongoing supportive networks to mums and families through the early days and weeks.

Real Baby Milk has a team of Peer Support workers in the areas where the service is being trialled and two dedicated Telephone Support workers in the areas, Jess Potter and Lesley Ibbotson.

Jo Elms is the Local Peer Support Workers for Launceston. She said: "I am a mum of three breast fed children and my youngest is 14-months-old. I had very little help from family and friends with breast feeding, so I found it was such a godsend to have a local support group.

"I am so excited to be working on the 72-hour Infant Feeding Programme and am looking forward to meeting lots of new mums in the local area."

The service has now launched in St Agnes, Perranporth and Redruth and will be live in Launceston and Liskeard by the middle of the month.