Job overview

Infant Feeding Support Midwife

The post holder will be a qualified midwife practicing autonomously across the antenatal, intrapartum, and postnatal periods, serving as a primary care provider for mothers and their families. Working within hospital and community settings, the midwife will adhere to the NMC Midwives Rules and Standards and the Luton & Dunstable Hospital NHS Trust guidelines.

The primary focus of this role is to support the Infant Feeding Advisor in promoting, implementing, and maintaining high standards of infant feeding practice across the maternity division. This includes contributing to policy development, clinical support, staff training, and strategic initiatives such as achieving and sustaining UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) accreditation.

Main duties of the job

Key Responsibilities

Collaborate with the Band 7 Infant Feeding Advisor to review neonatal feeding-related readmissions and develop relevant guidelines.

Support and participate in local and regional infant feeding networks, MDT meetings, and maternity governance activities (e.g., audits, PSIRF).

Act as a clinical resource, offering expert breastfeeding support and guidance to staff and service users; escalate concerns appropriately.

Assist in the planning, delivery, and record-keeping of BFI training for maternity staff, and conduct practical skills assessments.

Provide guidance to peer support workers and engage with external partners (e.g., Health Visiting, BFN, MNVP, Family Hubs) to promote consistent, community-wide infant feeding practices.

Contribute to antenatal education, support local awareness campaigns, and help design promotional and educational materials.

Participate in community-based tongue tie clinics, including assessments and, if qualified, performing divisions.

Disseminate up-to-date research and national guidance on infant feeding; produce staff newsletters and attend ward/safety briefings.

Support audits covering a range of feeding experiences (breastfeeding, bottle-feeding, NNU) to ensure high-quality care delivery.

Work closely with the Neonatal Unit Lead to progress and uphold BFI standards across the maternity service.

Working for our organisation

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to a growing population of around 700,000 people living across Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas across two busy hospital sites in Bedford and Luton.  Both hospital sites offer key services such as A&E, Obstetrics-led Maternity and Paediatrics. You will be joining a friendly, high performing Trust committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of staff. As one of the largest NHS Trusts in our region you will have access to a programme of high quality training and development to help you grow your career. The Trust continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology.

Our Values

We not only recruit based on qualifications and experience - we recruit individuals who demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trusts core values. We achieve this by using values based recruitment. We are dedicated to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone, we are committed to promoting equality and diversity, and creating a culture that values differences.

Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date when sufficient number of applications have been received. All new staff will be subject to a probationary period covering first 6 months in post. Travel between hospital sites may be required. Please review all documents attached to ensure you familiarize yourself with all requirements of the job.

It is an exciting time to join the newly formed Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. We run two busy hospital sites in Bedford and Luton. Our 7,500 staff provide high quality care for a growing population of around 700,000 across Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas.

 

You will be joining a friendly, high performing Trust committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of staff. As one of the largest NHS Trusts in our region you will have access to a programme of high quality training and development to help you grow your career. Travel between hospital sites may be required. We have state-of-the art facilities placing us at the heart of cutting edge health care. The Trust continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology available.