Julie Crawford Award for Breastfeeding Support
This Award is given by the Baby Feeding Law Group-UK. It is open to practising health visitors or practising health visiting teams who have made significant contribution to – or have an ongoing impact on - breastfeeding support in the UK, at individual or policy level.
Background
In November 2001, Julie Crawford died from a rare disease, at the age of 42. Julie was a health visitor and a former Director of Baby Milk Action. She cared passionately about breastfeeding and was never frightened to stand up and fight for the rights of mothers to independent and sensitive care. Julie was especially concerned about the extent of industry funding of education for health professionals and was also keen to push for legal action in defence of mother’s rights to breastfeed. She was one of the first health visitors to participate in the International Breastfeeding Course at the Institute of Child Health (self-funded, since employers could not find the resources).
In 1992, she wrote in the Joint Breastfeeding Initiative newsletter about the barriers to breastfeeding support from within the health visiting and midwifery professions - where so many had not had adequate training and so many had not had adequate support for their own breastfeeding experiences and the chance to discuss the feelings this left them with: "there is no safe forum in which to reach some understanding". Julie also noted that "many health professionals endorse expectations of infant behaviour which damage breastfeeding" and called for "articulate voices" to promote change for mothers and for health professionals.
Previous Winners
2018: Julie Coulter
2017: Bernadette Wood
2016: Rosemary Brown
2014: Stephanie Heard
2011: Six health visitor representatives on the Infant Feeding Information Team of Blackpool and North Lancashire (IFIT): Julie Carter-Lindsay, Jo Dobson, Sue Anslow, Nicky Harrison, Sam Whittle, and Kathleen Freear
2009: Alison Spiro
2006: Annette Ogilvie-Forbes
2005: Sharon Breward
2004: Deanna Vearncombe
2003: Gill Rapley