Ankyloglossia, also known as tongue-tie, means the tongue does not function normally, causing problems with babies latching onto both breast and bottle. Tongue-tie can also affect a baby’s ability to get a deep suck and latch and can lead to issues like colic, excessive dribbling when feeding, clicking or noisy feeds as well as nipple damage, breast pain and low milk supply. Our midwives, Eleanor May-Johnson, Jill Hutchings and Sharon Gamon are able to divide both anterior and posterior tongue ties.
Eleanor and Jill all trained to divide tongue ties at Southampton General Hospital, under the guidance of Mervyn Griffiths, and now treat several hundred babies each per year. They are both trained in tongue-tie division for babies up to nine months old and will perform the procedure for feeding problems, concerns about speech development and/or future dental problems. Sharon was trained in-house at Neighbourhood Midwives by Eleanor and will treat babies up to 5 months old.