It’s time to do your part. NHS Leeds (formally known as Leeds Primary Care Trust) in the United Kingdom is facing a problem of Size D proportions. They need imitation breasts to assist teaching expectant mothers how to express milk. Due to the enormous expense of simulated latex breasts, and the lack of realism that balloons and elbows give, health officials are requesting the knitting (and crochet) community to create breasts in all shapes, sizes and colors for their classes. There are no comments if pierced nipples are an option. But I would assume not since there is a high risk of the ring chipping the baby’s teeth. Maybe a teething ring would work.
The NHS website has a free pattern from the Lactation Consultants of Great Britain. You can download the pattern here. Though they don’t have a crochet pattern listed, I was able to locate one here. If you end up finding or creating other patterns, please comment and let us know about it. Remember that they need a variety of shapes and sizes. Sally Mills from Leeds Primary Care states, “It is good to have a variety of shapes and sizes, just as women do (very flat, very small/large, inverted, etc).” Now I’m no breast expert by any means, but how does one have an inverted breast?
They request that it be made of DK (double knit) weight 100% wool yarn. Donations can be sent to:
Breastfeeding Knitting Challenge
c/o NHS Leeds
North West House
West Park Ring Road
Leeds LS16 6QG
Please, please, please, if you accept this challenge, please send me pictures of your great work. I would love to do a follow-up post of how well we all did.
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2 comments
Susan says:
January 25, 2009 at 2:08 pm (UTC -8 )
Inverted nipple, not breast, a condition which complicates nursing a bit.
Very interesting looking piece!
admin says:
January 25, 2009 at 2:17 pm (UTC -8 )
Thank you so much for explaining that. I have a feeling that the original quote, which came from the BBC, was not reported in its entirety.
What’s amazing about the donation request is that will all our technology, it still takes handcrafted items to make education affordable.