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last bit of the show promoting tomorrows he says "are all these pro breastfeeding campaigns making mothers who bottle feed feel guilty" we discuss this tomorrow.
I bet they'll have a 'live' breastfeeding baby and a comparing bottle fed baby - both mums will look smug and have the air of being right and then one baby will cry loudly and the presenters will make some cringy face and mutter something about 'never working with children' and then every one will go 'ho ho ho'. The breastfed mum will be chosen to be middle classed, wearing organic cotton, have natural armpits and baby will be in a sling weaved by nuns from Peru. Bottle feeding mum will have a pineapple hairdo, Juicy couture stylee track suit on and baby will be wearing something frilly. Just to keep audience happy with the stereotypes.
We should devise Bingo cards - with different phrases you check off when you hear 'em...
Here's my guesses
* 'it's not as if you can tell which kids were breastfed and which weren't....' * 'I can't bear the smug way some women breastfeed' * 'all these militant breastfeeding supporters...' * 'nazis' * 'mafia' * 'pressure' * 'anyway, there are lots of good reasons to formula feed....' cue lots of myths like 'you can eat what you want', 'you can have a drink', 'dad won't feel left out'
I knew they'd be a post on here when I heard it! I'm not looking forward to this, although I'm sure it will be a laugh to see what they have to say about it.
It's some female MP tomorrow, this weeks regulars are Christopher Biggins and an asian woman (don't know who she is). Could be interesting. I'm still not happy about Kaye Adams's comment last week.
and of course evry phrase will begin 'I am pro bf but...', or 'I support bf but....'
(like my HV... 'I am pro bf but you do know you cant make milk if you don't drink it...' Really? is this wine leaking through my shirt then? excellent I shall make a fortune )
My money is on the phrase "breastapo" turning up in the first 5 mins.
Bet there won't be anyone who decided that breastfeeding was the way forward, struggled with it as most of us do, finally got over her difficulties and is now just getting on with life. And who, when she's out and about doesn't "wap her norks out for all to see", but sits somewhere nice and quiet where the baby can feed in peace, and peels back just enough clothing to allow the baby to latch on, covering any extra exposed bits with clothes or a muslin.
Me too, it will be interesting, I've noticed gay men seem to be all for it or totally against it.
I love it when someone mentions how Matthew and Jeremy Kyle look alike. Matthew's face is a picture. Not sure where that thought came from, but I had to share lol.
Hey, give over! My milk really didn't come in! Not till I had pumped my boobs mercilessly for weeks, and DS had been rushed to SCBU to be rehydrated. It does happen you know, and the emotional feelings of failure are almost too much to bear. We got through, but it was touch and go, and pumping a supply in doesn't work for everyone. I can sympathise with folk in that situation.
Joy.. yet another reason to feel guilty like we are the worst mums in the world..
lol at you tinkerbellesmum.. random thought but so true.. quite dishy the pair of them with Jeremy leading slightly on that point or am I with bad taste??!
wurlywoo close call! I think he hates even more that JK is on at the same time as him. The muslim lady that's on at the moment had a nasty email yesterday because she let Biggins kiss her, it got worse when she said "So? He's gay". Matthew told him to go and watch that thing on the other side he wasn't welcome to watch his show lol
I'm not going to watch it as Matthew Wright does my head in.
I felt horribly guilty for ff DS. I couldn't bf. He wouldn't latch on. I didn't really have any milk, an hour of pumping gave under 1oz of milk. If he wasn't ff he would have starved.
I'm determined to bf this baby. Hoping to get some help this time as the HV's were useless.
No-one said "Formula's not poison" yet? Because obviously anyone who supports breastfeeding thinks it is Way to put words in our mouths, eh?
He's a child-hater, Matthew Wright - a sneery, shallow one - I am fully expecting a debate that will do nothing to further anybody's views. It will simply entrench positions and reassert the view that what ought to be a supportive, kind thing is actually some sort of versus war
'the thousands of women who can't feed their tots the way nature intended'
i am really interested in this, how many women can't? (really not intended as a slur on anyone's choices, it's just one of my friends who was advised she couldn't and she doesn;t think it was true)
plus on a totally different note, i hate the woord tots. don't knoiw why
I would be interested in the number of women who have physically problems which prevent them from breastfeeding AND the number of women who are told they can't feed, due to lack of support and poor information. Sadly I reckon the second number will be much higher than the first.
Kayz you can do it this time- you'll get laods of support here. All mne were fed for a bit longer each time then it would go badly awry and as a result my milk would drop off; with ds1 just a few weeks until he was dangerously underweight; ds2 a few months (with mixed feeding); ds3 16 months with mixed feeding- but with ds2 and ds3 Paeds told us to introduce formula early on, always before a month.
This time instead of talking to apeds I talked to tiktok and dontcha know it was a casein intolerance, same as we discovered two boys had later in life. This one is now 5 weeks, growing well and there is no reason tot hink I won't be able to BF exclusively until he weans
Who they think they're helping, I'm not sure. Myth-perpetuating is what he's good at though - shallow, tabloidy worm that he is. He and Jeremy Kyle are daytime TV twins - except JK at least sets himself up as someone who tries to help people (freaks though they may be) - quite how Matthew Wright's existence helps anyone...
Embarassingly I do watch Jermey Kyle (although only for lastfew weeks as baby nrmally feeds at thsi time, been up all night though so zonked- lucky so and so). But I don't feel bad because ultimately his guests choose to be on there, and frankly it's quite reassuring to get a daily dose making-a-bigger-mess-than-me!
Whereas Matthew Wright is a prat, he really is. He didnt seem too bad when the show first started but then we lost C5 and when we got it back it was unwatchable! Loose Women went the same way- either that or I grew up a bit anyway.
Sayingt hat I got more excited about medieval week on the history channel so maybe it's me that changed....
aRGGHH...He has already wiped away all the studies on good health and IQ and method of feeding, by saying it is class based But Tiktok says that good studies account for stuff like this.
He had a real opportunity to do something positive here - in Breastfeeding Awareness Week - and he's taken the easy way out by pandering to popular perception, instead of challenging those perceptions and creating a worthwhile broadcast.
He probably considers himself well-educated, more's the pity.
Tiktok previously posted that stress does not affect milk supply and that...
"The milk ejection reflex ('let down') can be affected by huge stress, but it is temporary and will not affect supply in the long term. Just keep offering the breast to your baby. She may also need to suck for comfort and to feel close to you. This effect does not normally last for more than a few hours (though I have come across one case where it lasted 24 hours, when the mother had a sudden bereavement)."
I had a very stressfull time, seperated from my exclusively breastfed 4 month old baby, on the verge of organ failure (gall stone stuck in a duct, I was bright yellow) not eating for week on painkillers and I still kept my milk and continued to express/nurse.
yes BE but some women have constant stress. I am not undermining your experience with the gall stones as it sounds terrible but constant stress in the home does can affect milk supply and all the things that help supply along cannot be implemented due to the stress
The minute the word versus is used when discussing breastfeeding and formula then frankly I switch off, there is no versus , it is not a war ofr a battle and building it up to be one is actully undermining every mother in the world. Matthew Wright is a twat.
Interesting that is the second or third woman mentioned that they couldn't breastfeed, so they swapped to formula on day three. My milk didn't even come in until day five !!!
i misssed most of it as well. what was the point of critising a campaign that 'ignores 50 000 women a year' ? whatr is wrong with making sure women know about breastfeeding?
who was the woman who pointed out that after the war that working classes breastfed whilst the upper classes didnt and used formula milk, and about her mum struggling to afford formula in africa. that made me feel really sad and angry.
Now I know why I never watch channel 5!! The woman who was supposedly pro-bf didn't seem to know what she was trying to say and in the end didn't actually say anything informative so that was a waste of time. Did anyone else notice that her baby was drinking from a bottle the whole time (let's hope it was EBM eh
Also, I thought it was appalling that Matthew Wright butted in with a cheap gag about Christopher Biggins helping a woman to hand express when the doctor was trying to speak to some poor woman who phoned in for advice.
milkgoddess, perhaps she doesn't have anyne else to ask?
She should be applauded for going out of herway to get advice, not lambasted for it.
Sadly so many people don't even know about the existence of BF Counsellors- the MW here and the HV don't ever refer to or even mention them, for a start. I only found out there was a local BF cafe from MN!
Amazing how they could have a 25 minute slot which was primarily about women being unable to breastfeed and how it makes them feel, and manage not to mention breastfeeding counselling ONCE.
Just watching on fiver, my mother had 40 years of guilt ffs. What should we do? pretend formula is just as good? And formula companies ads are soo informative
yes the answer to women having difficulty bf is of course to tell them formula is just as good and that "breast is best" is a load of old nonsense dreamed up by mad hippies who only care about making you feel guilty. ffs. because women are stupid of course.
I live overseas and so have not watched the show, but am at some of the comments here.
It is a valid issue.. why wouldn't it be?. I have exactly this problem with my second baby... first was BF till 18 months.
With second baby, my milk really never came in properly, despite hours of pumping for weeks... days in bed with baby, visits to breastfeeding counsellor. My baby got dehydrated and dangerously weak. I had to give formula.. I had no choice. I will never forgive myself for not being able to give my son what I gave my daughter. I had a shit birth, due to shit system in the ciountry I live in, and then I had to give him shit milk. Poor thing.
I was embarrassed to ff in public.. wanted to explain myself to everyone,and spent the first month of my son's life in tears over this.
Bitchy sneery comments frankly do not help. Failure to breastfeed does happen for whatever reason. People feel bad about it. Why can't they talk about it?
Babieseverywhere, yup. I had trickles before then, never able to donate more than a couple of mls at a time, suddenly after two weeks I managed to overtake her supply. (She was 31 weeks and born under GA Section so it was going to take some time).
itwasntme, you've missed the point from not being able to see the programme.
Itwasntme: I'm sorry about what you went through, but I don't think anyone on here was saying that it doesn't happen.
The issue I have is that the program implies that ff is as good as bf, and it also 'implies' that not being able to bf is much more common than in truth it is!!
Nearly all of my mummy friends ff, and nearly all of them give the reason that they couldn't bf. Statistically and research wise that would be impossible!!!
guilt is an emotion that other people cant MAKE us feel but that we burdern ourselves with, ultimately if someone feels guily its thier chip on thier shoulder, perhaps they never reconciled themselves with the decision THEY made. you cant not say the advantages of breastfeeding just in case someones insecurity draws up negative emotions.
If you watch the programme without an agenda then I think you come away thinking that they gave both sides of the story.
They gave accurate statistics, they had both a formula feeding and a breastfeeding mother contribute. they showed a pro breastfeeding ad. they had a doctor on to give advice.
I think the fact that you can't promote formula is an important issue. Why shouldn't it be discussed on a debate style programme?
Itwasn'tme, what you experienced was not in any way a failure by you! You tried- you did your best- what else can anyone do? Nothng, zero. You did so well by trying so hard- that can't have been easy and I really do applaud you for that.
What we are angry about here certainly isn't mothers, however they choosde to feed. It's about misinformation, biased rubbish being given out by uninformed people who by being on tv are sadly seen as experts by some people.
you should feel proud of yourself for being such a dedicated mother. bf doesn't always work out but it would a lot more often if people are given access to the right info and support- and that would imo include support for those who genuinely cannot bf (read my post further down, i feel awfil i didnt cotton on to why i couldnt bf ds1, he had lost over 1lb- bad when you were born at 5lbs 5oz- when i had to give in)
I disagree. The panel didn't seem that keen on BFing, Matthew argued with anyone who did BF, there was a lot made of his and Biggin's mothers who have carried the guilt for years, the BFing mother didn't speak up for herself and was bottle feeding, Matthew made a lot about he couldn't question "breast is best"...
It was about does "breast is best" make formula feeding mothers feel guilty and they succeeeded at discussing that point.
I don't thing MW is ever objective, normally I agree with him (eek) but the idea that there should be less promotion of bf so women who can't don't feel bad? Sorry but thats rubbish, I also think that his rubbishing of the IQ research based on no information whatsoever, just his own gut feeling was unprofessional
i think the middle class/working class thing was tested by one sibling being bf and one being ff from the same family so nurture could not be brought into it as both were raised in the same way
Also I remember they found that genetics were involved, not everyone's iq is raised by bf, only the 90% of people who have this gene. I would be interested to find out more about the obesity research, surely that must be more socio-economic??
Funnily enough it's a lot of guilt that kept me going. I felt I had let her down by a. going into prem labour (I know I couldn't control that, but it was linked to my last prem labour) and b. because I didn't make a fuss about it till it was late (same as the first which is why I feel guilt over a.) - I didn't want to let her down by letting her stay on formula. Fortunately though I was in a really good supportive hospital that didn't let mums go home unable to breastfeed and then sent neonatal MWs to their home three times a week who are wonderfully supportive. In the hospital they praised every drop of milk and made a thing about giving it to her so I never felt like it wasn't good enough.
If you watch the programme without an agenda then I think you come away thinking that they gave both sides of the story.
No - this is just wrong.
It was a VERY unbalanced programme.
"They gave accurate statistics"
They mentioned at the outset that 98% of women can breastfeed, but completely failed to mention the more important fact, which is that 90% of women in the UK who stop breastfeeding before 6 months would have liked to have breastfed longer. In other words - they completely failed to point out that there is a MASSIVE problem with breastfeeding support in this country. That's the real story.
"they had both a formula feeding and a breastfeeding mother contribute. they showed a pro breastfeeding ad. they had a doctor on to give advice."
Yes - unfortunately MW spent the entire feature making stupid, sniping comments, constantly insinuating that there a lack of empirical evidence that breastfeeding is best for babies, rolling his eyes about the ban on infant formula advertising without giving anyone the chance to address the issues this raises. And WHY have a GP on to talk about breastfeeding - they're hardly the experts on this subject are they? Why didn't they have someone on the show who was a breastfeeding expert? The probreastfeeding ad was used to make a critical point about breastfeeding promotion. The breastfeeding mum was inarticulate and was BOTTLE
x 10000, by his comment about it being the law to say breast is best, and implying that he thinks it's nonsense. 
! 
at that too! 
