To think that "97% of women can breastfeed" is a load of crap

I don’t know what percentage of women can breastfeed, but I know that I didn’t because I had no milk. I was devastated. It was a very difficult thing to accept. The support was non existent and the criticism was everywhere. The worst was when a woman on the till at Sainsbury’s thought it was a good idea to tell me how bad formula is for a baby and how she was pleased that I wouldn’t get any Nectar points for the formula I was buying.

So I can understand why the OP is cross about the ‘97%’ report but it’s really just the same as everything else with women and childbirth. It’s all underfunded, unsupported and we’re left to get on with it. My baby is now a strapping 18 year old, so the formula didn’t do any harm.

Wow that is one major drip feed.

I pumped for 5 days post partum whilst he was in icu to ensure I could breastfeed. Doctors said it was incredibly rare that a NICU baby receives 100% breastmilk. If you want to and you are supported, in the majority of cases it will be possible.

It's the percentage of women that are physiologically able to produce enough milk to fully feed their baby. I'm not sure why you're so angry about that. 85 -90% of women are able to give birth vaginally. They're just facts. It's good to know that the majority of women are able to if they want to IMO.

Women on medication that's not compatible with breast feeding should be aware of that, often people will pause or change their meds if they really want to breastfeed. If they have a disability (very, very rare for a disability to mean you can't breastfeed) then I'm sure they'd be aware and if you're separated from your baby for some reason it's not going to be a surprise to you that you can't breast feed is it?

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make with these odd random examples. It's just sounds like it's you with the issue tbh.

I don’t know the answer or if indeed much is known, but I’d be interested to know historically, before formula was available, what the rate of BF was. How many children died from malnutrition through insufficient BF. Obviously there won’t be much data out there, but I’m assuming there must be some information out there in terms of social history and understanding of BF troubles.

I can (probably, never tried)
I don’t/didn’t (my/our choice)
I don’t care. Nor does anyone else.

The one who cares the least? My crazy, healthy, happy kid!

That seems too much like common sense for the ‘fed is best’ crowd.

Having never given birth myself I’m certainly no expert on breastfeeding but from an evolutionary biology perspective the ability of female mammals to lactate & feed their young in infancy is pretty fundamental. Individuals who couldn’t would not be passing on their genes to future generations because the babies would not survive so natural selection would strongly favour those who could lactate successfully.

Would that evolutionary pressure be enough to push the figure up to 97%? No idea. 🤷🏻‍♀️

That research was about the physical ability to breastfeed, essentially the ability to produce milk. Yes there are other factors that reduce the number of women who do breastfeed, but the study isn’t really about that, it looked just at the production of milk I believe.

The same research and comparative studies do all acknowledge that breastfeeding success is more to do with healthcare & support than the physical ability to produce milk.

Were you able to breastfeed?
I am not sure how this could even be measured.

It's a criticism on the lack of effective multifactorial support, culture and expectations, rather than women.