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

I'm very confused by that post. ADHD is associated with lower levels of dopamine, not raised levels. Not producing colostrum pre-birth is not in any way related to your ability to BF after birth, it could be helpful if you can gather a bit to help baby out if they are struggling to latch at the start and sugars are dropping, but often takes hours of hard work to get even the tiniest amount. And fussy behaviour on the breast is really normal and how baby stimulates your milk production, it's not indicative of low volume.

This happened to me too . Readmission to hospital on day 5 with a jaundiced, dehydrated, screaming baby who had dropped a ton of weight despite me BF almost constantly.

After 24 in hospital trying to BF, then pump, then top up with breast milk followed by top up of formula, all every 2 hours, I was delirious with stress and fatigue.

I kept mixed feeding for quite a while, but several years on I wonder why I did that to myself. Even after hearing everything we'd been through the local BF support groups all kept telling me I could drop the formula if I just tried harder.

I have ADHD and breastfed my child very easily (it took 2 days for her to learn how to latch but then smooth sailing)

But I did continue my stimulant medication throughout pregnancy so maybe had more "normal" dopamine levels due to that?
And she did also drop centiles from being mahoosive to average - unsure whether connected or not

@Futurehappiness in the U.K., for the vast majority who ff, it’s a choice. It’s a minority on threads like this for obvious reasons. That doesn’t take away from your own feelings if sadness/anger/regret/guilt/disappointment, but everyone I know who ff chose it for reasons including: they wanted to see how much milk the baby was getting, they wanted to share feeds and night wakings and to be able to leave the baby sooner, they didn’t like the thought/sensation of bf, fhey wanted to get their bodies back asap.

Those reasons are all perfectly valid and tbh it’s a bit patronising to assume that it’s everyone’s second choice.

I think being encouraged to breastfeed whilst simultaneously being told your baby isn’t gaining weight fast enough (based on weight charts of bottle fed babies!!) is soul destroying.

Also being told you’re not producing enough milk when your baby is cluster feeding, going through a growth spurt etc is also demoralising.

if we are truly expected to breastfeed, the information supplied by “experts” needs to change….

I spend a significant amount of my time supporting women with feeding issues and decisions. I’m fully aware of the barriers and issues women face, I see it all the time, and I’m very aware of the emotional toll of these struggles.

But that doesn’t alter the fact that artificial feeding is linked to increased health risks, and I will always correct misinformation when I see it. Excuse me if I occasionally find my patience wears a little thin when faced with repeated claims that it makes no difference what babies are fed.

@LaughingCat it’s normal not to be able to produce colostrum before birth - colostrum production is triggered by the birth of the placenta. Yes some women can express beforehand but they are the exceptions not the rule.

I couldn’t get a drop out before I gave birth and even once I gave birth I couldn’t produce any milk via a pump at all. I was actually told by one bf supporter with my DC2 that this meant I had a very low milk supply. Fortunately I had been through the same thing with DC1 who was exclusively bf so I knew this was absolutely rubbish, but a lot of women would have just believed it - this was advice from a qualified bf supporter and also seemed plausible!

There is a lot of misinformation out there.

I also tried for six weeks and baby was nearly hospitalised for malnutrition.
I had lots of help with technique, baby was latching properly, but ultimately I was not producing enough milk

That a poster thinks it appropriate to link on here a survey showing the potential negative outcomes of not breastfeeding (despite the reality being far more complex) - complete with a picture implying we are gullible idiots - I have to be honest, the insensitivity just staggers me.

I would say that the number of women who wilfully refuse to breastfeed is vanishingly small. So many posters on here, including myself, have explained why bf was effectively impossible for them.

Your statistically insignificant study group of two children is an anecdote, not clinical data. I also have two children, both fed and raised the same, both very different in many ways.

But, no matter what you claim, all the peer reviewed studies that take all variables into account show that artificial feeding negatively impacts short and long term health outcomes for mothers and babies.

There is some evidence of increased symptoms in artificially fed babies, (autism runs in my family, despite the last two generations all being breastfed) but not increased rates of autism. The reason isn’t clear, it could be the lack of micronutrients in artificial milk that impact neural development, the lack of skin to skin and responsiveness of artificial feeding, the pathogenic gut flora from artificial milk, or other factors. It’s not well studied so it’s difficult to say definitively.

No.

When you take out social factors, the benefits of breastfeeding shrink massively. Less tummy bugs and ear infections whilst breastfeeding, and lower breast cancer risk for mums for a period. That's it.

It's really interesting looking at sibling studies where one child is breastfed and the other isn't, for example, as most of the benefits disappear. Which either means: (1) to get the benefits, you only need to bf one child and the other magically benefit (even retrospectively if they were born before their bf sibling). Obviously that's silly and not the case, or (2) women who breastfeed are more likely to have other socioeconomic factors which protect their children's health.

Interestingly, I ff one and bf one, so the formula child should magically be healthier because I bf her sister. My bf child has a lot of health issues, and the formula one is as strong as an ox. Oops.

It’s not nonsense. It’s been proved in every single study.

“For infants, not being breastfed is associated with an increased incidence of infectious morbidity, as well as elevated risks of childhood obesity, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, leukemia, and sudden infant death syndrome. For mothers, failure to breastfeed is associated with an increased incidence of premenopausal breast cancer, ovarian cancer, retained gestational weight gain, type 2 diabetes, myocardial infarction, and the metabolic syndrome.”

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2812877/

To the PP who said that non breastfed babies are more likely to develop autism, I breastfed all my DC, 3 are autistic. It's hereditary.

I had same problem tried with all 3 as I was so determined to breast feed. The 1st 2 i had more support and bothered up on formula as well as breast but saved my ripples. The 3rd however I had in a different county. The whole maternity, birth and post natal care was crap and I should have known better re the feeding and got him on bottles from start but midwife i had for month insisted I was doing fine (he wasnt and I wasnt) and only when I got health visitor she said he was practically starving I still kick myself about it and hes 28 now. strangely I had low iron for 2nd one and had transfusion he ended up in bottles a lot sooner. I tried expressing with the 1st and took ages to get even 4oz that should have been enough to tell me. So much emphasis on breast feeding and I felt failure each time

The support for breastfeeding in UK is terrible. I know one girl that has extended breastfeeding support but they are in zone 1 of London. In zone 5 I have to pay for extended breastfeeding support.

I think wet nursing was commonplace, perhaps not just among the upper classes?
Also, I've sometimes seen references to breast milk substitutes given in the past, eg sugared water, I think, and it was given with a spoon.

Of all times women have outsourced the breastfeeding when they struggle.

I gave breastfeeding very little thought during my pregnancy. Sort of just figured I’d give it a whirl. I tried it, it sort of worked but a bit painful, cracked on, zero pressure on myself or indeed from anyone close in my life! Stopped just before 1st birthday. Same with my second.

There is SO much navel gazing about this. Insane.

One of my least favourite things is to read posts here on MN explaining why breastfeeding is normal/natural/should be universal, with the implication that mother's who don't manage to do it are at fault. I think a little sensitivity from a few posters would be nice.

In my case my DS was born at 28 weeks weighing under 2lbs, I was advised to try to use the breast pump in a room next to ICU 'to be close to him'. So while DS was fighting for his life next door I was trying to use the pump, sterilise and fill the syringes (drops of milk here & there collected in little sealed syringes was all I could manage) and label them with his name. One of my memories of this time was having to rewrite the labels with his (rather long) name in order to write small enough to fit on the syringes.

All to collect milk for my Dbaby who might not live to need it.

Another low memory point was taking the syringes to the milk bank/fridge and being faced with rows of full bottles with other babies' names out them - my pathetic little clutch of syringes was quite outclassed.

After this - and a further crisis with DS - I gave up on trying to produce milk and couldn't face it again. I have given myself enough of a guilt trip on this, I don't think I need another from anyone else.

@Jasminealive can you linknto the evidence based, peer reviewed and published research in relation to yiur claims please?

FWIW: DS was breastfed only for 7/8 weeks; DD for 9 months.

Both DC developed eczema, asthma and had intracrible ear infecrions leading to grommets before both were two.

Both went to Cambridge.

Paradoxically my fully breastfed child has ADHD and autistic traits but not enough to warrant a diagnosisi.

Problem is a lot of women think you can breastfeed in regular 4 hourly slots just like with formula, which is completely untrue. Leaving huge time gaps and not persevering through a constant latch will not allow the milk to come in. I remember block feeding for 5 hours straight when my sons milk needs increased - non stop latch for 5 hours! No one told me about block feeding and I thought many a time I wasn't producing enough milk but in reality my baby was constantly suckling to increase the volume and would go back to hourly or two hourly feeds the next day. Yes thats right, hourly, for 6 months. Chances are a lot of women were doing it right but no one around them knew how hard the natural way to feed a child actually is.

that is utter nonsense.

No I don't think that many can. It doesn't matter anyway. Formula is a perfectly nutritious choice. Feed your baby how you want.