'Breast is Best'

[OddSocksandRainbowDocs]

It's National Breastfeeding Week and I've seen the phrase 'Breast is Best' banded about quite a few times.

Whilst I agree breastfeeding is scientifically better, some mothers (myself included) physically could not breastfeed so chose to formula feed instead. I was made to feel like a failure by a midwife for choosing to do so.

My little one is now one and a half. She is happy, she is healthy.

I don't know who needs to hear this but 'Breast is Best' isn't always the case. 'Fed is Best' is most definitely the case. It doesn't matter how you feed your baby, as long as the baby is fed, that is all that matters

Why do mums who formula feed always need to justify their position. It’s your baby so do what u wish. I have breast fed mine and was very adamant about it so really asked for a lot of support some of which was given and got some had to do a lot of research as only my middle one took it straight away but I really struggled with the my older or younger. I do think that formula is the default position in U.K. and out of all my friends only one other has breast fed.

whenever someone sees me they try to justify why they couldn’t feed and all the guilt etc. just do what you want

why are u getting so het up about breastfeeding week? It’s just trying to raise awareness and hopefully will be able to help someone who wants to breast feed

breast feeding needs a lot more exposure and awareness in U.K. . My older two thought that I would be bottle feeding the baby as that’s the only thing they have seen out and about despite the fact that I breast fed both. They have obviously forgotten

I thought the science couldn't extrapolate the benefits of being breastfed from the likely correlation with being middle class and all the associated benefits that infers?

I thought there was a marginal decrease in ear infections in young babies and a marginal decrease in breast cancer in the long term?

Pro choice.

Bottle fed my first. Will Bottle feed this baby too.

Breast feeding is not on my radar whatsoever and that's fine. However I can be super supportive of other people wanting to breastfeed. It's just not anyone else's business.

@Whiskeypowers you’re like the Jenny Joyce of breastfeeding

think your dead good. But are in fact cringetopia

Plenty of solid peer-reviewed studies via these links here

www.unicef.org.uk/babyfriendly/about/benefits-of-breastfeeding/
www.who.int/health-topics/breastfeeding#tab=tab_1
www.cdc.gov/nutrition/infantandtoddlernutrition/breastfeeding/recommendations-benefits.html
www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/nursing-basics
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3508512/

The only downright rude people are the people taking your argument.

Add 'bitchy cunts' to breaststapo/ breastfeeding Nazis etc

Women do always have a choice...they can choose to BF or FF.

I think you're going to be sorely disappointed if you attempt to engage this poster in banter about Ostrogoths, Visigoths and Romans, and the role of malaria in the Italian defeat.

Try something like saying she smells of wee. That might work.

Severe post natal depression kicked off due to feeling like an absolute failure for not being able to breastfeed. I won't even be attempting it with #2 as I want to be able to bond properly this time without sobbing as a screaming baby couldn't latch and was effectively starving. Awful experience which still affects me to this day and DS is now 5yo.

Hats off to the breast feeders but don't make those of us who didn't breast feed feel like shit because of it.

Oh come on!

No one is making them feel like failures. The message is “breast is best” and unfortunately that makes them feel guilty. It’s as simple as that.

we shouldn’t change the message in order to stop making them feel guilty

Wow. That's shocking misogyny even by the low standards of this horrible thread. Have you reported it?

it Was posts on here that put me off breast feeding (youngest now 4) and I have to say I’ve seen a few today and I’m so glad I didn’t ever breast feed 90% of the breast feeders are crying and moaning about partners being unhelpful at night and mum having to do the full load and how clingy their baby’s are, how they can’t get them out there bed how they wake sooo much more through night than a bottle fed baby, have speration anxiety and won’t go to others and they can never get a break . It’s never anything positive just loads of moaning and was enough to be a big fat no from me. Fed is deffo best

We’re currently on Derry Girls it seems so I concur with the concerns about overreaching

"Breast is best" What a load of absolute tripe. Fed is best

And all of you sprouting your crap. Shut up and think for a minute - You're shaming mum's like myself who couldn't breastfeed their kids. Thanks for making us feel like shitty failures

This. Mums past the 6 months are ashamed everywhere. When my child was 2.5y I was receiving nasty comments about it. He’s now 4.5 and still bf. I keep reading that it’s all my fault and I’m weak and doing it for myself rather than my son. In a post in mn last year I was even told I was abusing my son.

the truth is that the numbers in the uk are so low that we need more support. We need proper lactation experts that support those mums that want to bf. We need more exposure so that we normalise it as much as ff. nobody should be feel ashamed … but taking into account that bf is a natural thing … we should be supported rather than ashamed about it.

im sorry so many mums wished to bf but couldn’t for one reason or another. But please don’t bash those mums that we managed to and that we still do … support us rather than feel that we are your enemies. The more support bf mums receive hopefully more support from nhs etc will be provided

It’s not nonsense it’s what I’ve seen. Your opinion doesn’t wipe out my life experience. Formula fed babies in general are more content than breast fed.

@Forthelasttime09 what’s a turkey twirler when it’s at home

Breast is best for babies, by a significant margin.

But fed is good enough.

Did you provide your baby with the best of everything? I did not. I breastfed and provided to the best of my means (financial and otherwise) in all other ways. For example, I'd love a safer car for her, but my car is good enough. That's just how motherhood is and that's okay.

What is unacceptable, is the lack of support for mothers that want to breastfeed but cannot. That's why we have national breastfeeding week.

I really wonder what the impact would be of better funding for maternity services so women aren't whisked through hospital and attended by overworked, rushed support workers in chaotic postnatal wards.

If you had the option of staying in a calm, peaceful ward with newborns for a week or so where you were given plenty of support with all kinds of baby stuff - breastfeeding but also burping, bathing, sleep and so on. I think it would make a huge difference to outcomes for PND as well as breastfeeding.

Everything is so frantic and crabby about having a baby! You get a couple of HV visits, a check of your stitches, a week with DP at home then you're on your own.

so following that through - Turkey twirlers same as salmon? Doritos same as broccoli?

See, this analogy only works if formula was spectacularly unhealthy...but it isn't so you just look a little silly.

I don't see the extrapolation of other variables here?

From a global perspective, breastfeeding is obviously best, when you consider access to formula and clean water etc. Hence the Unicef and WHO recommendations.

I'm sure there are some marginal benefits to breastfeeding but at a UK population level I'm sure there's very little impact.

the FACTs are making you feel like shit NOT the messanger.

i don’t think you should feel like shot because the difference is nutrition is hardly light years apart, but there is a difference and breast is better.

and that message should be widely circulated

If you can breastfeed then it is great but if you can't, you can't

It's also okay if you don't want to......we have choices now.