'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

Best is a superlative adjective. It is only meaningful and in relation to the comparative adjective "better" or the basic adjective "good". But "fed" isn't best, it isn't even better, or good. It is the absolute minimum you can do.

I don’t disagree, but why use a superlative at all? It’s just pointless in this case. It would be best for all babies to receive breast milk instead of formula - ok.
But as a campaign to improve breastfeeding rates, how is that helpful? There’s been countless examples given where it’s unfortunately not been doable. It’s like saying ‘going to the dentist twice a year is best,’ but loads of people can’t register with one. ‘Getting an annual health check is best’ - I’m sure it would be, but the NHS doesn’t offer that and most people can’t afford it privately. Lots of things can be ‘best’ but if it’s not accessible and doable for so many, especially the people you’re trying to reach with your rhetoric, what’s the point?
It’s easy to come up with naff slogans.
But what would really help is proper information and support. A lot of posters have been trying to explain this but it falls on deaf ears unfortunately.
Drop the saying ‘breast is best’ - not because it doesn’t carry any truth, but because spouting it out repeatedly like your in a badly written tv commercial for healthy chicken recipes doesn’t achieve anything.
Actions speak louder than words. Campaign for the the ‘best’ breast feeding support instead - because women are sure as hell not receiving it.

It’s just pointless in this case. It would be best for all babies to receive breast milk instead of formula - ok.But as a campaign to improve breastfeeding rates, how is that helpful?

Because as we can see just from this thread, a lot of people think that formula is just as good, that there is no difference, when thats not true. If people still don't get the most basic premise, how are BF rates going to improve? The very starting point has to be why you would bother!

'BREAST IS BEST' is not applicable to those who cannot breastfeed. 'FED IS BEST' is applicable to all mothers because at least their baby is getting something!

Of course it is. Best doesn't become less good because you personally couldn't have it. That's a preposterous notion. Fed is not "best", its literally the basic requirement.

It remains the case that the majority of women who think they couldn't BF could have done. But also the majority of those who FF choose to, often without making any attempt to BF. And that's their choice.

But none of it changes the facts.

People come up with slogans because they are easy to understand and remember.

Yes, there does need to be real action and real resources to back it up.

But that's the angle we should be taking- what practical support would help to increase breastfeeding rates? What do new mothers need? - rather than setting up yet another bf vs ff bunfight.

It should also be understood in the context that some very large powerful corporations with massive marketing budgets profit from formula feeding, while no one really makes any money out of breastfeeding.

So by taking up cudgels to support the formula companies, you're really just giving free assistance to massive corporations who do not have women or children's best interests at heart.

Of course people make money out of breastfeeding! Pumps, bottles, sterilisers, breastfeeding clothes, books, workshops, lactation consultants, nipple shields, lasinoh…

nobody is ‘supporting the formula companies’ by saying formula feeding is a safe choice and only negligibly less healthy than breastfeeding. Its just the truth.

And formula has saved the lives of many, many, many babies.

But like you say, some women do it through choice. CHOICE. The CHOICE that they are perfectly entitled to have. Even when a woman chooses it through CHOICE, it clearly means that BREAST IS BEST isn't applicable for them, whereas FED IS BEST does.

Of course breastfeeding provides money to companies. Maybe not as much as formula generates but you're very naive if you believe that breastfeeding makes little money.

And it isn't companies that don't have women's best interests at heart. It's the likes of posters like yourself who are hell bent on telling women that breastfeeding IS the best form of feeding when many posters have told how they struggled mentally due to the stress of breastfeeding.

Would you rather more women struggled mentally just to up the rates of breastfeeding? Because that is exactly how it is coming across. But let me guess, you'll throw the 'you don't know your own argument'.

The vast majority of children are formula fed. Only 1% of babies are exclusively breastfed at 6 months. I breastfed and when it was hard nobody pressured me to continue, the help I got was try a little bit of formula.
people are projecting their own feelings around choosing formula or not breast feeding for other reasons.

@Anonykunt

BTW, 'fed is best' because it means a child is not going hungry. If 'fed' is a minumum, then breastfeeding is also a minumum requirement going by your point?

Yes I would. If that is all she could afford to feed her children then so be it. Formula is not the same as feeding your kids supernoodles.

@theveg I'm still amused you're commenting on this thread 24 hours later when it's clear my stance will not change. Clearly I am having to repeat myself because people have taken it upon themselves (I include you within this sentence) to hijack exactly what my original argument was.

Many people have also agreed with me.

And in recent posts, it's only YOU and other breastfeeders that are being rude and using vile language. Maybe think about that?

If fed really is best, why bother with formula? What’s wrong with straight up unadulterated cows’ milk?

It should also be understood in the context that some very large powerful corporations with massive marketing budgets profit from formula feeding, while no one really makes any money out of breastfeeding.

Indeed. But I don’t think we need to compete at formula marketing level to come up with something less naff and divisive than the ‘breast is best’ initiative. Either way it’s not working. This thread has shown that surely - it just causes arguments and upset.
So again, since it serves no real useful purpose, I really think people should stop saying it. Words matter. If you actually care about women feeling more confident and empowered to breastfeed then you wouldn’t keep saying something that creates such upset. Its not so much what you say, it’s how you say it.
I said upthread something along the lines of ‘breastmilk as a substance has superior qualities to formula’ - and I explained why I knew that. No one got upset, or angry, or felt criticised - at least I don’t think so, and certainly hope not - because it doesn’t imply, whether intentionally or not, that someone hasn’t done their ‘best’. When people argue that ‘breast wasn’t best’ for them, I totally get what they’re saying. Its not incorrect to say that breastfeeding a jaundiced, tongue tied baby when they can’t latch isn’t ‘best’. Its not. So of course ‘breast is best’ is up for debate. ‘Breast milk contains antibodies that formula can’t replicate’ is not up for debate. And at the same time, doesn’t upset anyone - because it’s making no comment on someone’s personal experience and decisions. It’s simply informative. Mothers should be treated like grown adults and not children who need an overly simplistic slogan, open to misinterpretation, to understand basic chemistry.

Here’s my two penny:

• I don’t like ‘breast is best’ - we should be talking about what’s normal, not talking about something being better [than something else]
• When 8 hear the terms “the MW/HV/my MIL made me feel bad” I’m inclined to think there has been a communication error. If you are BF, the midwives et al will aim to help you succeed at it. If you’re post-natal, feeling very anxious and totally exhausted it can be that you’ve taken something well-meaning (such as encouragement to continue) and taken it to heart. I include myself in this who thought for ages the MW was being a total bitch when she said (when DD was 5 days old) I needed to top up with formula. For years I thought she was saying I was failing. She wasn’t. She was doing her job to the best of her ability. And however much you’re struggling, they’ll have helped dozen of women before you who were struggling even more, through to the end. They know what they’re doing and they’re just trying to help.
• The mum guilt thing has to stop. It’s ridiculous and we are all mostly doing our best.
• Own your decisions. If you decide the forego BF for FF, just do it and own that decision and think no more of it. Because here’s something nobody tells you: no one gives a shit how you feed. Not even your baby. Any judgement is coming from yourself

I think one of the problems is that breastfeeding promotion covers the spectrum from cultures and communities where breastfeeding has been completely normal across multiple generations and is well supported through to those where formula has become the norm and breastfeeding is seen as ‘weird’. I used to work in public health and one of the areas we worked with was young mothers in white working class areas where you really did need to push “breast is best” as formula was completely the norm. In contrast in other communities breastfeeding is much more normal
and intergenerational support helps women establish breastfeeding.

what you might call the “mumsnet generation” (middle class professionals - I know we are not all middle class professionals!) is somewhere in the middle. They know “breast is best” and are mostly motivated to attempt breastfeeding and feel social pressure to do so but they don’t benefit from having knowledge passed down / social support - so they can easily end up (as I did) feeling enormous self-imposed pressure to breastfeed but completely lack the knowledge and support to do so.

in this context I think “fed is best” can provide a useful balance, for women who are at risk of being plunged into depression or inadequately feeding their babies because they’ve convinced themselves that formula is the devils work.

The 1% statistic is hugely misleading.

I breastfed my child until 2.5. She wouldn't be counted in the 1% as she had some formula at the beginning (before she refused any more). 99.5% of her diet was bm.

A good friend of mine bf until 3.5. She supplemented due to supply issues, but most came from bm. Not counted amongst the 1%.

Another friend, bf until 3ish. Shr gave a couple of bottles if formula in the first week. Not counted amongst the 1%

A friend who's child bf until 2 but had a bottle of formula when mum had to race to a dying relative's bedside and she didn't have time to express. Not counted amongst the 1%.

Those that through choice or advice wean before 6m, even by a day. Not counted amongst the 1%.

I have many enthusiastic, very pro breastfeeding friends, all of which fed well into toddlerhood. NONE would have been included in the 1%. All were in reality exclusively breastfeeding.

@karmakameleon Because as a quick google search shows, cows milk doesn't give enough iron.

NEXT.

So fed isn’t best? Some foodstuffs are better than others nutritionally for new babies, right?

I’d prefer, as I said earlier, that women who want to breastfeed are given proper support to do it.

New mothers desperately need proper breastfeeding support and mental health support. This can’t be covered up by pretending that breast and formula are always equal.

@karmakameleon But that is a very well known fact that cow milk is not suitable for young babies. A quick google search shows that, it is told by midwives/health visitors and other support units throughout pregnancy and after birth. 'Fed is best' is relating to breastfeeding, formula feeding, tube feeding, however fit the mother sees. You are not going to change my mind or the other posters who agree with me.

@karmakameleon New mothers need more support full stop. It's the 'high and mighty' attitude of people like yourself that make women believe they are doing the wrong thing by moving onto formula if it suits them. Maybe if you encouraged a more supportive approach that formula is fine if all else fails, new mothers might be better off.

The thing is, you don’t have to change your mind. You can believe formula is best, or the earth is flat or that cows can fly. It makes absolutely no difference to reality. Breast is Best is an important public health campaign and you taking offence to it won’t change anything.

@Pumperthepumper I would too. I would also like women who feel the need to formula feed be given the encouragement to do so too.

Who didn’t encourage you to formula feed, and what help did you need with it?

I know that you’re not going to ever admit that your catchy slogan is illogical and untrue but that doesn’t make it less so. And it’s an unwise choice for a slogan for a public health campaign. What happens when a poverty stricken mother takes it a bit too literally and gives her baby cows milk because after all fed is best and formula is expensive?