'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

@Pumperthepumper Do you actually bother to read things or do you just read the bare minumum and make your own things up to suit you? Not once have I said I do not agree with the campaign. I said that scientifically, breast is better but women should not be made to feel like a failure when they cannot or chose not and then rely on formula

My daughter was formula fed. She is happy, she is healthy. She is VERY rarely ill. The babies I know who were breastfed are ALWAYS ill. That is my experience. It may differ to yours but that is what my experience is.

Not once did I say I was offended. God forbid people have opinions.

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

They already are, as evidence by the much higher rates of FF than BF.

But also, once you know how to make up a bottle, you crack on surely? I mean I've never done it but it didn't look like rocket science?

Whereas BF does require more actually support in terms of complications like tongue tie, positioning, mastitis, latch issues, supply issues, cluster feeding etc

I don’t think I’ve ever said that there is an issue with giving babies formula? Happy to point out if I did.

I have a problem with the stupidity of the slogan “fed is best” and I think that not allowing any positive talk or promotion of breastfeeding doesn’t actually help mothers who struggle with it.

One of mine is also formula fed, you wouldn’t be able to tell which of them it is. All healthy, rarely ill. It means nothing though. One of them had recurring ear infections - were they breastfed or formula fed? Can you tell? It means absolutely nothing. Your opinion is based on your own feelings of inadequacy, and it’s that you should take issue with. Not the idea of breastfeeding vs formula.

@karmakameleon It isn't untrue though. A fed baby is better than a starving baby. If a poverty stricken mother has to give the baby some cow's milk, that is her only choice. What if that poverty stricken mother cannot breastfeed, what would you expect her to do? Starve her baby?

@Pumperthepumper Exactly! So do tell me, what long term benefits is there for breastfeeding? The main one I was told is they are less likely to be ill. Clearly not.

Feelings of inadequacy? I don't feel guilty for not BFing my child, however, Many mothers do. That is down to women like YOU who feel the need to take a superior attitude to breastfeeding when in reality, should it matter how a child is fed?

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

I never bought a single one of those things, though. Not one. And i bf for 2+ years in total.

It is literally impossible to formula feed for free.

If you don't want to accept my anecdata, here's some proper research done by Save the Children:

New Save the Children analysis reveals six companies spend the equivalent of £36 on marketing for each baby born worldwide - amounting to £5 billion every year
Marketing activities of Nestlé, Danone, RB (Mead Johnson), Abbott, Kraft Heinz and FrieslandCampina routinely violate a World Health Organisation code set up to stop aggressive marketing to new mu
Parents bombarded with advertisements including false health claims and social media promotions, while doctors report receiving gifts and incentives to promote infant formula
Report documents five-fold growth in formula industry over just two decades - three times faster than global economy - with more babies fed formula than ever before
Breast milk offers all the antibodies a baby needs. 823,000 child deaths could be prevented each year by near universal breastfeeding, yet marketing spend by just six breast milk substitute companies dwarfs public health budgets to promote breastfeeding
Charity ranks the six companies based on Code compliance and calls on global manufacturers, investors and governments to commit to putting an end to dangerous marketing practices

www.savethechildren.org.uk/news/media-centre/press-releases/leading-milk-formula-companies-spend-p36-on-marketing-for-every-

By investing your time and effort in denigrating and ridiculing breastfeeding, you are playing right into the hands of these huge corporations

But breastfeeding is superior, you can google the benefits yourself. My kid or your kid being less ill doesn’t change the statistics we have of the benefits of breastfeeding. It’s weird how in one post you claim you’re ok with the benefits then in another are denying they exist.

Of course it matters how a kid is fed. That’s why we don’t feed them McDonalds at two months old. I’m not sure why you have such trouble with this logic. Fed is fed. A good diet is better. It’s really not hard.

If you want to make a difference to women feeling guilty for not breastfeeding when they want to, start campaigning for more support. Offer your own support!

The research has been done. It's really misguided of you to choose this as a target for your vitriol. It's not supportive of mothers or babies.

A US 2013 cost analysis of maternal disease associated with sub-optimal breastfeeding found that if 90% of mothers were able to breastfeed for at least one year after each birth, compared to current breastfeeding rates, this would result in savings of $17.4 billion resulting from premature death, and $733.7 million in direct and $126.1 million in indirect morbidity costs associated with breast cancer, premenopausal ovarian cancer, hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and myocardial infarction [6].

In the UK, UNICEF commissioned a report, published in 2012 [7], to examine how raising breastfeeding rates could save money through improving health outcomes. It was found that moderate increases in breastfeeding could save tens of thousands of hospital admissions and GP consultations for just five common childhood infections, and ultimately translate to a cost saving for the National Health Service of £40 million.

In January 2016 The Lancet Breastfeeding Series Global Launch reported on the most extensive piece of research into the effects of breastfeeding ever undertaken. Increasing breastfeeding worldwide could prevent over 800000 child deaths and 20000 deaths from breast cancer every year. Failing to breastfeed costs the global economy around US$302 billion every year [7a].

www.llli.org/how-often-does-breastfeeding-really-fail/

Of course it matters how and what a baby is fed. Someone I know used to makes up bottles in advance for the day and keep it in fridge. But by your standard that is best too. Basically everything is best and giving mothers the correct information is hurtful.

@Pumperthepumper My support is that a woman can feed their child whether it's breastfeeding, formula feeding etc. It's weird how you are still arguing with me on a point I am clearly not going to back down on.

No, we don't feed them McDonalds. We're not going to give them a Gin and Tonic either. Do we need a campaign for that too?

This is MY thread about more support for women so they DON'T feel guilty. If you don't like it, leave

I was made to feel like a failure by a midwife for choosing to do so.

This is a quote from your OP so either you felt inadequate or you didn’t? And it was a midwife that made you feel so if you did, not a breastfeeding mother and yet you feel the need to attack any mother who breastfeeds and thinks breast milk is generally better than formula?

I never bought a single one of those things, though. Not one. And i bf for 2+ years in total.

Same here

Do women from cultures where breastfeeding is the norm have a higher success rate with breastfeeding?

You’re not supporting women though! You’re just chucking insults at women who disagree with you. Absolutely nobody will read this thread and feel supported in formula feeding, because you’re too defensive about it.

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

I agree.
I believe a lot of time, energy and money is wasted on trying to get women who, for varying reasons, simply don’t want to breastfeed. We need to accept that many of them have their own good reasons for that that deserve to be respected.
Some women may have misconceptions, it may be down to family attitudes and there may be other tricky reasons why they are put off breastfeeding - in different circumstances maybe they’d want to try it and that’s worth looking into but it’s a complex and complicated thing to change and is, I think, something to tackle another day.
For now, breastfeeding levels could get a simple yet substantial boost by targeting support at the many women who want to breastfeed, but can’t get adequate support. This thread alone shows there are heaps of them! Looking back, it’s very clear to me that the midwives who were trying to help me really weren’t equipped to support me - that’s not their fault. The expertise and time needed to provide adequate support just isn’t there, I presume, down to inadequate training and understaffing. Our health system can’t just advocate that breast feeding is ‘best’ and not back it up with any adequate, never mind decent, support. It’s inexcusable.

Objectively breast is best. There is nothing wrong with this statement, even if it disagrees with your choices or hurts your feelings. It is best.

That doesn't mean formula isn't okay. It's nutritious and completely fine. But it's not best.

@BloodAndFire brilliant studies cited thank you.

Unfortunately in previous posts OP hasn't managed to grasp the distinction between population level differences and individuals.

Hence her denigrating of a national campaign to improve the health of the population, which she has misinterpreted as a personal criticism.

And I also think women are given an unrealistic view of breastfeeding beforehand, like how sore it can be or how it can take a while for milk to come in, or how common latch issues or tongue tie are. That and the weird graph health visitors show you when your kid isn’t gaining weight at the rate of knots, but luckily formula is a magic solution! The whole thing needs reformed before we see any real change in breastfeeding uptake.

@theveg It was YOU that misread three of my posts. Please don't make it out to be me who 'hasn't managed to grasp' basic comments. It's clearly you that has taken my post as personal criticism because you chose to comment on it.

Don't patronize me when it is you who has taken upon yourself, in true MN fashion, to be offended by something that wasn't posted to be offended at in the first place.

That’s you. Most women I know who breastfed buy nipple cream, breast pads, nursing bras as a minimum. And the majority buy a pump if only to enable expressing if they, for instance, have to go away for the night or for work and want to keep the supply up. 3 women in my NCT class visited private lactation consultants, that can’t have been cheap. Another friend had their baby’s tongue tie privately snipped the other week as well.

I didn't buy any of those things either. Not sure half of them existed when I was breastfeeding. I did buy a couple of decent bras but as in total I fed for years I think they were a decent investment. My GP told me if I wanted to breastfeed then his advice was don't buy any feeding equipment so I didn't. Midwife wasn't impressed as "I had to have bottles for water" but I never needed them.

@ancientgran

Do women from cultures where breastfeeding is the norm have a higher success rate with breastfeeding?

Yes absolutely. There is only a very tiny tiny percentage of woman who can physically not breastfeed. Something like 98% of woman are able to and this is reflected in the statistics of countries where breastfeeding is the norm.

People don't like to hear this but usually when a woman says they couldn't breastfeed what they mean is I found it really hard so I gave up. Which is absolutely fine but with the right support most woman in this position who want to continue would physically be able to.

My first DC it took 3 weeks to latch on. I pumped to keep up my supply and had excellent support plus the drive to do it.

I mean I don’t think this is representative of most bfing mums; but it makes a point, particularly with regards to other countries where treatment for mastitis etc costs you

amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/02/my-mommy-tax-six-months-of-nursing-cost-more-than-a-year-of-formula

did you go back to work @ancientgran ?

You can tell which out of me and my brother was breast fed. He was breast fed - and has very nice straight teeth as his jaw developed as it should from having to suck hard when breast feeding to get the milk. I have a small jaw, overbite, very crooked teeth and had to have 4 out due to over crowding - I was bottle fed which is a lot less hard work for a babies jaw and so it doesn't develop the same. My OH was bottle fed and had the same issues as me.