'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

“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.”

Sucks if you are in that 2% of women then (in my case ultrasound-proven insufficient glandular tissue). Stuck between a rock and a hard place of being judged by all and sundry for formulae feeding whilst not actually having your medical condition diagnosed by breastfeeding “experts” as it’s so incredibly “rare” it cannot possibly be so. You can’t win.

Breast is best then formula it's a fact as per scientific evidence though that doesn't mean your not doing your best which ever you give your baby.

Yes the number of people walking round with misshapen mouths due to a lack of breastfeeding is really quite something in this country…

I support everyone’s right to feed how they wish but let’s not pretend there are no benefits to breastfeeding.

The problem is, that because breastfeeding is the biological norm, the ‘benefits’ largely apply when in comparison to formula feeding.

But for clarity, NHS has a list here:

www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/breastfeeding-and-bottle-feeding/breastfeeding/benefits/

@Wouldloveanother I'm sorry but this made me chuckle

Ok. So leaving this anecdata aside for a moment (and in the hope of saving me from looking up the actual figures), are you genuinely claiming to believe that breastfeeding generates as much profit for companies as formula feeding does?

I mean, I'll get the figures if I have to, but you could save me the time by just acknowledging the obvious truth that it doesn't, if you like.

I think the large majority of people know that breast is best. I understand that can be hard to acknowledge if you were unable to breast feed.

Your post is literally you being offended by ‘breast is best’

‘Breast is best’ was also not a phrase publicised for you to be offended at. It’s public health information.

true MN fashion indeed

are you genuinely claiming to believe that breastfeeding generates as much profit for companies as formula feeding does?

Did i say that?

I mean, I'll get the figures if I have to, but you could save me the time by just acknowledging the obvious truth that it doesn't, if you like.

I mean since you’re offering… for what it’s worth, I’m interested in the details. But I’m not so good at calculating. Go ahead @BloodAndFire and do the maths research for us 😂 but be sure to use reliable sources!

Offended? How am I offended? I agreed that scientifically that breast feeding is better. My original post was that 'fed is best' with regards to those mothers who couldn't breastfeed for whatever reason Another one piping up when they clearly haven't read the thread. Oh yes, how very MN of you

But if the large majority know, why the need for a campaign at all?

@TheWrongAllmanBrother The whole point of this thread was to reassure women who feel like they have failed for having to use formula. Some posters fail to understand that concept and some posters are still hell bent on women breastfeeding, despite so many posters saying how guilty they have felt etc. MN posters always talk about backing women but this doesn't apply to feeding your baby apparantly.

As long as everything turned out well for you and your baby, You do you!

There are around 625,000 births each year in the UK. If 2 per cent of mothers physically cannot breastfeed, that's 12,500 of us every year. 1 in 50 is not an insignificant proportion, it's more than 1 mum for every school class of 30. So, not vanishingly rare at all.

There are around 625,000 births each year in the UK. If 2 per cent of mothers physically cannot breastfeed, that's 12,500 of us every year. 1 in 50 is not an insignificant proportion, it's more than 1 mum for every school class of 30. So, not vanishingly rare at all.

I did just joke upthread that I wasn’t good at calculating but clearly neither are many other mumsneters since that wasn’t more glaringly obvious to others. Although someone did say the other day on another thread that the chance of a 40 something year old poster getting pregnant after she got fingered by her husband was around 1 or 2% so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised 😂 2% is regularly seen as a ‘vanishingly rare’ percentage point on MN.
But as you say, it isn’t. 1 in 50 is a significant amount - it’s about the same amount of women that suffer ectopics actually. That’s certainly not seen as ‘vanishingly rare’. If you were bleeding in early pregnancy and had pain down your side everyone on here urges you to be seen to immediately, there’s a good chance it could be an ectopic. But if you struggle to BF it couldn’t possibly be that you physically can’t produce enough milk, it’s vanishingly rare, you must be mistaken silly woman…

@BeanieTeen Glad it isn't just me that finds the numbers on this thread a bit off... That is a LOT of mothers Let's hope they don't take the advice of some of these posters!

Breast is best.
Breast feeding can be challenging.
Bottle feeding is a great alternative.
No need to feel like a failure at all OP but still breast is best.

Thank you, that ties in with what my doctor told me. He had not been in England for very long, he was from India. He asked me if I was going to breastfeed and I said I hoped to if I could. He said he couldn't understand why English women said that as in India it was just accepted that they could and almost all did. I wasn't sure if he was right.

I must mix in the wrong circles as I was judged for breastfeeding, told it was disgusting/yucky/embarrassing. Maybe everyone gets judged? The sad thing is it is other mother's that do it in my experience. I can't think of a single man or childless woman who ever made a comment about it, just other mothers.

I had no intention of breastfeeding from the get go. Didn't produce milk anyway so wasn't an issue.

No one pressured me and respected my choices, as they should because if they disrespected my wishes I'd have seen a different health care professional.

Do you know why you didn't produce any milk or did you never find out because it wasn't relevant to you?

Correction, though the point still stands: it's more than 1 mum for every two school classes of 30. So, not vanishingly rare at all.

I think breast is best having breastfed on demand exclusively, if baby got sick my breast milk changed, if the weather became really hot my breast milk became more watery, it was amazing, but if I have another baby im pretty sure I'll formula feed because it was sooooo hard doing all the feeding myself and on demand although I did love it in the end, and in the long run was easier than bottles, it was hard!

I'd just get on with whatever you want to, let others do their thing, we are lucky we live in a first world country with an easy supply of formula.

If you never tried then how on earth can you possibly know this?

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?

While the amount of support needed to breastfeed is obviously far greater, I did find it noticeable that when I had to top up my newborn with formula in hospital as he wouldn’t latch, I got no guidance whatsoever on doing so. I was absolutely committed to the idea of breastfeeding and had bought into the whole “don’t buy bottles just in case, you’l br tempted to use them and it’s a slippery slope”. I hadn’t got the first idea how to make up formula safely - I spent about a week doing things totally wrong.

A simple printed information sheet would have been really helpful to an exhausted and emotional new mother but there was a real sense of “we can’t tell you ANYTHING about formula feeding as we wouldn’t be doing our job of promoting breastfeeding”