'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

OP I still don't understand your argument.

It's a fact that breast is best. It's not an opinion based on whether or not somebody is able to breastfeed whether they want to or not. People who couldn't or didn't want to breastfeed dislike the term, often out of some deep-routed guilt that they were unable to - or chose not to - breastfeed their baby.

I've explained much earlier in this thread that for medical reasons I wasn't able to breastfeed or express for my extremely premature twins. I WANTED to, but circumstances didn't allow it. They doesn't mean breast still wouldn't have been best for them. Of course it would! Breast milk IS liquid gold, especially for premature babies. Just because I was unable to provide what they needed doesn't negate the fact that formula would have been a better or equal option for them. To suggest otherwise is just ludicrous.

'Fed is best' is equally not an option when the alternative is 'starve'.

i just realised @OddSocksandRainbowDocs that you're wrong in your original post it's no National Breastfeeding Week, it's World Breastfeeding week, This year's theme is "Step Up for Breastfeeding: Educate and Support"

worldbreastfeedingweek.org/

Last year was "Breast is best" if i remember right the last year was mainly focus on encouraging women from more disadvantage areas to breastfeed their babies.
www.who.int/southeastasia/news/events/detail/2021/08/01/south-east-asia-events/world-breastfeeding-week-2021

Here can be seen all the breastfeeding weeks from the last few years
waba.org.my/wbw/

To be honest, this reminds me to when Men feel attacked because it's Womens day or when some people feel attacked because of LGBTQI+ week/month... these weeks are there to visualise what some people go through and make them feel they are not alone with their problems and to feel proud of themselves for the problems they go through. Not a single person in this thread that starving is better than being fed, but please let BF mums a week in the year, you can have the remaining 51.

It's a fact that breast is best.

I wonder why this stock phrase never includes the proviso 'only if all other factors are equal'. It also doesn't say in what way(s) it is better.

It is used as a catchy slogan but it's like saying 'the pill is best'. Yes, it's the most effective contraceptive, but it may not be the best option for everyone.

People who couldn't or didn't want to breastfeed dislike the term, often out of some deep-routed guilt that they were unable to - or chose not to - breastfeed their baby.

Where do you think they might have picked up the message that formula is the 'worst' choice they could make?

Utterly irrelevant and inappropriate comparison because breastfeeding mums are not oppressed by privileged formula feeders, and the purpose and slogan of International Womens Day is not to say women are better than men.

Breastfeeding mums can feel proud of themselves whenever they want. All people are asking is not to put down formula at the same time the way empty, emotive and inaccurate slogans like 'breast is best' do.

I am happy to be breastfeeding. I don't feel the need to make others feel bad about how they feed and nourish their babies. I really wish those that need to do that didn't pretend to be speaking for me.

Excellent comment

@EasterIssland There are women who genuinely believe that breastfeeding is the only way forward, as pointed out by a few commenters on this thread. If you can't be bothered to read the full thread, that's your own issue, not mine.

If you believe that breast is best, why get all het up if you believe it so much? I don't believe it - I believe that a fed baby is better as that applies to EVERYBODY. No mother should be made to feel guilty for their inability to provide for their child. As long as the child is fed, who cares?

It's people like you that make women feel so inferior when they have had to resort to formula feeding. If you don't like it, create your own thread!

@Luxa 100%

Utterly irrelevant and inappropriate comparison because breastfeeding mums are not oppressed by privileged formula feeders,

You should read many of the stories us BF mums have put in this thread where we've been abused by other citizens. I was told in this thread that my son would be ashamed of me in the future for bf him at his age and i wasnt doing him any favour. That to me is being oppressed (and ashamed)

At no point have i said that women are better than men, nor does the slogans say that bf mums are better than ff mums.

@EasterIssland Maybe you should think about the formula feeding mothers who have been personally attacked for not breastfeeding. Works both ways.

OP you've said earlier that bfing mothers are not shamed, now you say it works both ways - which is it?
Women who bf are not using the slogan breast is best to put down women who ff. They are not using a slogan at all. It's a public health slogan fgs.
But you do actually know that, don't you?!

@Bindayagain Exactly the same for when some posters say that FF mothers are not shamed.

But it DOES put women down. It makes them feel like they have failed their child by not being able to provide for them. NO woman should be made to feel like that.

A fed child is better than an unfed child because their mother was led to believe that breastfeeding is the only option!

And breastfeeding mothers get shamed, told they are weird particularly if they feed beyond six months or a year. I don't know why women need to judge each other but just do what you think is right and forget about other people.

@ancientgran I started this thread so women who had to formula feed knew that was fine. That breastfeeding isn't the be all and end all of feeding a baby. This message was then hijacked by some posters who feel that they have the right to tell people otherwise.

You implied it. That's why I'm asking you to state it clearly. Do you believe that breastfeeding generates equal or more profits for companies compared to formula feeding?

Or do you believe that formula feeding generates more profits?

@BloodAndFire Why does profit matter though? Surely what matters is the mental health of the mother?

This was a conversation yesterday on the thread where someone claimed that breastfeeding is in fact not free and disputed those of us who said it was, for us.

The formula milk industry is a huge multi billion pound global industry that invests vast sums into promoting its products, in many cases directly endangering the lives of babies in developing countries.

Not something I'd be putting loads of effort into promoting, personally. But you do you.

@BloodAndFire But a lot of people have spent money on breastfeeding. Some use pumps, some use breastpads. Often women need to pay out for a bra suitable for breastfeeding. So breastfeeding isn't free for everybody.

Sigh.
Profit matters because it's what the companies selling the product care about. It matters because deaths have been the direct result of companies seeking to increase their sales in developing countries.
Cow and gate don't care about your mental health, they care about encouraging you to buy their products. Follow on milk is a clever marketing ploy because the stage 1 has restrictions on adverts and promotions but follow on doesn't.

That's not say there is anything wrong with formula, it's very heavily controlled which means basically all formula is the same (with exceptions for cmpa milk, goats milk, organic...) but like any product the company has eyes on the bottom line.

WHO reveals shocking extent of exploitative formula milk marketing

The second report in a series detailing exploitative marketing practices employed by US$ 55 billion baby formula industry, shows parents, particularly mothers, are being insidiously and persistently targeted online

Formula milk companies are paying social media platforms and influencers to gain direct access to pregnant women and mothers at some of the most vulnerable moments in their lives. The global formula milk industry, valued at some US$ 55 billion, is targeting new mothers with personalized social media content that is often not recognizable as advertising.

Formula milk companies post content on their social media accounts around 90 times per day, reaching 229 million users; representing three times as many people as are reached by informational posts about breastfeeding from non-commercial accounts.

This pervasive marketing is increasing purchases of breast-milk substitutes and therefore dissuading mothers from breastfeeding exclusively as recommended by WHO.

Despite clear evidence that exclusive and continued breastfeeding are key determinants of improved lifelong health for children, women and communities, far too few children are breastfed as recommended. If current formula milk marketing strategies continue, that proportion could fall still further, boosting companies’ profits.

www.who.int/news/item/28-04-2022-who-reveals-shocking-extent-of-exploitative-formula-milk-marketing

@EasterIssland that doesn’t apply here in the U.K., where we have the ‘lowest’ rates apparently. Advertising formula here is illegal.

Anyway I would love to know why they shouldn’t advertise. Isn’t that part of the ‘informed choice’ that you all talk about? Knowing your options?

Yes of course. But let’s put it this way
a mum just given birth , she wants to breastfeed but struggles at the beginning. Nobody is there for helping her.
she opens Instagram and sees how influencer xyz is talking about miracles about cow gate and her child sleeping 8-8
mum feels she’s letting her child down and instead of obtaining the right help (lactation consultants) she switches to ff. her child might improve or they might not (ff is not perfect neither ,,, they can give problems because of intolerances) but the mum has already switched to ff.

this mum hasn’t done an informed choice. She’s done one out of desperation because she saw an ad on ig.

the numbers of bf go down and down and down. World wide organisations are trying to encourage mums to bf , governments should invest more in providing the right information to those mums that need it.

also just because it’s illegal Advertising in the uk newborn formula it doesn’t mean I cannot follow an American influencer or that it can happen when my child is 6m and still waking up twice a night and because of this the mum decides to change to ff. who (which is not American or British) recommend bf up to 2 years or beyond.

Advertising isn’t information.

What would be fair and accurate information about formula milk then?

OP in my very first post on this thread I mentioned a book called The Politics of Breastfeeding. It is probably a bit out of date now as I read it when BF my ds1 who is now 11. But I would recommend it to you as your view of this issue is very over simplified and reductive if you think that it can be summarised as "fed is best". It is MUCH MUCH More complicated than that if you can see beyond your own personal bubbles and hurty feelingz.