Antibreastfeeding?

[Redebs]

Having just browsed some of the 'Help articles' on here, I'm shocked at how Mumsnet is discouraging breastfeeding.

There's one on how normal it is to wean off the breast at two months because of all the 'problems you will have'.

There's one on 'combi feeding', which is about giving formula feeds to breastfed babies - the surest way to reduce your milk supply in reality.

There's another one about packing dummies and bottles in your hospital labour bag. This is definitely going to interfere with newborns getting colostrum and learning to latch. If a baby needs anything, the hospital will provide it in reality.

I know some women choose to formula feed, but these are insidious, supposedly helpful, undermining tactics aimed at new mothers trying to breastfeed. Most of these are sponsored by the baby bottle manufacturer MAM.

If formula companies were promoting this, they would be, rightly, in contravention of advertising rules.

All medical and scientific advice is to give exclusively breastmilk for the first six months and to continue to at least twelve months or longer.

I think she is probably right. But what she means is the baby gets milk while the mother may be in unbearable pain with cracking and bleeding nipples and feel like chucking her baby out the window.

It’s not an opinion, it’s fact. The best estimate of savings to NHS through more breastfeeding is 40 million a year. A huge amount on paper, but when you the factor in the sheer cost of what you’re suggesting (lactation consultant on what, 30k a year?) If there was 1 per 100 birthing women even that would be £200 million a year alone!! (Do correct me if that’s wrong). It doesn’t add up, and financially isn’t worth it.

And what about mums whose babies are seriously ill in NICU? I know this is very personal to me but apparently one of the reasons for a poor milk supply can be stress. I can assure you that there are not many things more stressful than not knowing if your baby is going to survive or not. Oh but of course that obviously would not have been the case if only I had been given the right practical support. Tell that to the nurses who were trying to help me. And the other mums in NICU who were in the same position.

I support mums being encouraged to breast feed but I think comments like that one made by the OP are very insensitive.

So you cherry picked the first half of that unicef statement and left out the rest....... it ends with "the true cost savings are likely to be much higher" 😉

How much higher? Even twice as high as that wouldn’t meet the costs involved, nowhere near. Three times?

Wow. This is…ignorant.

There’s no way of differentiating between children that were BF and those that were FF. None. Not-a-one.

Leave other women, and their choices about how they feed their children, alone.

You don’t ‘care’, you just want to be propped up in your sense of being ‘better’ than the godawful, lazy, selfish women who made poor excuses not to breastfeed…

@feellikeanalien I agree with you.
And in situations where there is no affordable formula other women breastfeed relatives babies or give animal milk. The history books are full of individuals raised since birth on goats milk for example.

I was in the same position my milk was seriously delayed by stress with DS1 being in neonatal unit.
Was there a infant team available to you? Did a Dr or infant feeding team suggest you trying Domperidone to help? Did the nurses or midwife offer you donor milk?

Agree the OP worded it insensitively and I know exactly what you mean as I have been there. It's about the right support at the right level and in neonatal units that should be early access to onfant feeding team, discussion with mother of options (including drug options) etc.
I was lucky as there was an infant team specialist available (she came in on Mon DS1 born on sat) and they did help me a lot. DS1 was term and there wasn't enough donor milk for him. But the infant feeding team helped me enormously, domperidone was due to be prescribed but my milk did eventually start ramping up and DS1 tongue tie cut at day 5 (I then ended up with oversupply due to all the pumping so became a milk donor back to neonatal).

DD wasn't born in the UK so none of those options were offered to me. One of the nurses did try to see if feeding could be re-established once DD was off the ventilator but sadly that was unsuccessful.

I don't think milk banks were a thing at the time although now they do have them.

I probably get over-emotional about it and at least was able to produce some colostrum but at the time felt like I was really failing DD.

Domperidone is an experimental drug which isn’t specifically for breastfeeding, it’s used to treat sickness and stomach pain. It passes into breastmilk so on a balance I would probably choose formula as a ‘known quantity’ than breastmilk laced with a relatively untested drug. This is actually why I stopped breastfeeding at 8 months, I felt ready to but also needed to take a drug that they couldn’t reassure me would be 100% safe in breastmilk. I felt formula was a better choice in those circumstances.

Exactly!

“I wonder how many children that were seriously effected by the recent Strep A breakout were formula fed. I think that information would be extremely beneficial and interesting to know. I know that there is no way to gather such information, but I hazard a guess that a lot were not breastfed atol.”

How DARE you imply that those of us who did not breastfeed have put our children at risk of dying of Strep A. Take a long hard look at yourself. Believe me, the “breast is best” message is received loud and clear by all of us. My baby would have starved to death without formula - that, or she’d have lost her mum as I couldn’t have had my breast cancer surgery or the chemo I’m in the middle of at the moment if I was still trying to feed her (she never latched well and yes I had tons of support blah blah blah) I had no choice but I STILL feel guilty. Honestly, every time I think I’ve read it all on here people manage to surprise me with the stuff they post.

Breastfeeding doesn’t protect against strep A.

@WorryMcGee i almost think it’s a form of anxiety or insecurity for these women - they want to reassure themselves that their children will be more okay, and that they’re better mothers, because they did X or Y - in this case breastfeeding. They can’t cope when the level of effort they put into it results in a child pretty similar to formula fed ones, so the only emotional return they get is to come on here and try to make bottle feeding mums feel bad by scaring them. It’s bizarre. I hope your treatment is going well as can be xx

From the breastfeeding drug network (who by the way are highly specialist pharmaceutical experts). Domperidone is only prescribed with consultation with medical teams for breastfeeding.

Very small amounts of domperidone pass into breastmilk. DaSilva (16) reported average milk concentrations ranged from 1.2 micrograms/L (1) to 2.6 micrograms/L. in babies whose mothers had taken domperidone 10mg three times a day for 5 days. No adverse events were noted in mothers or children. Domperidone is subject to extensive first pass metabolism which accounts for the low transfer into breastmilk. The mean relative infant dose was 0.01% after a 30 mg daily dose and 0.009% at 60 mg (14). Hale (17) quotes a relative infant dose range of 0.01% – 0.04%, well below the 10% regarded as significant.

Thank you @Cuppasoupmonster ❤️ I don’t know why I click on these threads tbh but I do it every time…probably because I still feel that horrible guilt that bf wasn’t going well anyway and then I had no choice but to stop.

Two surgeries down, 6 rounds of chemo with two to go…and a beautiful 9 month old little girl who has thrived on formula 🙂

Yes that’s not the same as ‘tested and safe’ is it?

Oh, it’s just a wind up so a small number of women can get the ‘recognition they deserve’ for something nobody in real life cares about. Congrats on your daughter and getting this far 💐

@WorryMcGee you have nothing to feel guilty about whatsoever. You made the right choice for you and your baby.

My baby is a similar age and I can't imagine doing this whilst fighting cancer. You're a superhero.

This.

And that the hospital said my baby was at risk of failure to thrive due to how much weight he lost through me EBF

Breastfeeding does improve immunity.

Against strep A? Anything to confirm that for me?

@Redebs Unfortunately I think you're fighting a losing battle amongst a select few here. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.