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.

Breastfeeding rates might be low because some of us prefer to use formula.

That's interesting about the 4 weeks, as I know for me it took about that long to do it comfortably. I was almost about to give up when suddenly it just stopped hurting, it was weird as it literally happened overnight. Before that I was using lanolin constantly as well as the gel patches. I had quite alot of information from antenatal classes so knew it might not be easy initially, if I hadn't had that information I probably would have stopped much earlier. I'm glad I didn't, but it does make me wonder how much information and support other mothers get. All of the women in my antenatal group except for one EBF.

Totally agree with this.

I do think the uk has worst of both worlds.

ime pre natally and generally the message that “breast is best” is pushed and pushed, to the extent that bottles are a taboo subject.

yet once you’ve had your baby, all you get is bottles pushed at you. Tired? Give a bottle. Baby not sleeping through the night? Give a bottle. Baby feeding again? Give a bottle.

family and friends- make your life easier, give a bottle.

there is no real help for breastfeeding mums beyond suggesting a bottle. Or worse, some complicated regime of breastfeeding, topping up with formula, and expressing.

the articles mumsnet have posted aren’t factually correct and don’t present both sides. Someone with no breastfeeding help may read that and think oh I can just give a couple of bottles and not realise that it may adversely affect their bf journey. That’s the issue, not that mums can’t make up their own minds.

Breast is best is pushed because very few mothers bf to 6 months. They’re in the minority. They are trying to encourage higher rates of bf in the population because it has been shown to have a positive impact on long term public health, which is in the interest of the whole country. It’s not a campaign against people who ff or designed to make them feel bad.

Agree op. Im still pregnant and want to exclusively breast feed as long as possible but everywhere i turn i have bottles and formula pushed at me. In the hospital theres ads everywhere, im told to pack pre made formula to take to the hospital "just in case" every gift set ive been bought contains bottles and dummies and i keep getting told to learn about combi feeding. It already feels like im being told from the start that I won't be able to exclusively breastfeed so should just accept bottles from the beginning.

The rate of breastfeeding at 6 months is 55%.

The reason it appears so low is because this is usually recorded in the form of ‘exclusive breastfeeding’ which means baby hasn’t had even 1 sip of formula, which most do as mum is getting to grips with it and jaundice needs to be cleared etc.

So if a mum gives a few bottles in the early days but then ditches them and breastfeeds for 6 months, she still won’t be included in the ‘1% exclusively breastfed’ figure.

55% is more than half but I suppose not as dramatic as 1%.

It also doesn't help that all breastfeeding threads turn into people claiming the science behind breastfeeding is outdated and wrong and that theres no actual benefits, and that women who are struggling should stop being martyrs and just stop.

Yes well I didn’t waste my time reading sibling studies about breastfeeding when making my decision on how to feed my children. I didn’t need to because it wasn’t a difficult decision for me. I wanted to breastfeed. So I did. I was perfectly aware that their are real calculable benefits on a society level but that on an individual level it’s near impossible to separate out any benefits of breastfeeding from all the other factors. I knew that if I couldn’t breastfeed, or hated it, I could use formula and my baby would thrive.
As it turned out I really liked breastfeeding my baby. And my baby liked it too. And all was fine for the first month or so and then the fucking comments about when I was planning to stop started. By six months everyone basically assumed I was using formula. I think our hv eventually cottoned on and put a note on my file to stop herself asking me how many ounces my baby was drinking in a day. After about 4 months of regular appointments where I would say I didn’t known because we were still breastfeeding.
Our childminder used to tell me about once a week that I should stop feeding because my baby was big now. My MIL cottoned on and stopped asking bless her, but it took a while. My husband didn’t understand why I wanted to breastfeed at all and was unsupportive of me breastfeeding , but did manage to control himself and not cross over into hostile. Just. Friends told me that the idea of feeding a baby who could walk was gross. Family worried that our baby would be deficient in nutrients because we didn’t use formula. It was all just fucking unnecessary noise.
Breastmilk has benefits that formula does not. Even if those benefits are small, especially longterm. But I was happily and successfully breastfeeding with no issues. Baby was thriving. Why the fuck did I have to deal with everyone’s constant negativity about it? I breastfed for 2 years and stopped when I wanted to. And it felt like a massive achievement because everyone had been so relentlessly negative about it for 18months+ by then.
In my experience ´breast is best’ is only a widespread attitude up until about 1 month postpartum.

Yes but why is that? It’s heavier on the pocket, more hassle and loads more work, difficult to travel with ff, really bad for the environment. I say that as someone who ff one and bf the other so I experienced the differences myself, the good with the bad of both.

Why would people prefer cost and extra work over bf? Why does the UK have lower rates compared to other developed countries. I’m not saying I have the definitive answer but these are factors to think about.

Well, why don’t you go ahead and quantify the benefits then? And prove us wrong..?

@Boshi I did it as it was the best thing for my child, on paediatrician advice.

Where on earth are you getting 55% at for 6months!
Unicef is any bf rate is 55% at 6 weeks.......

Scotland rates have improved a lot but we have a lot more support available and pretty much every town has a bf support group which does make the difference.

Also on pretty much every bf thread you state there are no health benefits to breastfeeding whilst on this thread you accuse a poster of always popping up saying the same thing which is something that you also do stating no health benefits. Why do you seem to have a bee in your bonnet about this so much?

I have no idea why you feel the need to state this most threads when studies are available (with many showing the opposite of what you state). In the case of neonatal your view is so completely wrong that I really hope a mother who has a neonatal baby reads your comment and think it's fine. It's why milkbanks exist because it helps save neonatal babies lives by them not contracting serious gut infections!

Luckily cost wasn’t an issue for us. We found formula easy - a perfect prep machine and microwave steriliser. The biggest advantage was that everything could give the bottles- I loved watching grandparents give the bottles.

I definitely think that lack of support is a huge problem.

There really needs to be daily free breastfeeding groups with qualified staff. Being told that there is one in 6 days time when you have a newborn doesn't help anyone. What are you meant to do, not feed your baby for a week until there is a session if you can't afford to go private?

It also doesn't help if medical staff refuse to look inside the baby's mouth if they are feeding badly to see if it is due to tongue tie or not and signpost how to get it sorted.

There isn't enough general support for women either. If you are stuck on the sofa feeding a young baby, then you will need help with the older siblings, cleaning, making food. It's harder to get that when you don't live near relatives (due to costs), your mum is still working full time and (due to retirement ages going up and cost of living), your partner (if you have one) is at work (because you cannot afford to have them on paternity leave, it's no good to have them home if doing so means you loose your home, can't afford to eat and get into huge debts) and any other friends you have who might help also work full time. It can be very lonely for mother's, especially when they have closed all the children's centres and there aren't affordable groups near by.

It is much easier when the baby isn't a newborn to prop them up with a bottle in their mouth and get on with other things (I'm not advising people to do this).

Maybe you should get therapy to get rid of that bee in your bonnet about your own feeding choices.

Why do you feel the need to sealion?

Go read the studies for yourself

What's wrong with combi feeding? I did that for the most of 20 months. If I would have had to bf exclusively I'd have given up looooong before then. Nothing to do with my milk supply, I was overproducing. I just needed an hour in the evening for self care (shower, batch cooking, exercises et cetera).

Oh and I wish I hadbought and packed a bottle in my hospital bag. DD ended up in NICU for the first week and the first thing we were asked to do is buy our own bottle. Shitty thing to waste your time on when your child is in NICU and I had trouble moving around (EMCS).

Having options made me persevere with breastfeeding. It was more of a choice that I wanted to do and there was a choice not to (by giving a bottle in a cluster feeding evening).

Awful isn’t it. We shouldn’t be normalising formula. Formula should be a last resort if you’ve tried breastfeeding and couldn’t.

@Cuppasoupmonster hmm I feel a response to this Q could be opening up a can of worms as a lot of the benefits to breastfeeding may be upsetting for some people to read. Especially those who tried, found it difficult and stopped earlier than they wanted to.

Many studies prove the benefits (especially illness related ones) and you can look into this, it's all on the net or in books.

Totally inappropriate comment - some of us wanted to use formula. It’s a choice not an order as to how you feed
Formula is amazing!

I could. My baby on the other hand ...

Absolutely nothing wrong with combi feeding.

what is wrong with the mumsnet post is they presented is a great option- which it can be- with no mention of the downsides.

however it isn’t always easy and starting combi feeding can mean the end of bf. It did for me. My dc very quickly caught on to the fact bottles were less work, the milk was there instantly, no waiting for let down. My supply also pretty much instantly adjusted, which meant I had to plan feeds more around bottles, there was less milk, so baby ramped up the breast refusal, so gave more bottles.

it took about two weeks from introducing the first bottle to not being able to bf anymore.

my second I refused to express, combi feed, or give in to any other “make your life easier” suggestions. It made my life much easier 😂

by all means combi feeding should be offered as an option. With the caveat it may not be that easy, so women can make an informed decision.

I don't think I have ever seen a thread where a mother is struggling ,told to stop.being a martyr and just stop breastfeeding I have seen threads where mothers who are struggling are given loads of empathy and told there is nothing wrong with formula feeding if it helps mum and baby coup!ed with advice from others who have successfully breastfed in what helped them.

just because you haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.

there’s a thread currently where a poster has told the o/p they’re “selfish” and “making their lives hard work” because they want to continue bf their 6 month old, and not piss around expressing/give formula because grandparents want to give a bottle.

I have seen the martyr comments a few times. Had it myself irl as well.