Breastfeeding

[rosesandpie]

Yes, it’s a choice but make it an educated choice.

Nobody is making money off you if you are breastfeeding your baby, unlike the formula choice.
No expense has been spared to market formula and they are clearly doing a good job, as many people are now actually getting cross when you dare say ‘breast is best’.

https://www.who.int/health-topics/breastfeeding#tab=tab1

https://www.unicef.org.uk/babyfriendly/news-and-research/baby-friendly-research/research-supporting-breastfeeding/supporting-breastfeeding-research/

https://www.chla.org/blog/research-and-breakthroughs/new-research-traces-breastfeeding-benefits-10-years-childhood

https://breastcancernow.org/about-us/media/press-releases/new-research-to-investigate-why-breastfeeding-reduces-the-risk-of-developing-breast-cancer

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11597163/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10631302/

What point are you trying to make?

I agree in Uk we’ve clearly got the balance wrong as we have the lowest breastfeeding rates in the developed world. I think part of problem is in hospital it is encouraged that if you want to breastfeed to do so exclusively and not combo and for many people whilst their milk comes in and getting the hang of it they feel like they are failing and so switch to formula. I’d recommend combo feeding as default

I highly doubt this is true. Where are you getting this info from?

Oh good, another thread to make women who breastfeed feel smug and those who chose not to or can’t feel guilty. Just let people do what’s right for them - fed is best, whatever method works best for you. You don’t need to ensure everyone is making a ‘educated choice’. Just not wanting to is a perfectly fine reason. Much of the research is flawed in terms of quality or misrepresented anyway. Breastfeeding is great if it works for you, but if it doesn’t it really doesn’t matter and women certainly shouldn’t be sacrificing their mental and physical health for it. As for comparing breastfeeding rates, there are all manner of reasons why breastfeeding isn’t taken up as much nowadays which a huge number of societal factors influencing. What is not needed is more soap box preaching and guilt tripping of new mothers.

I'd like to know too please OP.

https://www.unicef.org.uk/babyfriendly/about/breastfeeding-in-the-uk/
stats about this are in news relatively regularly

It’s the way it is recorded. I breast feed my second child until she was 3.5 years old but because she had a small amount of formula in the first few weeks, often just a few sips to calm her down so she could latch, she was recorded in the statistic as a formula feed baby.

I think the issue is lack of support and knowledge around breast feeding. As a society we don’t have much knowledge and the professional support is often none existent.

There’s currently an advert running on TV for follow on milk. These advertisements should be banned.

I’ve attached a few links - not sure if visible to all.

The point is we KNOW breastfeeding is best. Only if we accept that as a starting point then the focus can shift to demanding adequate support for new mums who are struggling.

This is based on 15 year old data and doesn't provide any comparisons with other countries.

I live in France and am pretty certain the breastfeeding rate is lower here. There is very little encouragement or support to breastfeed even in hospital, if your baby is even slightly on the small side you'll be strongly encouraged to use formula, and maternity leave is 16 weeks, of which the first 6 are before the baby is born.

All my friends in the UK breastfed their babies, far more than my friends in France.

Is this a new thing since Brexit? I'm pretty sure ads like that are banned in the EU.

First stage baby milk advertising is illegal but follow on milk has always been permitted to be advertised. It was created mostly to allow the formula brands to advertise after the ban on promotion of first stage formula milk.

Breast is not best, making sure your baby is fed is best.

I've done both and you can't tell which is which.

Yes, it’s a loophole in the advertising laws. Babies don’t need follow on milk, it’s a product produced simply to advertise formula.

Oh, I probably did the wrong thing then. My little baby boy wouldn’t latch properly and he never did. I pumped and pumped every 3 hours for months until I almost went crazy and then I switched to formula. Silly me, should’ve let him starve.

My friend had an EMC after 52 hours of labour she was exhausted. She was trying to breastfeed but she herself was fading and not able to get her strength back or heal. Eventually her dr said ‘ give up breastfeeding, it’s more important that you are healthy’ she went to formula and she began to bounce back. Still feels guilty.

THIS. 100%

Is your friend me?!

It’s not always a choice. I nearly lost my baby because I was so sucked into the ‘information’ And narrativr you are talking about and at my most vulnerable mentally and physically I continued to try and breast feed my baby despite having no supply even after 3 weeks of near continuous pumping.
Thankfully my other half put his foot down and saved us both.

If it is, hi

Hi babe 😂

@MissScarletInTheBallroom @NoweverytimeIgoforthemailbox both your points are really interesting. Almost every mum I know breastfed, but I assumed I’m in some sort of middles class lefty bubble. I hope you’re right and true numbers are higher here.

What I always find so surprising is that women on low incomes are less likely to breastfeed, when breast milk is free and formula isn't. I know I spent money on breastfeeding tops and a pump (only for my daughter to completely refuse the bottle) and various things, but surely a year's worth of formula must add up.

I strongly disagree that the way to improve support for mums to be able to breastfeed is adding more guilt, shame or expectation.

If the aim is actually support, then wouldnt this thread be about looking at practical solutions rather than sharing information suggesting breastmilk is preferable to formula? So maybe campaign to improve access to lactation consultants being more common on NHS, or improve midwife training about breastfeeding, or improve NHS care in hospitals after labour generally so women are helped to physically recover when they're being expected to learn how to breastfeed, or improve maternity pay so after 6 weeks they're not debating how long they can cope without a decent wage, or whatever.

I'm breastfeeding my son. The experience has only made me more grateful that formula exists. It was a tough (at times) journey to get feeding established even with plenty of factors that "should" have meant I found it easy.

”I strongly disagree that the way to improve support for mums to be able to breastfeed is adding more guilt, shame or expectation.”

We all disagree with that.

The demand for support is not really there, because there’s this easily available, marketed to be as good, convenient, alternative option.
And instead of focusing on lack of support around breastfeeding, we are focusing on normalising using the substitute even more.