AIBU to feel uneasy about this? (Not wanting to spark a BF or not BF fight)

[shudabinme]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1393353/Hospital-restricts-free-formula-baby-milk-newborns-encourage-mothers-breastfeed.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Bit ~ about this, all for BF but this smacks of social engineering... shall we extend it to the Mums as well, lets just feed them vegan food (no offence any vegans out there, just trying to make the point!)

BGF, you are making this much more complicated than it actually is.

Breast milk is provided to the babies through their mothers. If they choose not to feed it to the baby, and do not provide an alternative, the hospital will provide an alternative.

In some hospitals, formula milk has been provided to the babies, but again, it is provided through the hospital passing it to their mothers. If the mother chose not to feed the baby the formula milk, the hospital would provide an alternative.

The fact that the passing of the baby's food is done by either passing the food to the baby through feeding the mother, or passing the food to the baby through handing the mother a bottle does not change the fact that the mother was given an opportunity to feed her child. The method is irrelevant. If she wants to feed the child something of her own choosing, she has that choice. If she decides not to feed the child within the options the hospital has given her, then the hospital staff will take over.

As for neglect, it will surely be the same as mothers who turn up at hospitals without baby clothes, nappies, cotton wool etc. Staff have supplies of these things, and will have to make decisions about whether or not there is a problem with the mother or if it is a mistake. No great big deal needs to be made about unlocking cupboards and getting out formula milk anymore than it is currently a great big deal to get out a nappy.

It will just be noticed by the staff, and either be seen as an issue or not depending on the rest of the mother and baby's signs of wellbeing.

Milly- the hospital is not saying that it will provide an alternative if a mother chooses not to BF, that is policy at present. They are saying that they will only stock supply for 'emergancies'. You would think that i am making it complicated. I am not, it is now going to be made complicated, if hospital policy changes. What you have described in your above post is how it is at present, so why the need for change.

If a policy changes, practice changes, how will these changes be managed?, thats all i'm asking. I've worked under lots of seemingly simple policy changes, they never are.

Someone will be held responsible for the emergancy stock and its usage will have to be justified. I hope this has been blown out of proportion by the DM. But either way it is to cut costs, BF is irrelevent.

Your post makes no sense.

You are making breast feeding into something that it is not. It is just a food that the mother has been given through the hospital's nutrition to feed her baby.

This is no different to the hospital saying:

the only food we are making available to baby's is SMA. We will provide the mother with SMA. If she wants to feed the baby cow and gate, then she needs to bring in her own. If she insists on cow and gate, despite SMA being available but refuses to bring cow and gate in, we will provide emergency cow and gate and take note of her behaviour.

The hospital is saying:

the only food we are making available to baby's is the mother's breast milk. We will provide the mother with breast milk (through feeding her). f she insists on formula , despite breast milk being available but refuses to bring formula milk in, we will provide emergency formula and take note of her behaviour.

It is the same thing. It is no different from a parent bringing in white bread for an older child when the hospital made brown available. That's fine. But if you refuse to let your child eat at all, unless the hospital gives you white bread, the hospital needs to take note of that.

They've not supplied formula or bottles in the maternity unit nearest me for aleast 4 years. If you plan to FF you take your own formula which is no big deal to me- got a few cartons and a couple of bottles in my hospital bag ready to use once DC2 is born as I don't plan to BF. AFAIK the unit still has ready to use emergency bottles of formula but last time I was there they were locked in a safe(!) and the staff were very strict about who got to use them and who didn't.

Never saw it as a big deal tbh. You plan to BF you take your breasts in with you... Besides, most of the time you don't stay in all that long anyway. I was there under 48 hours before and in all that time DD had only 2 bottles neither of which she finished. She slept off her Pethidine hangover for the majority of our stay.

I apologise for the terrible use of baby's rather than babies in my post!

Then that is most definatly social engineering and out of order. So now they need to decide at what age they will provide FF because a mother with a two month old can still soley BF, why is this just applying to newborns?.

Total double standards going by the total,utter shite my 7 year old son was given during a recent stay in hospital. All of the meals were appallingly bad(chips,fried products,crappy mince products,luminous pink puddings......),they also had a twice daily snack trolley that came round full of junk food and drinks,no fresh fruit/veg to be seen anywhere.

Given that a bad diet is far more of a problem than a few months of formula and actually a healthy diet might help kids get better quicker I think hospitals should actually focus on important issues rather than pointless headlining,inconvenience.

Going by how crap I felt after giving birth the last thing I'd want to be worrying about is wether I'd be able to track down a rationed bottle of formula for my hungry baby.

My dd was readmitted and tracking down formula was a bloody nightmare when I was well let alone after giving birth.You'd be given 1 grudgingly in the morning(after asking) then not knowing when dd was going to get hungry I'd have to trail around requesting another with a recovering bawling baby.If they do this with babies just out of SCBU I'd hate to see what they'd do with healthy newborns.

Well, if your 2 month old went into hospital, and you were breast feeding, you would want to provide breast milk in bottles to the hospital, if your baby was going to be apart from you.

If your 2 month old went into hospital, and you were not breastfeeding, then it would not be possible for you to breast feed, so of course the only option would be formula.

But we are talking about hospitals providing formula milk to babies of mothers who are able to breastfeed.

But how would you wash/sterilise the bottles and where would you make them etc? I FF by choice but in the hospital they had these little glass bottles of formula with disposable teats. No idea how you could get all the space/equipment for doing normal bottles.

Birmingham Womens hospital has also taken this decision and from July 1st they will not provide FF or anywhere to sterilize!

No they are not, that is the point, they are saying that a newborn baby is not an in patient, so it is up to the mother to provide food. There will no longer be a guareented formula supply unless someone deams it an emergancy.

Hospitals that don't routinely provide formula still have facilities for making up the feeds. In much the same way they don't routinely provide nappies or cotton wool, but they still provide bowls for you to put the hot water in and facilities for you to wash your hands when you change a nappy.

In our hospital you get a choice of what formula you want to use. Cow&Gate, SMA or Aptimel. I didnt plan to BF and i knew the hospital provided milk for my stay. If they said they didnt i would have took my own. If hospitals are changing the policy they will have to make it known to expectant mothers or they wont take milk assuming its available. I dont think there is any need for the milk to be locked away. If mothers are told they have to take their own they will take it and if they dont it will probably be as they havent been informed they have to or assume the hospital provide it. The hospital will then use the emergency stock. I was in for 10 hrs with dd3 and she drank half a bottle the whole time she was there.

WS, well that is ridiculous. Not providing facilities to make up feeds is going to cause health problems.

I agree MillyR - it is nothing short of bullying women at their most vulnerable. It is a disgrace. The bottles will end up being made unhygenically and it will be the baby who gets ill. Plus what if you are bed bound after a C section? Will they make them for you?

I also think this is about cutting costs not about promoting breast feeding. I also, fwiw, believe that encouraging mothers to give birth "naturally" ie not much pain relief, falls into the same category. I strongly believe that maternity wards are seen as an easy target in cost cutting strategies.

I think you can buy sterile disposable bottles

We have been discussing on the childbirth boards www.mumsnet.com/Talk/childbirth/1223588-Bham-womens-hosp-will-not-provide-milk-or-sterile-environment-for-new-mums

Gosh new mums have enough to deal with,without having to make up bottles.

I have BF all of mine,but I seem to lack the ''everyone should BF/Formula = heroin'' stance. (I dont believe FF = heroin but on an Irish site thats how the BF board seems to regard it).Parents should be supported in their choices.

I had to pump for my premature DC,this pump was provided free of charge.I expect that the BF'ing mothers who need to pump and store will be made pay for this.

So according to that link they will have no where to sterilise so are forced into buying pre made bottles,no doubt provided by an over priced hospital shop.

I FF dd2( not through choice) and from day 3 ( after being ill) I was providing bottles & making them up myself. There was a steriliser & kitchen for us to use. That was 10 years ago.