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!)

It sounds as though mothers who can't bf their babies will have access to formula (the emergency stock), but if it is the mothers choice then they won't - which sounds fair.

Breast milk is the free basic, and formula is the chosen luxury.

Worm, give me 30s to put my head out my door and check. Who the heck told you that?

Not providing sterilising facilities is different to what goes on in our trust though. So that is the real story IMO.

My local hospitals have been doing this since I had ds1 5 and a half years ago. That time I took cartons in with me incase I couldn't bf, which I couldn't, with ds2 I had it all at home and used the hospital supplies when bf failed again. With dd I was determined so although I had bottles I refused to buy any milk. My mum picked some up for me after dd failed to feed for 2 and a half days, lost 10% of her birth weight and was discharged from the local maternity midwife led unit and admited to the children's ward for monitoring. On the children's ward they only provide milk for the first 24 hrs and also do not feed bf'ing mums.

Sorry, just to be clear I used the hospital supply with ds2 until dh was able to bring in the formula. Both the maternity units I was in and the children's ward had milk kitchens with sterilisers, boiled water and fridges for us to use.

its in the daily mail. nuff said.

I was surprised that this was reported at all. At Chelsea and Westminster they make it clear they don't provide formula unless medically required (and numerous staff repeatedly then didn't for my DS despite the risk of him becoming dehydrated...I had to beg for it....that was more about poor care though than actual hospital policy) and the local hospital to me now has signs up saying BYO if you want to ff.

This is the situation where I had both my DC's. We were told if we intended on using formula we would need to bring our own. They did however have some which could be used in emergencies.

I just took some cartons of formula the first time and didn't bother the second time as I felt more confident.

I'm in Edinburgh btw.

I'm shocked at a childrens ward only providing milk for 24 hours! Ds has been in and out of hopsital since he was 8 weeks old and they have always provided milk when needed. When he was allowed milk again (nil by mouth for 5 days) I offered to get it brought in but they were more than happy providing it all. I was very grateful as with a child in hdu the last thing you want to be thinking about is sterelising bottles!

This struck a bit of a chord with me. (setting aside the fact that its in the Daily Mail and therefore suspect). I had a similar experience in a London hospital. Couldn't breastfeed. Baby wouldn't latch. At all. And not for want of my trying or the midwives trying. At one point there were no less than three separate midwives/lactation people with me trying to get her to latch and she wasn't having any of it. After three days of this I threw in the towel, asked for some formula. They very grudgingly gave me one carton and said my husband would have to provide the rest. But the killer for me is that they refused to discharge me for another night on the grounds that I wasn't breastfeeding.

Now, one can argue that I could have done it with more support/help. That maybe I should have tried harder. But the bottom line was that after 72 hours, I wasn't able to breastfeed my baby. The baby was otherwise healthy, was guzzling formula. I was fine (crazy with exhaustion but otherwise OK). You have to ask yourself, is it really helpful or healthy to pathologize people who can't breastfeed like this? I can understand that they were concerned, wanted the best nutrition for my baby etc. But making me feel that I was sick because I couldn't breastfeed actually got my back up, stressed me out and I think in the end actually made it harder for me to move on and get the help I would have liked. It would have been far better, imho, to have given the formula in an ungrudging way, packed me off home with instructions to see a lactation consultant and be done with it.

Unfortunately the NHS's current stance on breastfeeding has some collateral damage -- it makes those people who can't breastfeed feel like subhuman shit. And it may be for the greater good but I really resent the way they made me feel.

I didn't even know that discharging mothers was an issue. With DD, I gave birth, had a couple of hours sleep and then told them I was going home. I don't remember them even asking to see me feed her.

It sounds unhelpful to have so much control over what a mother is doing. Did they give an explanation as to why you using formula was a reason for you to stay in formula? What use did they think it was going to be?

jeckadeck your story struck a chord with me. Except I only went for 24 hours trying (and failing) to get DD1 to latch on. I was made to feel like the worst mother in the world when I said I would FF. I couldn't believe how cold they became towards me, and can't help wondering how long they would have continued trying to get DD1 to BF.

With DD2 I again tried to BF- my MW was lovely, supportive etc, not pushy at all. DD2 would not latch on either, and MW thought it was a problem with my breasts rather than DD. So really I had no chance of succeeding with it. Instead of making me feel subhuman, MW gave me bottles of formula and made me feel I was doing the best I could.

I ended up using the hospital's supply of formula with both DDs, as I'd planned on BF both times. I would absolutely take in my own formula if I were to have another baby, as I now know I've got no chance of BF.

Yes, I was also told that after 8 days in hospital that I could only go home if I exclusively breastfed all night so I told them that actually I was going home next day supplementing with formula and that I would be okay. Next day I walked off the ward. The fuckers!!! It was truly traumatic and abusive in my opinion. It took 6 weeks to establish exclusive breast feeding which shows how much they know about bf.

Not all mothers are able to bf so is the baby just meant to starve while in the hospital?

Let's face it it's just a way for the NHS to save money but packaged up to look as if it is caring by supporting bf. A mother has a right to a choose what is best for her baby.

But it's the National Health Service - formula feeding is not the healthiest way to feed a new born.

Why should the NHS facilitate an unhealthy choice that can have a negative impact on both the baby's and mothers's health and therefore place an additional burden on the service?

As someone already pointed out, if the mother is present she has her baby's food, in her breasts.If she chooses not to give it then surely it's not unreasonable to expect her to provide an alternative?

For those mothers (like the posters on here who struggled to establish breastfeeding, formula will be provided).Mothers can also express.

Sirzy, all I know is that on the Children's ward they gave me formula as I had been desperately trying to bf for 2 days with no success (hand expressed very small amounts of colostrum into a syringe, but clearly no where near enough for dd) so they wanted her to be fed 3 hourly and provided the formula for the night and into the next moring but asked me to get dh to bring in formula when he visited. In the milk kitchen there was a notice saying formula would only be provided for the first 24 hrs.

Not providing sterilising facilities is terrible and a health hazard!

Then again having seen the conditions of the kitchen for parents in our local hospital I wouldn't have wanted to use it, or the shared steriliser. Grim beyond belief. Nobody ever cleaned the place or de-scaled the unit itself.

Even if I had planned to FF I'd have changed my mind after seeing the "provision" seeing that it would only be a day or so until I could do things my way in a clean environment. Ugh.

I dont think the healthy argument can be used. The food they provide to children certainly doesn't come into the healthy category in my view - actually most of it hardly falls into edible!

finally yes it is the NHS, but that doesn't mean it has the right to take away peoples choices. BF is right for some people and FF for others, FF is not an unhealthy choice and I am sure many people on MN would agree.
The fact that they are seeming to suggest that only one method of feeding a baby is 'correct', 'healthy' etc. is a worrying road to be turning down since it is forcing a choice on some people (some who may be too vulnerable to ask for help or know how to get it).
Patient choice is something which is supposed to be enshrined in the NHS - but apparently not for women who are having babies!

I'm sitting in the hospital that doesn't provide sterilisers with a sterilising box next to me. Who dares me to put my head out the door and ask when they're taking it off me?

Agreed Sirzy. Disgusting swill.

Mind you I have seen parents stealing meals for themselves from the childrens' trolley three times a day for a week and every time they are caught claiming that they didn't understand even though it has been explained in their own language several times. But that is a whooooooole other thread....

@confuddledDOTcom it was on an earlier thread, which I linked. Presumably the OP of that thread was told it?

Why should the NHS provide free formula if there is no medical reason for it? Although I do think that formula vending machines could be a good idea for people that caught out.

They give formula to people who get "caught out"! The idea that they would let babies go hungry keeps being propagated and it's silly!