To think it really wasn't necessary for Myleene Klass to mention the 'Breastapo'?

[UnknownGnome]

I was watching Lorraine this morning during which there was a feature which showed Myleene Klass visiting a third world country promoting the benefits of breastfeeding and raising awareness of the goodness of breastmilk, particularly colostrum. Formula is often watered down, or made with unclean water, therefore not the best option for many women, but they are not always aware of this.

Cut to Myleene in the studio with Kate Garraway and she is, again, talking about the benefits of breastfeeding but qualifies this by saying she is by no means a member of the 'breastapo'. Was this completely necessary? Surely it's ok to talk about the benefits of breastfeeding without making a negative comment about those who promote it?

Just realised that I haven't posed this as an AIBU, so, AIBU to think this was an unnecessary and unhelpful comment?

Myleenes ... I blame the phone of the i

No - I hardly notice her TBh. Just this hatred of a woman is quite disturbing. So many sheep, baaaahhh!

Whoops, massive huge fluffy apologies. I didn't realise I'd stumbled onto Netmums.

Hope you are okay, hun. ((((hugs))))

Are you sober now Bum?

Is it the done thing to report posts slagging off celebrities?

No leave it there, it says more about the posters than cash ever could.

I think Myleen Class did a good job to highlight yet again what needs highlighting, that women without access to clean water are being targeted by formula companies to use formula with their babies, and not to feed their little babies on hygienic and sustainable breast milk.

We all know how difficult it can be to breast feed, just imagine if you started off mixed or formula feeding only to have your supply stop, and have to continue ff, even though you knew that the water was from the sewer.
It's really shocking, and I feel so compassionately towards those in this terrible situation.

It's sad that so many here take umbrage with that message, just because they can't see past the person doing the work on this campaign.

You know, it seems to me that there are a lot of pixels on this site outlining the how outrageous it is to judge a woman on her looks, and here we are having a go at a woman, on the basis of what? she sang in a band, wrote a book, released a piano cd, made a DVD, models some clothes, and is a single mum. She's a good looking, talented, mixed race, successful and ambitious woman, maybe that rankles?!

As it is, we need to boycott the formula companies who are marketing so aggressively to women who have no access to clean water.

I see mn has a No Nestlé campaign! Well done!

So, how about we forget our pettiness and concentrate on the important issue:
What's in your shopping trolley this week ladies?!

WTF is up with her.

Comparing anyone who advocates for breastfeeding, even if you find their methods over the top or offensive, to any Nazi organisation (or the mafia) is totally U.

I think I have a sense of humour. But then I would.

However, I actually have a broad, if shallow, understanding of world history. When you say, "breastapo", "titty taliban", "breastfeeding nazi", etc, I am outraged. Not on my behalf. I am outraged on the behalf of all the people who have suffered/are still suffering due to those groups. It minimises their suffering.

No wonder we need Holocaust Memorial Day. No wonder that although the world said, "Never again" after that, it fucking has happened again. And again.

I understand her motivation for saying it. Maybe she thinks it's worth it, if it saves more babies dying right now from badly prepared formula. That's an opinion she has a right to hold. But most probably, like lots of people, she didn't even think about what she was saying before she said it. And that I cannot respect. Ever.

Ha, ha - just been deleted for calling someone a sheep (I think).

The language used by people trying to discredit breastfeeding advocacy is consistently pretty horrible on this board.

'Breastapo', 'nipple nazi', 'titty taliban'. Lots of talk about breastfeeding advocates being 'strident', 'hysterical', trying to 'force' mothers to breastfeed. Constant insistence that all mothers have the right to choose how they feed their baby, implying that breastfeeding advocates think otherwise. Insistence that breastfeeding advocates commonly see formula as 'poison' and mothers who ff as 'bad mothers'.

In ten years of involvement with breastfeeding advocates and advocacy, the worst I've witnessed is someone young, inexperienced and insensitive saying openly she felt it was 'selfish' not to breastfeed. The odd disapproving glance at someone bottle feeding, a silly and tactless comment. Definitely nothing worse than the disapproving looks and regular comments of 'you're not still feeding that baby!', while I was breastfeeding.

And yet apparently there is an organised body of really horrible, cruel and frankly weird women out there who campaign to remove choice from other people, and who deliberately perpetuate falsehoods about formula and formula feeding.

I think this is mostly down to there being hundreds of thousands of guilty and defensive mothers out there. It's fertile ground for anti-breastfeeding propaganda and myth.

ChairmanWow, you say you posted recently on the breast/bottle feeding board, and you complain about some of the help you had. In fact you said "The response was a mix of helpful tips and blinkered idiots who refuse to believe a woman's breasts function anything less than perfectly."

I checked your thread.

It's here.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/breast_and_bottle_feeding/1682733-Tips-to-bring-my-milk-in

No 'blinkered idiots' at all. Just kind people who offered sympathy and understanding and some good leads. Makes me wonder why people like me bother (though I am not on that thread).

True bullying, true 'blinkered idiocy' about bf/ff does sometimes happen here. It is quickly jumped on.

Really Shagmund? I don't think that at all. No one is saying that BF advocates are an organized group determined to make new mothers feel bad. But there are certainly individuals in this movement who do. Or do you think that the posters here are lying?

The first hours and days post partum are a very sensitive and vulnerable time in a woman's life. Insensitive BF advocates should have no place on maternity wards. They are damaging.

Shag, I agree with you when you say "In ten years of involvement with breastfeeding advocates and advocacy, the worst I've witnessed is someone young, inexperienced and insensitive saying openly she felt it was 'selfish' not to breastfeed. The odd disapproving glance at someone bottle feeding, a silly and tactless comment. "

That's my experience. As well as being a breastfeeding counsellor, I work with bf supporters, and they are acutely conscious of what they say and how they say it. I come across some naive comments - one person (not a trained supporter) told me she found it hard to believe people when they said they didn't have enough milk because she never had that problem. But these comments are very rare, and they're not meant unkindly, on the whole.

I do see the occasional bit of judgmentalism against ff on these boards but if it comes to a competition, the nastiness and venom against bf supporters wins! The thread I linked to before is an example of people simply misremembering and misinterpreting things, too!

'Is it the done thing to report posts slagging off celebrities? '

So it seems pictish. MNHQ in for a busy day deleting all posts slagging off slebs.

Suggest they start with searches on Piers Morgan, Cherie Blair and Peter Andre!

Forget to put in your love eggs today, Bampot?

1. Massive sense of humour failure all round. Well done for escalating this thread into a massive po-faced screamfest instead of a healthy debate.
2. It's okay to disagree with someone and nobody should have the fear of being aggressively shouted down (except trolls who deserve all they get)
3. I maintain that on my BF/FF thread there were posters who simply didn't seem able to accept that my breasts were running dry! Bit galling after all the heartbreak I went through, but hey ho.
4. Some of us have have had people being incredibly rude to us about how we feed our babies (see the RL egs in my PP, plus other posters). Is it anti-BF to even mention it? Of course not. Breastfeeding advocacy as an idea and very often in practice = good, zealotry = bad, and likely to scare women off.
5. I'm betting that virtually everyone, if not everyone posting on this thread is pro-BF. I certainly am. Why would I have been asking for advice about how to maximise my chances this time if not?

Chill pill and sense of perspective desperately needed. Dread to think what someone finding this randomly on Google is thinking right now .

Which of the kind and helpful supportive posts on that thread came from 'blinkered idiots', Chairman?

You are imagining things. Don't bother asking other queries, now will you? Someone might genuinely try to offer support and be totally misinterpreted.

What sense of humour failure?

Takes deep breath.

Me. My milk didn't come in. Any tips on how to make it happen this time
Other poster no, your son wasn't able to get the milk out.

The point way, way back up this thread was some womens inability to accept that some womens breasts don't work properly. Read the rest of the BF thread and you'll see that, yep, my breasts didn't work properly. the bit about rudeness was illustrated with RL examples of actual rudeness. I see you conveniently ignored everything else.

Now I think I'll flounce off and give my knockers another squeeze. See if I can't get them working for my imminently due little lady.

Why is it people get so weird about BF or not BF?

Anyhoo, MK is all right. She's always been a bit shiny shiny even way back when I used to know her. She doesn't mean any harm and her little brother and sister whom I knew better are really nice too.