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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be absolutely freaking fuming about breastfeeding vouchers! !!!

483 replies

harriet247 · 12/11/2013 06:15

Cannot put into words how annoyed I am,have just switched on the news to be told that the government are considering offering breastfeeding vouchers to new mums.
160 quid in shopping vouchers for the first 6 weeks of the babys life and 200 if you go up to 6 months.
Im a ftm and I had crippling horrible guilt that I couldn't breastfeed. I really wanted to but my milk didnt turn up until 9 days after my baby was born. I think was something to do with 44 hour labour which ended in an emc a few weeks before my due date.
I am just furious, furious that women are being treated like foolish little ladies who need a cash incentive to feed their babies in the way the powers that be say is best.

OP posts:
OHforDUCKScake · 12/11/2013 11:57

"This study isn't about women who can't breastfeed, it's about poor women who can and face enormous social and financial barriers that prevent them from starting and continuing to do so even if they want to. We should be glad for work that pushes at challenging the systems that do that, not spitting on them."

Thank you!

FabulousIdiot tale heed.

howmuchwouldyoutake · 12/11/2013 11:57

This is awful - anyone who chooses to formula feed does so, I'm sure, after some thought or for personal reasons which have fuck all to do with anyone else. Vouchers will not persuade.

Mothers who can't breastfeed will feel more pressure (especially the skint ones)

I fell somewhere between. Didn't want to (I'd done my research etc - just didn't want to. Shoot me) but was pretty much guilted into expressing when DS was prem and in NICU. I expressed then mix fed then ebf for 5+ weeks when I really didn't want to. DS became very, very poorly. Turns out some meds I was on (prescribed when pg and apparently safe for bf) messed with his blood sugar/pressure and we almost lost him.

Consultant told me to stop bf immediately and thankfully DS recovered. It was terrifying. BF consultant visited - I told her what happened. She refused to believe me and told baby ds (as I stood over him in hospital tube feeding him formula) 'we know that Mummy's milk is best don't we little man'

Where would I have fitted within this scheme? Paid vouchers as a reward for doing something I didn't want to do? Made to pay them back once I had failed??

Awful, awful scheme.

redpipe · 12/11/2013 11:58

meggril
New someone would ask for the link www.unicef.org.uk/Latest/News/breastfeeding-report-nhs-savings/ Sorry I was right with millions around £40 million for a moderate increase in breastfeeding rates.

genuine question, where does show how they gathered the sample of mothers and babies used in the research and where does it show whether other factors may skew the results.

elskovs · 12/11/2013 11:59

Whos calling names?? Ive not insulted anyone.. sorry if you read it like that.

I have only ever breast fed and I ended up with 2 coins in socks. Absolutely no breast tissue left at all. Had implants and my surgeon confirmed that during extended breast feeding some of the breast tissue actually turns to milk glands, so it CAN and DOES give you saggy tits. (not referring to anyone in particular)

OHforDUCKScake · 12/11/2013 12:00

Hear hear Chibi.

chibi · 12/11/2013 12:02

this is not a scheme.

this is a study affecting less than 150 women.

if you are one of them, feel free to vent your spleen.

if you have not been contacted to take part in the study, it will cobtinue to have no impact on your life at all

Minifingers · 12/11/2013 12:03

Howmuch - women don't agonise over how they will feed their baby, and pour through leaflets/read books.

They tend to do whatever feels the most emotionally comfortable thing - and this will be hugely influenced primarily by what they see, who they know, and the attitudes and experience of other women in their families and community.

Which is why more than twice as many women breastfeed in some demographic groups as breastfeed in others.

PatoBanton · 12/11/2013 12:03

Els

I am sorry you had that experience. It's by no means universal.

Mine were flattish for about a month after I finished feeding and then they resurrected themselves. I wouldn't want to give people the idea that it is a necessary and permanent change. iyswim

also using a generalisation about people who advocate BF and calling them 'nazis' was pretty uncalled for. Or did you only mean the ones who are unpleasant about it?

OHforDUCKScake · 12/11/2013 12:03

You dont think £200 would persuade a deprived mother to attempt to breast feed? howmuch

How can you possibly speak for such an enormous amount of females? Confused

TheFabulousIdiot · 12/11/2013 12:03

"We should be glad for work that pushes at challenging the systems that do that, not spitting on them"

there are so many other ways to achieve this than giving people vouchers.

TAKE HEED!

redpipe · 12/11/2013 12:03

To use the excuse that it costs the NHS so much money is just ridiculous. That research claims a £40 million cost to NHS by non breast fed babies and increased cancer risk for mothers. BUT fails to show how many could not breast feed anyhow. So that figure (even if correct which I doubt) could not be totally reduced.

To put it in perspective, alcohol abuse costs the NHS £2.7 Billion a year according to this

monicalewinski · 12/11/2013 12:03

minifingers I don't feel uncomfortable with my choice at all. Ff was just fine for me, I had no intention of bf and found the idea of bf repellent.

There are many like me, I am pretty sure I'm not a minority. People still try to convince me of the benefits of bf and assume that if I'd had more info as to the benefits I would have at least tried. I wouldn't have.

Those people who have bf or attempted to bf simply do not get it that there are people like me who don't want to.

By normalising it more, it will eventually cease to be so awful a prospect to people like me and then it should again become the norm (eventually, hopefully!) but this can't happen overnight.

Minifingers · 12/11/2013 12:03

Applauds chibi!

OHforDUCKScake · 12/11/2013 12:03

Mini very much agree with your last post.

monicalewinski · 12/11/2013 12:05

Sorry mini I was answering you from way back, thread has moved on loads from then!

HaroldTheGoat · 12/11/2013 12:05

Looking at breasts in concern here, thats for busting that one.

OHforDUCKScake · 12/11/2013 12:05

The fact that you arent even taking on board that you are wrong in your assumptions Idiot makes arguing with you totally pointless.

PatoBanton · 12/11/2013 12:05

Also perhaps a surgeon who is making money from your breasts is unlikely to tell you that if you waited a while, they might recover quite nicely.

Though I am not medical and it is totally possible that in some cases they do not. That would be like saying you can always have a flat stomach again after pregnancy. Some people can, some cannot, well, not without a huge amount of effort/surgery/ etc etc

elskovs · 12/11/2013 12:05

That's your opinion Pato, I care very much what mine looked like (I had the chest of an 8 year old boy after extended breast feeding)

Im not sure how you can take my observation as a personal insult.. especially as yours are in such fabulous shape apparently, but trust me, its not a myth that breast feeding causes loss of breast tissue.

PatoBanton · 12/11/2013 12:07

No it wasn't that Els. I have tried to offer an olive branch.

It was more that you sounded like someone in the daily mail[ smile]

I can see where you're coming from now, I think.

howmuchwouldyoutake · 12/11/2013 12:08

OHforDucks - you've thrown some comments around too. I live in a deprived area. I work in another deprived area. No - I honestly don't think deprived people would be convinced to do something for £200 - it's not that much money.

mrsjay · 12/11/2013 12:08

Why shouldn't women care about how their breasts look there is nothing wrong in it women are not shallow or vain many women care about how their breasts look and especially if like the Poster who had no shape no tissue at all ,

maddening · 12/11/2013 12:09

So do mums get vouchers for formula ? If so yabu as why should a bf mother not benefit by getting food vouchers?

OHforDUCKScake · 12/11/2013 12:09

Idiot the person who posted, the one YOU should take heed to, is like myself, explaining that women in deprived areas are less likely to attempt breast feeding.

Minifingers · 12/11/2013 12:09

Monica you are right with the importance of normalising bf - I really agree.

But campaigns to increase awareness of the drawbacks of ff might help as well. Most people I know who don't bf see bf as being like a sort of vitamin or something - a nice optional extra that doesn't actually in real terms make any difference. Or like organic carrots. They're really not aware that in choosing to ff they are putting their baby at higher risk of needing a hospital admission in the first few months of life. I think knowing this is quite useful in getting a clear handle on the health issues, which otherwise can seem quite vague.