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

[harriet247]

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.

Tiktok at 09.39 has the best post on this thread. She knows her stuff that woman does.

Op, yabu.

mylovely I can't tell the difference between one BF child and one FF child at the school gates....but I could tell the difference between 1000 BF children and 1000 FF children stood at the school gates.....

There would be differences in their average health that would stand out a mile....

Thefab do you know of any child that has died drinking formula.....come on. Also I would like the question answered please. If you stood at the school gate would you be able to tell which child had been bottle fed or breast fed.
Catslave We need to reduce the burden on the NHS !!!! What burden

mylovely I have already answered your school gate question.

Yes-children have died from FF. Order of hundred of children every year do, mostly premature babies.

exactly- mostly premature - that would probably not have survived anyway.

"Thefab do you know of any child that has died drinking formula.....come on. Also I would like the question answered please. If you stood at the school gate would you be able to tell which child had been bottle fed or breast fed."

No thank goodness I don't but plenty do in other parts of the world.

Sadly people often mix formula incorrectly.

Of course I wouldn't know which child had been bottle fed or breastfed but i do know that breast milk is better for children than formula.

[yawn]

Same old boring nonsense.

Did the OP join MN today, throw a breastfeeding hand grenade and run?
Thought so.

They survive if they get BM....that's why donation is important.

So you have your answer. FF does kill a small number of babies a year and you can tell the difference between children at the school gate who have been BF and FF as long as there are enough of them to be statistically significant.

HTH.

My nephew went into anaphylactic shock on his second dose of cows milk.....it isn't only premature babies and incorrect mixing....it is also allergy and SIDS....in fact in order the numbers are:

NEC in prem babies>>SIDS>allergy>incorrect mixing /water issues (in the 1st world - clearly mixing and water issues jump way up the list if you are developing world....

mylovely do you have any concept of statistics?

Is it okay that prem babies die due to lack of donated BM as 'they probably would have died anyway'?

Do you realise that given a 40 fags a day smoking mum and a none smoking mum at the school gate you also wouldn't be able to tell which is which? Do you think that fact negates evidence that smoking is bad for your health?

{off topic] IceBeing - that is terrifying and I didn't know that.
My DS was in NICU and was given formula hours after the birth. Despite having recovered well in the hours after the birth he had several seizures after the formula. it's never crossed my mind that formula could have been the reason.

Just popping in with info:

• there is good research to show that it is pregnancy not bf that makes a difference to people's breasts - I can get the reference if people want it 'standing at the school gates' challenge - ridiculous notion, says nothing*. I could stand at the school gates and not recognise the kids from homes where the parents smoked, I could stand at the school gates and not recognise the kids who had dyslexia. I could stand at the school gates and not recognise the ones whose parents read stories to them. I could stand at the school gates and....well, you get me. Things that make a difference to kids are not necessarily visible
• of course feeding should be a matter of choice - how much choice does someone have if their friends are telling them it's disgusting to bf? There are whole swathes of the country where women don't even start to breastfeed, even though they might like to, because it is thought to be weird

And just as an aside - I work with mothers in a deprived area where literally hardly anyone breastfeeds. One mother - now breastfeeding - had never even realised anyone did it, anywhere, until she saw someone talking about it on 'One Born Every Minute'.

thefab How terrifying for you though! I simply can't imagine being in that situation.

the risk from FF is for necrotising entercolitis. The rate is about 10 times higher for FM than BM. NEC can be fatal to premature babies at a rate depending on how premature they are.

I don't believe that fits are a symptom though...so it probably didn't have anything to do with the formula on this occasion....

tiktok but everybody knows that everybody knows all the health benefits....

....damn stupid facts getting in the way of people feeling put upon.

I speak to people in my area all the time that have never seen BFing in the wild and who could not name a single benefit even with £200 quid riding on it.

MyLovelyboy you asked me earlier why your opinion saddens me.

Ive been arguing all along that women are 90% less likely to breastfeed their children if their mother didnt breastfeed them.

You didnt breastfeed, your mother didnt breastfeed, you dont understand why people need to breastfeed rather than ff and you couldnt state the benefits of breastfeeding.

This saddens me. And the voucher system will be tried for people similar, if not identical to you. To break that cycle,

Tiktok - that is shocking! But does show why something needs to be done to continue to raise awareness so that people can go on to make whatever choice is right from their family. It's so interesting - I don't know anyone who has chosen to ff, all of my friends have ebf babies - but we are all middle class, and all had children over the age of 30. This huge divide is sad.

Icebeing no they dont. That has been very much proved by some posters on here.

Not everyone understands that there are huge benefits to breastfeeding.

And tiktok has backed up the very point Ive been trying to get across all along.

"All my friends ebf but we are all middle class and had children over 30."

My point proved again.

Not in my case.

I don't think anecdotal evidence proves anything.
Though luckily there is proper research out there to prove the points being made.

Actually, in the UK and other western countries, there are not really 'huge' benefits to breastfeeding when it comes to term, healthy babies - for an individual baby, the benefits are hard to pinpoint. In public health terms, the benefits exist, but they are definitely not 'huge'.

But that doesn't matter. When it is working well, it is a lovely experience that mothers and babies enjoy, and which supports the developing relationship as well as being a nutritious food and drink that enhances the baby's immune system....and most women want to do it.

If women want to do it then they should be enabled to do it - and not have this choice knobbled by misinformation, social ostracism or commercial interests. Their choice should be supported and encouraged and embraced....and that might (or might not) involve some vouchers!

I still don't fully understand why the very idea makes some people so very angry.

Hmm. I wasn' t BF past 10 days. and grew up on a council estate and didn't get past A levels. I had my first child in my twenties.

I have fed all three, well past a year.

I may be an aberration

YANBU

There are so many things wrong with this idea, and most of them have been identified by MNers above.

Women need help to bf rather than bribes.This would include counselling and practical help, but also a change in public attitudes to bf.

My personal experience is that older mums like me tend to bf while/if they can, while younger mums seem to go straight to the bottle. Why? Because they are embarrassed about bf in public.

Obviously you can't bf effectively if you don't feel comfortable doing it in public. There needs to be more public awareness about the fact that breastfeeding wherever and whenever is normal, and no one should be moving a woman on or asking her to cover her boobs. Also, young women shouldn't be made to feel that they might get perved on if they try to breastfeed - so there should be private areas available for it as well, while keeping it clear to the public that women are not obliged to go into these areas if they want to bf.

I was diagnosed with primary lactation failure. I DID NOT PRODUCE MILK. I had to give my dd formula and I felt so guilty because the 'breast is best' message was regularly rammed down my throat. I went to mum and baby groups where I was questioned and sneered at for giving my baby formula. So many people told me my condition was a myth and that only 1% of women couldn't breastfeed, it was highly unlikely that I couldn't. The money for this scheme would be put to better use in supporting and educating new mothers rather than bribing them. It asked me so angry.

Yes there is, something Ive told you Ive researched in depth.