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.

Im surprised to read that in some areas breast feeding is not socially acceptable.

I thought it was bottle feeding that was sneered at? Round here (at least everyone I know) looks down at bottle feeding. If anyone does do it they are quick to point out that its because they were physically unable to and how disappointed they are.

I am expecting number 3 and have never used a bottle, if I did have to this time, Id feel awful and probably embarrassed about doing it in public.

Weird regional variation I guess

well as someone who is struggling to balance my bills and pay the mortgage , keep one child at uni and 2 other teens in clothes and food and a tax payer it bloody does matter to me if public money is handed out to anyone on such a ridiculously 'unpoliced and ill conceived scheme'

If everyone lies, then the pilot scheme will be totally pointless wont it.

But I cant see how they could actually check this.

no one should have to justify how they feed their baby in any area or in any situation.

as soon as we justify or comment then we are judging another woman's choice over her body.

mind own business.

Im not even going to entertain what you said Stawrberry. You are so far off fhe mark.

Thebody - how children are fed is a public health issue that has cost implications for the NHS.

That's why public health bodies take an interest in infant feeding.

Oh, and women aren't being asked to justify how they feed their baby (although many people are clearly keen to do so).

"If anyone does do it they are quick to point out that its because they were physically unable to and how disappointed they are"

and yet the actual percentage of women unable to breastfeed for medical reasons is tiny. What these poor women need is more help, not vouchers.

Fabulous they DO have help. Theres breast feeding councelor, the LLL, HV's.

The help is there.

The vouchers are there to encourage women to start breast feeding in the first place. to attempt something they would never normal consider.

'how children are fed is a public health issue that has cost implications for the NHS'

So WHY is there still this massive dissonance...everywhere I go, every preschool, every hospital, every cafe and every street has been FILLED with people telling me how disgusting, or unusual, or rude, or unnecessary breastfeeding is.

I have never felt like such a freak as when I have been talking about breastfeeding, let alone doing it in front of other people.

I actually avoid going out and have done since ds2 was born, when my babies are likely to want to feed. I gave up - I breastfed in public with ds1 a few times (always with utmost discretion, never making anything visible) and got such a hard time for it that I lost my will to protest and just simply stopped going out.

I still fed ds2 till he was 4 and a half - but I made sure to do it at home 99% of the time.

Then the money should I on support. Not as a reward for BF. Seriously my "support" consisted of an hour in a clinic once a week. The fact that it was a trek to get there as I didn't drive, they didn't suggest anything I wasn't already doing and failed to see exactly what I was "doing wrong" was a complete waste of time. Some one to actually sit with me 1:1 and check dd over for things like TT or whatever would have been helpful. A group clinic one a sodding week and a HV who's contribution was "well that formula can stay in the cupboard can't it" was useless. I didn't move and barely ate for three sodding weeks. If I wasn't feeding I was pumping if I wasn't pumping I was feeding. I was gutted it didn't work out and vouchers wouldn't have helped the act that support was seriously lacking. Certainly wouldn't have changed the outcome.

And don't get me started on the obstructions in place in the hospital where ds1 was born.

Trying to initiate BF there was like trying to start a fire in a river.

Women on benefits who don't want to/can't breastfeed currently get approximately £500 per year of free formula (vouchers) from the state.

Most women who claim this help could breastfeed therefore don't strictly need this money.

I don't see many voices being raised in complaint here about this, despite the fact it is available across the UK and costs the country millions and millions of £££ in formula and in the increased NHS costs that come with high rates of ff in these populations.

Most women want to bf. the most common reasons for giving up that I've heard as a bf supporter are pain, baby never seeming full, feeding too often, not having enough milk and not being able to leave the baby/wanting other people to do a feed.
The first two are usually poor latch or tongue tie/lip tie which can be sorted. The next two are down to comparison with ff babies around them who can go 3-4 hours and not being aware that new babies do feed really frequently and that it's normal nothing to do with their lack of milk.
The last one is simply down to culture/not wanting to wait until baby is a bit older before leaving them.
I fail to see how giving someone money will solve any of the above except for the last one. What is needed is more bf supporters who aren't hcps and who have the time to sit and properly support the woman, more consistent advice from hcps. Hcps being able to spot tongue tie (and spot clues that indicate it might be a problem) more regular visits from midwives and earlier intervention so babies don't end up losing masses of weight and end up hospitalised.

^This 1000 times over.

Pato - that's really shocking. I live in London - you don't get the cats bum mouths round here when you breastfeed. (Or bottlefeed for that matter, at least not in the bit I live in which is quite scuzzy but has an 85% initiation of breastfeeding rate because of high numbers of immigrants)

Neun - the scheme is targeted at women who wouldn't normally even start breastfeeding, not at those who start and then give up quickly.

Why can't they just keep their noses out of women's choices and put the money elsewhere? Like hiring more midwives so they're not constantly understaffed? Or proper breastfeeding training for nurses on the ward who could help mums establish breastfeeding if they wanted? Why not put the money into places where it is desperately needed and would benefit all new mums?

Yes but they may well be deciding to not try after appalling experiences after dc1.

Where on earth do you live Pato?

surely that's.what the study is all about though - seeing if paying works or not? Asking people what they'd do in a circumstance can be very inaccurate - as a certain Mr Kinnock found in 1992.

I'm guessing that the saving to the NHS of someone breastfeeding is more than £200 so this is not about the nanny state but about trying to save tax payers some money.

Also those 130 women will not be breastfeeding in a bubble. My dh comes from a fairly deprived area. We went to visit his family the other weekend. One of his cousins has a baby the same age as ds. She commented that I was the only person she'd ever seen breastfeeding in a pub and asked if other people did back in the (prosperous northern city / hippy commune*) where I live did that too.

*delete as appropriate

It must be very hard to choose to breastfeed if everyone you know is bottle feeding.

I'm not convinced it will work but it's got to be worth a try.

Yes, where do you live Pato?

Id feel ashamed to bottle feed in public here (Midlands) but perfectly happy to breastfeed.

How strange

Im in the South East and breastfeeding certainly isnt frowned upon.

I do know in local deprived areas where there are a lot of younger mums too, breastfeeding rates are much much lower.

What I find I interesting is that so many ppl who ff their babies describe a judging of em, that there is pressure to breastfeed, that they are made to feel bad about ff.
I get that sometimes it goes wrong, maybe from illness/ poor advice and that can make a woman feel dreadful, if they want to breastfeed and then it doesn't work out. That sounds really tough. I can imagine it's hard to shake off the undeserved guilt when that happens. But I think that's different from choosing to ff, which a lot of women still do.

But I have never, ever heard anyone criticise a woman for ff. ever. and I come across an awful lot of people, loads, especially ppl around babies.
I have, however, very frequently indeed, come across criticism of breastfeeding. I still hear ppl talk openly about it being disgusting, about the need to be so private, about how it's "wrong" to Still be feeding when a baby has teeth, that bf is causing the baby to wake up, or be hungry, or that bf beyond one year is "perverse" and that women who do so are doing it for their own needs rather than the baby's needs.

Breastfeeding is still not really welcomed in our society IMHO. And that is a shame, because it is good for babies.

The vouchers are there to encourage women to start breast feeding in the first place. to attempt something they would never normal consider.

that I think this research is great as i keep saying women do not need to take part they will not do it for 200 quids high street vouchers if they dont want to and the research when finished would probably help in the long run to see why women feel they are not able to for whatever reason to not breastfeed, a parents choice to not breastfeed or to forumla feed doesn't seem to be judged people are just putting their own emotion and spin on it, imo even if it proves pointless survey or research then at least they have tried to look into why women are not breastfeeding, I personally see it as an extension of the healthy start vouchers which I didnt get when the dds were babies it was milk tokens

Ok Im going to say it. I dont believe Pato that your local hospital and cafes are "FILLED with people telling breastfeeding mothers how disgusting they are breastfeeding their child."

Its not really like that. Is it.