To loathe the breastfeeding posters in my Maternity Ward?

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

Breast milk is best for baby. Most if not all women know this, and I really dont take umbridge with the posters that point this out - just to clarify.

I bfd dd for three days before beginning to dread every feed and switched to ff. I know people who have bfd all the way through, ffd all the way through and who have successfully mix fed. Baby gets milk - that is the aim. Regardless.

However there are some posters in amongst the more sensible ones which really are imo awful and will just make anyone who cant or doesnt want to bf probably feel a bit like shit at a time when they need it least:

"This mum knows best"
"This mum has made the right choice"

So anyone who doesnt bf doesnt know best or has made the wrong choice?

Even if they said "this mum has made the right choice for her and her baby" or "this mum knows breast is best" would be more palatable.

AIBU to find these posters simply too judgemental?

YANBU. BF might or might not e the best option overall, but those posters simply exist to guilt trip mothers instead of just suggesting a possible option.

They certainly don't help you feel good about ff do they? I think they are just trying to 'promote' breastfeeding to those who haven't made up their minds but however they word it it just seems.. i dunno as if they're there to make you feel bad if you opt for ff.

Yes...some of them sound encouraging and informative. These ones sound so judgemental.

Yanbu. Also the dissections of breasts, labels on the cots about breast feeding etc. does anybody's head in. There is a fine line between encouraging and bullying an ime the hospitals I was in overstepped it

YANBU. "This mum has made the right choice" is quite horrible actually.

The money needs to be spent on supporting women to bf, not bloody posters.

Yanbu.
Promoting breastfeeding is one thing, but being smug, judgemental and quite frankly making formula feeding mothers feel like shit is another.

Agree with you OP. I think a message of "give it a try; for lots of people this works out to be a good, cheap and convenient way of feeding your baby" would be a lot better.

YANBU. The right choice for herself and her baby certainly wouldn't be the right choice for someone else and theirs.

I think the fact that the recent study showed high levels of PND in women who want to but can't breastfeed should show that these guilt-inducing posters and some of the loaded language that midwives, doctors and HVs are using, is actually hurting a lot of people.

hand exactly that's so much better. It would be really nice if they had those kinds of messages.

I remember having a similar argument when my local health board were designing posters for vbacs. YANBU (& I say this as someone who has overcome obstacles when dd was a newborn & is still feeding her as a toddler)

This is the one which pisses me off no end.

Don't worry, scared, new exhausted mum with painful, swollen breasts! Your 'man' will be all over them! RESULT.

Just because you're breastfeeding, it doesn't mean you should neglect your wifely duties.

Wankers.

I don't even understand the message that poster is supposed to be giving???

It's missing an apostrophe as well [pedant].

I disliked most breast-feeding promotional stuff for that sort of reason. FWIW, I did with all four for about 14 months each, but hat was in spite of all the literature (and often, in spite of he midwives). YANBU.

That poster is awful! There are no words to describe how annoyed that makes me.

OP you are not being unreasonable.

*the

The problem here is that breast feeding does require a certain confidence. I'm not sure a "nice" poster would influence anyone.
Even on here the consensus seem to be " well a bottle won't hurt them" compared to the fuss about Maccy D or Fruit Shoots. I can see why lots wouldn't bother with what turns out to be a painful experience.

What's worse is that now is breastfeeding has turned into some sort of middle class aspiration all activity rather than part of having a baby. How many women don't want to look like that sort of mother?
If can't see the problem with guilting women into it if it can be used as a justification.

I think it's trying to address the issue of breasts being seen (by men AND women) as just sexual.

For me it's message is: 'lactating breasts are still sexy'. I think for some women having a baby and feeding the baby can be an all encompassing thing and they feel swamped and perhaps wonder where 'they' - as the woman and sexual being they were before - have gone. It would be true for me when i had DD1.

That poster i mean.

Oh god the bond with your man poster is dire! Also, do ff babies not bond then? FGS

awful poster, and also inaccurate - DH was slightly freaked out by my ginormous lactating breasts, which also tended to shoot milk at him every time he came near them. Strangely enough he didn't find that a turn on.

I've had no problem breastfeeding at all - and I HATE the patronising posters in our maternity unit. A terribly written crap poem - like something a 6 year old would write. It certainly wouldn't make me carry on with it if I was thinking about giving up and switching to formula.

As somebody who is very pro breastfeeeding I find that poster offensive and ridiculous. And tbh, unsure of exactly what message they are trying to get across. Have looked again and bafflement now turning to anger.

Yes, the posters you quote sound terrible, and as for that one about putting a smile on your man's face! Best Beginnings is usually really well thought of, and does good work but wtf was this about?

Agree totally with what fluffy said about this poster.

That said. I can see why lots of people would also find it off putting,