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?

talking about fun for all the family, there was a bit in a Womans weekly of a family who breastfed from the woman. The father liked a bit, so did the 9 year old and the 4 year old, and of course the baby

Brilliant... Just brilliant.

The poster also has the NHS logo in the corner.

It's part of the NHS health promotion catalogue, although it was produced by Best Beginnings (whoever they are).

If I recall correctly its was made by design student as a competition to encourage younger mothers to BF. Though due to budget constraints it wasn't rolled out.

The poster was not designed by the NHS

[[http://www.bestbeginnings.org.uk/Shop/bond-with-your-baby-bond-with-your-man-a3-poster]] the poster doesn't feature the NHS logo.

^Get Britain Breastfeeding is an interactive exhibition of work by design students created to 'rebrand' breastfeeding for the parents of tomorrow.

The exhibition features posters created by artists from Central Saint Martin’s College of Art & Design.^

Your link doesn't work Xxed, but it does feature the NHS logo. I know because I checked, and it was what angered me most about it. Even the pic I linked to above has the NHS logo in the top left hand corner.

It is displayed at UCH.

Here you go. Designed by students, and I can only assume bought and distributed by the NHS.

Sorry the link was the website where the poster is available for sale without the logo, it was a part of an exhibition. I am not sure how it worked its way into hospitals.

It's part of the west Sussex NHS Health promotion resource service catalogue, and I assume part of others as I've seen it in London.

It's apparently published by the Department of Health

I am really disappointed the NHS decided to run these posters they were designed by students for an exhibition. I doubt they had taken into account the thoughts and feelings of post partum women.

The man's hand poster, along with a " designer milk" poster featuring a leopard print bra are still at UCH and have been since before I had ds2 in 2011. I think they're creepy but maybe they work for a particular audience?

Much more effective IMO are the big posters with stats on rates of leukaemia, diabetes, etc amongst ebf to 6 month babies cf others, which are by the lifts at UCH. The figures really surprised me.

Maybe a plus side of that poster is that it will 'help' some men to find their breast feeding wives / partners sexually attractive still? I've heard of a few immature men that had found the thought of their partners breast feeding gross.. Therefore, as the woman still wanted it feel attractive, they gave up. I think it's a beautiful thing - but I'm biased!

Hell, I thought the posters at my clinic were patronising!

They all feature a young woman clearly intended to be 'council estate teen mum' wearing a tracksuit top, hair scraped back tightly into a ponytail, massive eyeliner and hoop earrings, feeding a baby and saying 'I'm happy and so is she - breastfeeding is the best decision I ever made!'

I get what they're trying to do but it's a all bit: 'Sixteen, knocked up and thick? Well, try making a decent choice for once!'

But that 'bond with your man' shit is unbelievable. Because, no, having a baby with someone isn't bonding, but letting him manhandle you post-delivery is!

The thing that did my head in was that there wouldn't just be one poster but LOTS AND LOTS of them. It really wasn't necessary, it was as though whoever put them up lived in terror that you would see a bit of wall that didn't tell you how much better breastfeeding was.

And I did breastfeed my kids (still am).

I hate the ones that have slogans like "Give your baby the best he deserves" - it's just so wrong. It almost reads as though formula feeding mothers are neglectful or something. I hate seeing it.

Yanbu. The worst one I saw, which really got my back up, was a picture of a mum breastfeeding with the caption "breastfeeding is the best decision I ever made". Seriously, of all the decisions you have to make in life, that's the most important? Ime there is very little support/info for mothers who can't breastfeed and posters like these just make you feel even worse

Oh that poster is horrendous! It is just so bad I dont know where to start, NHS seriously need to review their creative agency.

YANBU the ward I was on was covered in awful posters. One in particular really got to me, it was located in the room were the breast pumps/milk fridge etc were kept for the mums with babies in SCBU/NICU, I can't remember the exact wording but it said something along the lines of Mum's who have skin to skin with their baby within six hours of birth form a better bond.

I won't go into too much detail but it wasn't possible for me to have skin to skin within six hours, or even a couple of days. I had been coping with the situation pretty well until I saw that and broke down. The placement of that poster was so insensitive to the Mums using that room, many of whom where in the same situation as me. It put me off using the room

Oh god I hate the statistics ones about how much healthier bf babies are. We all know this, we have it preached at us regularly by mws and everyone all the way through pregnancy. We don't need to see posters telling us our children are more likely to get diabetes through no fault of our own.

I just hate anything that focuses so much on exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months. Cause that goes the step further into 'tried but failed' territory. If you breastfed for a day, a week, a month, 18 fucking years ...YOU BREASTFED.

When i gave up i could sense the disapoointment from every possible source. Which made me feel like i wish i hadn't bothered at all. Which is so so wrong.

breatgapo?

Actually there seems to be a lot of bitching about bf. Especially comments about woman bf ing whole family.

I am constantly inundated with questions and advice on my bfing.

'When will you stop?'
'Offer a bottle at night'
'Then you oh can feed DC'

I don't do this to mums who ff.

The bf rates are really low in Britain. I think the general attitude about bf is rather touchy. I can see how these posters may offend some but I suppose there will always be this divide. People also find those ff adverts offensive too.

YANBU OP. Just horrible

That poster is just awful I agree, but I have no problem with pro-bf posters in general. There's no grey area, bf IS better for babies. Of course not everyone is able to breastfeed, and those that can't shouldn't feel guilty as it's not their fault, but you can't stop encouraging bf just because you might offend women who can't.

That poster you linked to is fucking outrageous, tethersend. Is that all that women are - a pair of breasts to be grabbed by a baby, by a husband - presumably by that bloke down the pub who gets a bit handy after a few pints? Fucking nasty.