To think the breast is best strategy is all wrong

[SheepOrWine]

Just back from the health visitor clinic where I was at in front of an entire wall (no exaggeration) telling me why breast is best. Apparently for one young woman it was the best decision she EVER made. This morning I read about another study which "proves" that breast is best (presumably because the many, many existing studies on this are not enough and they needed another one?) At my NHS antenatal breastfeeding class, more than half of the allocated time was dedicated to the benefits of breastfeeding.

Has anyone ever been persuaded to breastfeed by a poster or a news article? Is there anyone out there who seriously has not yet heard the "breast is best" message? Does the NHS just think women are a bit stupid but if you tell them to do something enough times they will do it?

Wouldn't this money be better spent on helping those women who want to breastfeed to do so successfully? Three months ago I was on a postnatal ward with DD where I received conflicting and often incorrect breastfeeding advice. Every time I buzzed for support a frazzled looking HCA or midwife would come and glance at the latch say "yeah that's fine" and walk off. I asked four times to see the breastfeeding advisor but she never arrived. I was discharged without anyone observing a feed.

8 weeks on I gave up breastfeeding as I just had enough of all the various problems I was having with it and for which I was completely unprepared. Before I had DD the posters were useless as like most women, I already knew I wanted to try to breastfeed. And now, post-breastfeeding, all these posters do is just make me feel guilty. What a waste of money.

I faced derogatory comments about how I fed my babies, mostly when I was feeding them in public.

This definitely happens, regardless of how you feed your baby - getting your breasts out in public is excruciating the first few times, and you open yourself to judgement every time you do it, too.

I find it amazing that SO many people get so angry about the simple act of babies being fed! The sight of bottle-fed babies and breastfed babies seems to really rile people. Why?!

My DD has just turned 2 - I didn't breast feed as I didn't want to - yes that's right I DIDNT WANT TO!!!

I have absolutely no regrets.

My DD is happy, really healthy and incredibly bright. She slept through the night from 8 weeks old and me and my husband were able to share the feeding duties and managed to stay sane due to getting a good nights sleep.

All the posters, leaflets, and harping on from MW, HV and whoever else wouldn't change my mind then or now!! I think you're right OP, the money would be best spent supporting people who want to do it instead of trying to force it down everyone else's throats.

Sorry I'm not normally so ranty

newballs yes you're right - once you've stopped breastfeeding it's almost impossible to go back to it. So how is plastering the walls of the health visitor clinic (which is only frequented by women with babies at least ten days old) with "breast is best" posters in any way helpful, if lack of support in the first few days wasn't there? I was already struggling with thrush and supplementing with formula by that point.

As above, I'm not questioning whether breast is best. I'm just saying that if the aim is to increase breastfeeding rates then a campaign which focuses only on persuasion, with little real life support at the crucial stages, is of limited use, at best. And quite counterproductive and cruel, at worst.

No, Sheep but it might just give the ladies that are still breast feeding that little bit of an extra nudge and support. I know that when I felt like quitting thinking about the benefits was the thing that got me through. It's really not harming anyone having it up is it?

YANBU. I didn't BF either DC. Not once. Not even their first feed. Why? Because I didn't want to.
Both DC were very contented babies, were rarely poorly and are still happy children.
There is nothing wrong with BF. I'm not against it but SO many people are horrified when I told them DC were solely bottle fed! I was the worst mother ever!
In 5-10 years from now, you will wonder what all the fuss was about.

Do your own thing, make your own choices, love, care for & have fun with your DC. How you feed your baby, breast or bottle, is ENTIRELY your choice and don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

Dowager. I think it's personal investment in one's own choices that is the root cause. We all make hundreds of personal parenting choices, from how we feed, car seats, primary schools. I've sat in coffee shops and heard all of these discussed ad-nauseum by mums with babies. Always the most vocal are those who are heavily invested in their own choices. The fug of the first few months of babyhood does not afford the same perspective that you get a few years later, when you're better able to think, "fck it" and fck anyone who wants to get their judgy pants on regarding my parenting

Minifingerz is here banging her same 'I am considerably better at breastfeeding than yowww' drum.
I think she must have a klaxon that sounds in her living room every time the words breast and feeding are uttered on MN

Xpost with footballwidow! I agree.

cosmic I hadn't seen that newspaper article - I started with The Lancet and worked back from there to look at original research. I suppose I am fortunate in knowing how to read and assess academic papers.

Considering that, as previous posters have said, the 'breast is best' was actually invented by formula companies back in the 50s or 60s (this link has a good explanation. dou-la-la.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/breast-is-best-sponsored-by-simfamil.html?m=1), it's seems a bit mental to use this strategy for BF promotion, so mainly I agree with the OP. Getting the right support and advice at the right time is pretty critical these days - back in the day when people saw bf all around them this was less of an issue. Sometimes the crucial support can simply be in the form of a good book - I cannot recommend 'the food of love' highly enough, read it 2 days in to DS' life, BF going horribly and then I read that and tried a few dif positions, spent a lot of time skin to skin and it worked. However I think good in person support helped me continue, eg the enlightened health visitor who reminded me I could have a drink and the peer supporter who helped me realise it would not always be so full on. I do think women would benefit from knowing how full on it can be in the early weeks so that they do not freak out & see cluster feeding etc as proof of lack of supply . . . But at the same time you don't want to put em off by making it seem really hard. Mmm difficult to know where to go on that score, one thing is clear though, the people giving crazy advice (eg timed feeds etc when you need to go with demand to establish supply) which actually can hinder BF need to be corrected pronto!

There was one such poster in my high school in France in the 90s. Always struck me as strange. Surely a poster on contraception would have been more appropriate for such a young audience.

My DC were both FF from the first feed. Never wanted to BF, and never did it. No one ever questioned it or caused a fuss (to my face anyway!), MW asked for box ticking in green notes at about 34 weeks how each would be fed, ticked the FF box and that was that. Hospital provided formula during our time there and I stuck to ready made formula after. As easy as pouring myself a drink. In all honesty the crappy posters at the hospital just made me roll my eyes.

My issue with breastfeeding (and bottle-feeding, too) is that it's great in theory and then the reality is that you have a bash and then everyone sticks their oar in and meddles and tells you how it's wrong and you're best off doing x, y and z and, actually, if you're one of those "breast is best" types, what you're actually saying is "breast was best" for you because you cannot possibly know that it's best for every woman and every baby. There are a million and one reasons to breastfeed, and a million and one reasons not to. Both are equally valid.

We need more confident mothers scattered about going about their daily business, we need more restaurants and cafes filled with them, we need swimming centres and holidays full of them. I think we need to see them everywhere so that people can eventually just go "oh, no big deal, just a baby" because there are still so many people who'll go "ooh, look at her flaunting her tits" "Oh look at her, lazy cow can't be arsed to bottle-feed". Why judge? Who gains anything from judging another person's parenting choices? Doesn't improve your own parenting.

I'm not for 'Breast is Best' at all. A happy, fed, loved baby with a functioning mother is best, regardless of food source.

Also, I breastfed both DCs. Loved every minute of it. But can fully understand that it's not right for everyone else just because it worked for mine.

agruffalo it could be that the reason we differ on this is because you were able to continue breastfeeding successfully and I wasn't.

But for me, I'd say that wall of posters is quite harmful. I'm no longer breastfeeding, so the reminder of all the supposed benefits I should be giving my baby, but am not, makes me feel pretty crap.

And while I appreciate that in theory those posters might encourage some women to stick with breastfeeding a bit longer, breastfeeding rates drop off massively between day one and three months. So in practice they can't be having that much of an effect.

Good article though

If you'd read my previous posts you'd know I formula fed my first after quitting breastfeeding at 3 weeks. It was the right choice for us and I support that wholeheartedly but I didn't expect people to not encourage and support breastfeeding because I couldn't. I support every feeding choice. When I FF I didn't put breastfeeding down and now I BF I don't put formula down.

I didn't breastfeed for no reason other than I didn't fancy it. Wanted the husband to share the lack of sleep. Have never felt the need to justify this to anyone and my little one has no "issues" to speak of. I say each to his or her own. A fed baby is best, imo.

When people say that the benefits of BF/risks of FF in developed countries are minimal enough that it just doesn't matter much, it isn't because they haven't seen enough colourful leaflets in big type with unreferenced assertions. Or haven't had the opportunity to face a wall of 'breast is best' posters.

In many cases it's because they have looked at the research, going back to the original papers or reading meta-analyses. They often have a background in science and understand research methods and limitations of the research that's been done.

But many of those people are part of families who have given BF a shot and if they have FF, then it's because BF didn't work out. So more support might help them to continue.

So I agree that more support and perhaps fewer posters might be a better approach is you want to increase BF rates. At least for that subset of FF families.

I BF my DS for 7 months but from 5 weeks we introduced a bottle of formula at night as he wouldn't sleep longer than 20 mins and then wanted more milk. I never felt bad about it and the HV always supported the decision and said 'you have to do what you have to do to survive with a new baby'. In fact all the HVs I saw at clinics said the same thing.

My ante natal breastfeeding class on the NHS was very good and the midwife made it very clear that they were not advocating BF over FF. It was quite scientific and went into detail on the inner workings of the breast. I thought it was a good class. They also offered post natal support and said that at any time we could come in and stay the whole day if we were struggling to Bf and they would help monitor and advise etc.

I actually think there is plenty of support out there but the onus is on the mother to seek it out and push for it.

The only person who made me feel bad for mix feeding was my brother who told my mum I as poisoning my baby. Needless to say we don't have the best relationship. Mix feeding gave us so much flex (I couldn't really express very well). I didn't have to worry about going out or away for a night or leaving him with DH as I knew he would take formula.

Currently 38 weeks pregnant with number 2 and will probably mix feed again.

I do like the convenience of breast milk and found doing one bottle a day a right pain in the bum.

sheep shocking advice from that paed!! When I gave birth to DS2 3 months ago, I noticed that there was a reminder to feed baby on demand hooked to every cot. That's definitely changed since I had DS1 4 years ago, when the advice was to feed every 3 hours.

I've deleted the (long!) paragraph I wrote on historical formula advertising because I don't think this is the forum for it.

I think that way that we operate in Western society is far more geared towards FF than BF (routines, baby in separate sleeping space, sleeping through the night, not getting boobs out in public) and I suppose the NHS have to 'promote' breastfeeding because, on the face of it, breastfeeding looks like the less convenient/desirable option for many mothers. How to get the message out in a sensitive and supportive way, though, is such a difficult one.

I BF my first two dcs, but with my third, I struggled. The HV told me if I wasn't either attempting to BF or pumping every two hours around the clock all day/all night, then I was failing my baby. I switched to formula. I was falling apart under the pressure she was constantly putting on me. I'd have rather had some support.

I totally agree that more support needs to be available to BFing mums. Post natal wards are so under staffed.

I missed out on antenatal classes. So once I was home with DS I asked what should know / any BF advice, the info I needed that i found out later was warnings about cluster feeding, 2 tops for me (pull one down, pull one up).

I was given a propaganda DVD. It was a fab lady on another forum that kept me going. No support from the Grannies, one wanted me to give up and blamed lack of sleep, and every other issue on BF. The other kept telling me she'd BF hers "and Doc said she didn't have enough milk" turns out she never got beyond a couple of weeks., "if you FF I'll be able to take baby overnight"
Truthfully that was my biggest driver to keep going, I was not ready to have my baby sleep anywhere else. BFing was a great excuse.

I'm aware I was lucky no real issues once we got going but not everyone is the same.

"I totally agree that more support needs to be available to BFing mums. Post natal wards are so under staffed."

Well you can whistle for that.

Funding is NOT going into breastfeeding support or better postnatal care. :-(

"I suppose the NHS have to 'promote' breastfeeding because, on the face of it, breastfeeding looks like the less convenient/desirable option for many mothers"

The NHS has to promote the healthiest feeding choices and behaviours throughout life because it's a HEALTH service. Breastfeeding is just one part of that.

I've never breastfed although am pregnant with twins at the moment and I'm planning to try bf but there's no way on this earth I'm going to go through days, weeks or months of pain and struggle to breastfeed. If it doesnt work it doesn't work. I've read quite a lot of things about breastfeeding and from what i gather while women need to be supported to breastfeed i think they also need to be told is ok if you can't or don't want to. You're not poisoning your child.

I'm noticing is a lot like the perception of someone choosing a c sec over giving birth vaginally. I'm getting a lot of judging for saying my preference is a c sec because i don't want to give birth "properly".