To think the 'information' the midwife gave me is almost propaganda?

[ethelfleda]

Recently had 24 week appointment. This is our first. Midwife asked if I had thought about feeding yet. I said I plan on breastfeeding. I say 'plan' because (as with everything else baby related) I am trying to keep an open mind as from what I hear, things don't always go according to plan! So I will try hard to breastfeed but I won't beat myself up if it doesn't work out for us.
She handed me a 20 odd page pamphlet thing and said it contained useful information on caring for a new born.

I started to read it today thinking it would be basic NHS info on how to feed, wind and change your baby etc. It was actually 20 odd pages of info telling me basically that if i don't breastfeed, my baby is more likely to develop cancer (as am I) as well as be admitted to hospital in their first year of life etc etc among other very scary statistics.
The language used was shocking IMO! And seemingly designed to make women who don't/can't breastfeed feel awful! Has anyone else had this information handed to them and thought it was way over the top??

because you can't see the impact of suboptimal feeding and poor health choices, it doesn't mean they haven't made a difference to your child or that they don't matter

Today I saw a little child in foster care who due to foetal alcohol syndrome had to have surgery (I know ....)

That's fucking a kid up

As does feeding them processed food and not ever Exercising them

As does screaming at them , and neglecting them

I don't put Cow and gate into this category frankly

Cow and gate is processed food! Oh the irony!

"Maybe it's a postcode thing but if the support is there and people then choose not to, then what?"

Kent is just about to cut 450k from their breastfeeding support budget, and NHS postnatal care is cut to the bone.

Two half hour visits at home in the first week after giving birth from a midwife who may have no specialist training in breastfeeding support is lamentable and the reason for the very fast and extensive fall out from breastfeeding in the first week.

But probably more important is women trying to breastfeed while surrounded by other's who don't breastfeed, whose voices are raised in a loud chorus of 'don't worry, you won't think it matters when your child is older/you don't get medals for breastfeeding/formula is absolutely fine etc' as the first and main response to breastfeeding challenges.

"I don't put Cow and gate into this category frankly"

Well funnily enough, neither do I.

Does that mean it doesn't matter how a baby is fed?

The majority view is that it doesn't matter at all whether babies are breastfed, mix fed or formula fed. As far as people can tell, there's no difference in outcomes. If every baby was formula fed it wouldn't make a difference to health outcomes for mothers or babies, is the majority view as far as I can tell. The formula feeding culture is massively dominant and I really think that any efforts to promote breastfeeding are totally futile and totally unwanted. Better to put any money that there is towards support for women who actually are breastfeeding.

Stop printing crappy leaflets and put more experts in hospitals and clinics to actually help

Mastitis, thrush in the breast and cracked nipples so bad that the nurse actually recoiled in horror helped me make an informed decision pretty quick, mini.

It's formula, not the devil incarnate.

Child is full, fed and happy, mummy is not in danger of pnd, losing the plot and going bananas.

"I don't put Cow and gate into this category frankly"

No. Neither does anyone else. Stop making stuff up.

I'll never understand why people object to being given information on breastfeeding. Of course the NHS is going to promote it, they have multimillion pound formula companies to compete with and it's in their interests as women not breastfeeding costs the NHS money.

Compared to the bombardment of marketing I see everywhere around formula i certainly don't think that a midwife handing a woman a leaflet is anything to cry about

If the leaflets DW had been given where like this: "Lots of pictures of correct latch technique, advice for formula feeding about how much babies need each day, stuff about safe sleeping, advice for dads about supporting new mothers, info about free vitamin D drops, and various other tips" I would be all for it - the leaflet my DW got was not, at all. I didn't get any advice for supporting DW at all with breastfeeding, or invited to the breastfeeding workshop she went to (although to be fair that probably is an event that should be women only, and I possibly would have got embarrassed, but maybe in an ideal world a dads support workshop would have been helpful).

We where only given advice on how to formula feed about a week after we started - and it turned out we had been sterilising everything wrong. (and after that our hv told us that when she formula fed her babies -
from birth despite the same
"guidance" - she found the premade formula well worth the money and not to bother with powder)

And what's this about free vitamins?? (not sarcasm, I've literally never heard of that and DW paid for vitamins for a while)

Free vitamins is probably referring to the Healthy Start scheme for women on a low income. It's not universal and you would probably have been given information on it if your midwife/HV etc thought it could be relevant.

I was really pleased on the advice and leaflets given and the suggestion that I try breastfeeding. Coming from a culture if not doing it both gave me an idea to try and the knowledge to do.

I think you are majorly over reacting . Not one leaflet the NHS does is propaganda !!! Stop trying to cause the most boring debate on mn about bf vs ff ! I personally find all the leaflets very informative and balanced with regards bf/ff . I bf 2 of my 4 children and ff the other 2 but my bf kids are definitely definitely much healthier . Ff kids both have asthma and eczema so in my mind I do believe that bf is best (quite rightly so as it's the way humans were intended to feed) .

Farmer, why did you ff 2 of your kids in that case?!

My sister was formula fed. She is healthy and her intelligence is through the roof, she's currently in medical school. It can't all be about breast milk?

I am pro BF actually , very . And EBF both my DC .

I just think it affects final outcomes a lot less then other factors

I also disagree when people get so het up about what amounts to 6 months

How you feed them for most of their young life is more critical yet weirdly people don't get so het up about it

In my role as a maternity healthcare assistant I did a university course through work on breastfeeding and found it so interesting and it is why I decided when pregnant with baby 3/4 to breastfeed . I was never educated about bf when I was age 19 and pregnant with my first and just thought it would be so easy to bf . How wrong was I and the pain was worse than labour so at 19 I just thought give me a bottle . Same with ds2. Them after doing my course and becoming a peer support worker and helping thousands of women to bf I knew I would do it with my subsequent children . It was really tough in the beginning especially with dd3 being in scbu with sepsis but I did it and not one drop of formula past my dd3/4 lips . I was so proud and loved getting them weighed each week knowing the weight gains were because of me and my milk . It's all about getting as much info as you can and these leaflets aren't nearly enough but if they make women see that they can benefit from bf then it may make them do more research and help them to bf .

I ff my first 2 as I was really young and had no clue about bf . With other 2 I was working on maternity unit and studied bf at uni so I could become a peer supporter on the ward .

Stripping it back to the basics of nature. The composition of human milk is different from animal milk, which is used for formula aside from soya. Human milk is designed for baby humans and animal milk is designed for baby animals. So doesn't it make sense that breast is best? If you have difficulties with breastfeeding or it is impractical for whatever reason, then formula has a place. I do believe that breast should be the norm. Historically wet nurses were used for if a mother couldn't breastfeed. Marketing and advertising of formulas led to a significant decline in breastfeeding and it is the industries that have financially benefited. Really question it... why put money in the hands of these multi million industries when we are designed to produce exactly what we need to provide for our babies. Again I will reinforce that is not to say that alternatives don't have Im their place for if there is problems with breastfeeding.

mini is right. The fact of your FF children being intelligent and healthy does not mean they have had optimal feeding. They might have been even more intelligent and even healthier if they had been breast fed.

We need much more support for bf-ing mums. It's no wonder so many mums stop it earlier than they would have liked when there is such a lack of knowledge, skills and support.

Free vitamin D drops for all BF babies, regardless of income (FF is fortified, so not needed):

love.lambeth.gov.uk/free-vitamin-d-for-healthy-teeth-and-bones/

Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham, presumably other boroughs but you'd have to check with your health visitor. You just go into the chemist with your red book and ask for it.

'They might have been even more intelligent and even healthier if they had been breast fed. '

It's like bf babies who have eczema. BF naysayers take solace in the 'fact' of bf-ing not preventing the eczema. But the eczema might have been worse had the baby not been bf.

You are rude Myrtle and you've run out of arguments. You take offence at people thinking it's a shame that some babies are ff, don't accept that people thinking it's a pity are being compassionate rather than superior.

Vitamin D supplements are recommended for everyone in the UK over the winter.

Rogue I take vit D3 but only recently realised it is recommended for all over the winter. Why haven't the public been told this directly, using posters or other ads?