To think mothers should not be offered a financial incentive to breastfeed their babies?

[brasty]

This is based on a pilot study being reported on the news. I don't think we should be paying new mothers to breast feed. Instead we should be looking at proper support. New mothers used to not be discharged from hospital until breastfeeding was established.

I think we need a cultural shift, show BF in soaps, in magazines, why do children’s dolls all have bottles etc etc. It needs normalising, for many groups of people it’s not normal!

MN anti-breastfeeding? It really isn't. It's about as anti-breastfeeding as an NCT group in a leafy middle class area. Clue, I live in one of those areas and I'm the ostracised FF outcast because every bugger else breastfeeds. If NHS messages about health etc have been so hugely successful in these areas, it's disappointing that it takes a bung to get women in other areas to contemplate it, and frankly I think the money would be better spent elsewhere in the NHS. I was in hospital with a few of those mothers who wouldn't even contemplate BF and their children would probably benefit more from £200 worth of books.

Persian I think you can find that yourself. You can google anything to find support for any argument but it’s scientifically obvious that breastmilk is what babies are designed to ingest and formula is nothing like breastmilk. It has benefits for young babies that are scientifically proven beyond all doubt so it would follow that would help them to be healthier through childhood and beyond. I think what you question is whether it has significant benefits for long term health/intelligence etc. There isn’t going to be much data that can ever prove this as it’s very difficult to study the long term effects of anything for obvious reasons. But the Brazilian study was a large scale study that found benefits regardless of socioeconomic background.

There hasn't been a single well regarded article uploaded to this thread that shows that the claimed health benefits of breast milk

£200 is not a lot of money for me

But you got paid money that could have been spent on nurse wages or drugs to do what you were going to do in the first place?

I think that says it all really.

Loverunandwine - I think those are fantastic suggestions :)

I don’t recall anyone saying that. I think someone may be ‘projecting’ again.

Yeah I probably am. Because I still feel like shit about my inability to BF my daughter every fucking day. But the mention of the word "luck" made a couple of you have a canary too so I don't think I'm the only one doing that.

Many articles say things like "may reduce the risk of...." and "possible reduction in....."

Sorry but to me that doesn't deserve the health claims that BF has.

Much rather see cash put into providing free sanitary wear for girls in school in deprived areas.

Cleariy this is a ridiculous scheme

Persian breastmilk is live and antibacterial so that’s enough evidence for me.

Persian..why wouldn't the milk that was made for human offspring be healthier than a manufactured milk? I realise though, that formula is a good alternative for babies.

Accrual I fully agree there’s often a large amount of luck involved in that some people will be lucky in getting good support, baby with out any tounge tie etc but far more people should still be facilitated to overcome initial hurdles rather than left to suffer on in an untolerable situation. If you really wanted to feed but couldn’t it’s because you weren’t supported to do so correctly and no blame should be attached to you. Sadly this seems to be the case most of the time. My view remains that if this idea gets some people interested in b/feeding who wouldn’t have otherwise then great but it’s will go nowhere unless every woman gets adequate support to bf if that’s her choice (I Love b/feeding but I would always support that any woman has the ultimate choice on what she does with her breasts).Only then will we see rates improve but sadly breastfeeding support seems to be being cut rather than invested in (where I live it definitely is anyway).

I know why breast milk should be the best, I was asking for the scientific proof that proves that it is that people have mentioned on this thread.

"If you really wanted to feed but couldn’t it’s because you weren’t supported to do so correctly"

I had support. It still didn't work. More support should be given to women, yes. But it's not a guarantee.

No pemberly it isn’t. There will be a small percentage of women/ babies who can’t breastfeed and I can imagine that’s a very difficult thing to go through if it’s something you wanted to do. But if you had had adequate support and tried then of course no one should feel guilty in the same way as if you tried to have a vaginal birth and ended up having a section. Equally if you make a decision not to feed that you’re happy with then I also don’t see why you’d feel guilty. But it seems the main problem we have in the UK is people really wanting to, trying but failing to continue after a few weeks so something must be going wrong.

I think formula is a very good alternative to breastmilk but I don't think it is equal. In not going to bother linking to anything because people can do their own research if they are bothered but i have looked at scientific studies into breastmilk. The studies which show how the composition of breastmilk changes when a baby is unwell is quite fascinating. A tub of formula can never produce additional antibodies in response to a baby's illness.
I formula fed one of my children and he's turned out healthy and no different to his breastfed siblings. I don't for one minute think there is anything wrong with formula but I'm not going to try and convince myself that it is equal to breastmilk or that it is the food human babies are designed to consume.

@AccrualIntentions a previous poster said very clearly that successful breastfeeding is pure luck. That's clearly bollocks and offensive. That's not the same as reading something into a post that absolutely wasn't said or intended/implied.

I agree pop. It's not surprising that we have one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the developed world. Even America which has no real paid maternity leave have much better breastfeeding rates than us. Clearly there can't be much physical difference between us and the women in other countries so support and attitudes must be a significant factor.

There is no point posting links to research. It is always slated as flawed, confounded research that doesn't even apply in a first world country. No research is ever sufficient for people. The majority opinion is that formula is as good as breastmilk, there are no significant differences.

frankly I think the money would be better spent elsewhere in the NHS

I believe you will find that the cost of the incentive scheme will be more than offset by the reduction on demand on the NHS due to more bf babies.
A 6% increase in bf rates is a significant result.

If you really wanted to feed but couldn’t it’s because you weren’t supported to do so correctly and no blame should be attached to you
No. I had fantastic support, from the NHS as well as LLL and my personal network. I/we just couldn't do it. No tongue tie, no problems with technique, no explanation. And it's not that rare.

What I didn't have fantastic support with was the switch to FF. This was always presented as a failure.

There we go with the support thing again. I had support from everyone, I could not have had any more support, but I couldn't continue. There comes a point when you don't want yet another stranger looking at your breasts/ latch, (which was perfect) and trying to work out why things were going wrong.

One MW did say to me though 'Don't worry about it Sparkling I am a failed breastfeeder too'. I think she was trying to be nice in her own way.

I think it's wrong, as there are many women who cannot breastfeed for a number of reasons (I breastfed both of mine - one for six weeks, one for six months). Surely something like a one off voucher for a decent breast pump kit and a supply of milk storage bags and breast pads would be a better incentive, something that a breastfeeding mum can make use of, especially if returning to work or so that partners/others can help with night feeds?

A cash reward is silly and to me it's along the same lines of giving '100% attendance awards' at school (which is essentially a pat on the back for the fortune of good health / sending kids to school when ill). Is it going to be means tested? Surely this extra 'funding' would be better spent improving maternity facilities that will benefit all, rather than on individuals.

There are not ‘many’ women who are physiologically unable to breastfeed though!! That is clearly the experience of people here but that is rare. As Assinated pointed out how would that explain the uk v.poor rates with other countries inc. US? We’re not different to other women around the globe. There is something more going on and the view that it’s somehow normal to not be able to b/f suggests to me that so many women in the uk fail but it will be for another reason, mainly lack of being show actually how to do it. Have a friend who had to learn from a YouTube video despite her baby losing lots of weight, no one bother to go to see her and offer help or support. We must have exceptionally poor support from nhs in my area.

Hats off - it wasn't paid by the NHS. So no actually.