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.

Anything to get breastfeeding rates up is a good thing

ElphabaTheGreen
You can have all the coping strategies in the world, and a little minion tidying round and ombringing you snacks 24/7, but if being awake at every hour of the day and night is something you struggle with, it won't make much difference.

I bottle feed so share feeds. I've never had more than one bad night in a row. I have 50% of nights off. I have more sleep than before I had a baby. Those I know that breastfeed are knackered in comparison, and that was particularly evident in the early weeks.

Women should know that frequent feeding is normal on the boob, but if the level of extreme sleep deprivation it brings isn't for them, then that's ok too.

Sorry. I'm talking about a scheme that was piloted a few years back, so it's not really new.

If it works, then why on earth not?

Seems like lots of people on this thread are stamping their feet and whining 'that's not fair!'

If you don't/ can't do it for whatever reason, you don't get the incentive. It's simple.

And for the people saying that they couldn't have bf no matter what they were offered, well it's not an incentive aimed at you then is it?

If it gets more babies (especially in deprived areas) more breastmilk and therefore better health, then I'm all for it.

I live abroad and we have to have compulsory health insurance and we get money back for various health choices, breastfeeding being one of them. iirc I got the equivalent of £200 back for breastfeeding for the first six weeks. I had a midwife visit me several times a week during this period as part of our care and she signed a form and sent it to my insurer to confirm that I was breastfeeding.

We also get money back for going to the gym (if I were to go!), walking 10,000 steps per day (you have to have an app to prove this), etc

Hatsoffdear

I'm not evangelical. Honestly. Not sure what gave you that opinion. If you've seen me on BF support threads, I think it's because, having had every BFing problem under the sun myself, I have good advice to give. But you'll never see me in a BF bunfight like the actual evangelists. I am well aware women are individuals and can/should make their own choices, but the information for them to make those choices around breastfeeding have been ground down by the 'new normal' of formula fed baby behaviour.

Surely saving upwards of £80 a month is the initial incentive anyone needs to want to at least try?

Yep. I can see why people might think this study is a bit insulting but it’s about breaking taboos about breastfeeding in areas where it’s alien to many people and if this is the most likely way to do it I agree with it as long as support systems are funded too. I have friends who dismissed b/f as disgusting and wouldn’t dream of even trying it b/c that is what they’ve been taught and it’s what most other people they know think. Uk b/f rates are a disgrace tbh plus it’s estimated it would save nhs millions if more babies were breastfed.

But agree that I can’t see how you’d prove you were feeding?!

@Pop24 a midwife or HV has to countersigned the form to agree that you're breastfeeding. Presumably if they had any doubts they wouldn't sign it.

Pengggwn

It's a discussion thread about an incentive scheme which I'm inclined to agree with, as I have the opinion that it might work under the conditions I've outlined. I haven't said a thing about whether anyone should or should not breastfeed. Not a thing. I sense you feel I'm making a comment about you. Since I don't know anything about you or your history with breastfeeding, I'm clearly, clearly not, so please stop projecting.

I think that it's great that BF rates have been improved with this scheme, as another poster has said anything which improves BF uptake has to have some positives. I do have some reservations though, not about giving people incentives to BF, we do incentivise behaviours all the time, and it's clearly effective. I just think that it's not enough to solve the problem, if you consider low rates of BF to be a problem.

I think we need a huge culture change. We need more visible vocal support and guidance for those who do wish to BF, in the hospital, and at home after the birth, without shaming those who do not or cannot BF. Community midwifes and BF supporters should have the ability to spend as much time as it takes supporting new mums to establish BF with baby. I also think we need a cultural change in terms of family support as a whole. I'd love to see it become the norm that new dads are able to take longer periods of time off work, or to work more flexibly, in order to support Bf'ing mums. How many women do we see on here saying 'I do all the night feeds because DH has to go to work, and he needs his sleep'? Dads who have the flexibility and can provide more support will make it easier on mums to establish and maintain BF'ing.

I think we also need to look at how BF'ing is seen in wider culture. We rarely see babies being BF on tv, or in movies, and this normalises formula feeding as the default way of doing things if that's what people see over and over again.

Finally I think we need to move away from this idea of 'breast is best' and focus more on what is good for the family as a whole. If, given the right information and support, you can BF and choose to do so, then great. If that doesn't work for you, for whatever reason, they you should have the support to feed baby in the way that works best for you and your family. But without access to all of the information and all of the support, you can't make informed decisions.

I suspect a large aspect of the success of this scheme was that people accessed information and support about BF, where they might have dismissed it in the past. The financial incentive got people to sit up and take notice, where they had not been interested or even aware in the past. It would be interesting to know if there are other ways that you could get that message across to people, without using a financial incentive.

@Pengggwn is arguing for the sake of it, again...

Where i live the breastfeeding support is now non-existant. We have even lost the Pink Ladies. For every £200 given to incentivise breastfeeding for one woman, how many others are falling to the wayside without support? That's a lot of money that could be better spent improving the support for all imo

Wishingandwaiting what a horrible and, quite frankly, ignorant point of view. Anything that encourages breast feeding should be encouraged. You should, perhaps, get your facts right before making ill advised comments.

It's so important people udnerstand what this pilot was - it has absolutely no link to women stopping breastfeeding because of pain/ lack of support/ problems etc.

This was a project aimed at changing views on BF among women in very deprived communities where most women had not breastfed and there was no cultural support for it - it was seen as disgusting.

The incentive was just to get the women started, do a few days of BF to see how it works etc.

There is a massive problem in the UK with lack of support for women who WANT to breastfeed - but this project has nothing to do with that issue.

It is being incorrectly reported - so that women who had to stop but didn't want to stop feel judged. That is not what this pilot was about.

Women should know that frequent feeding is normal on the boob, but if the level of extreme sleep deprivation it brings isn't for them, then that's ok too.

I agree entirely, but when you're in the midst of those early days, it's very hard to see that it will ever be anything else. If an external incentive gets women to keep plugging on (which is what women involved in the study clearly stated it did) then that is a positive thing.

I think there is a need for more pragmatic breastfeeding advice because it seems that the choice is presented as 'FF' or 'EBF on demand for 6 months'. So I think more discussion of combination feeding, dummy use without affecting supply and scheduled breastfeeding (after the first two months or so) might help people feel more in control rather than that they are going to be attached to the baby for 6 months.

I asked my HV for advice on persuading my baby to take a dummy. He was my second (had breastfed my first for nearly a year), was 6 weeks old by then, EBF and piling on the weight so clearly feeding was well established, but the HV's response was to lecture me at length that any use of a dummy at all would make my milk instantly dry up.....

In the end I didn't bother persevering with the dummy as he was quite a placid baby anyway but had I had a non-sleeping crying baby it might have made all the difference to enable me to continue BF.
With my first who struggled to feed at first, giving a few bottles of formula here and there in the first weeks really helped me to recharge my batteries and continue breastfeeding. I think a bit more advice about how to combination feed while maintaining breastfeeding would be helpful - otherwise the impression seems to be given that a single bottle of formula is instantly the end of breastfeeding.

Not sure how to achieve this but that's what I think is needed...

I think it's a good scheme and will encourage mothers in deprived areas (which have Lower breastfeeding rates) to breastfeed. Most of the women in deprived areas would qualify for milk tokens under the healthy start scheme if they formula fed anyway so it's just diverting the money that would have been spent anyway.?

I think it's a ridiculous idea. Why should women be penalised for being unable or unwilling to breastfeed? It's mums choice.

@tampinfuminragin they aren't being penalised.