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.

You are talking about all women and your reasons for whether you feel their reasons for not breastfeeding are 'acceptable'.

How many times did I write 'some', including in capitals for emphasis? Where did I judge anybody at all? I said SOME women give up breastfeeding because of the frequency of feeds. That is an absolute statement of fact. I did not anywhere cast judgement on this choice.

Stop trying to start a bunfight because you won't get any joy from me, sorry.

Id rather not spend my tax money on it whilst state schools are the shit heap of stinking dogs poo they currently are.

Breastmilk vs an actual education with a present teacher and resources. hmmm.....

I think it's a ridiculous idea. Why should women be penalised for being unable or unwilling to breastfeed?
I don't agree with the scheme but incentivising one type of behaviour is not the same as punishing the opposite behaviour.

Elpheba sorry didn’t mean to be judgy there and there’s nothing wrong with being evangelical although see your post.

I completely agree with the poster who finds it unacceptable to pay women to use their breasts in ant way be that breastfeeding or page 3 modelling.

Women are allowed to choose what they do with their bodies. Thankfully we still have that freedom enshrined in law to a certain extent in this country.

Well I pumped so it could go down a tube into his tummy, and by the time he could take oral feeds at 9 weeks breast wouldn't work. So not particularly in favor of an incentive that further points out i failed to breast feed my children.

On a cash only basis surely there's already a financial incentive as most people pay for formula. Yes I know women's time is worth X - I pumped then gravity fed for 6 months so twice the time but don't think £1k would be aallit took to get someone who made an active. Choice to not breast feed to do so

The money would be better spent educating the midwives and paediatricians at at least one hospital I can think of. 7 out of 8 of my antenatal group were given the impression that our babies would perish within hours if we didn't give them the bottle of formula the hospital was insisting on less than 48 hours after the birth when our milk supply hadn't fully established yet. So much misinformation its untrue, and that's supposed to be a pro-breastfeeding hospital.

@SleepingStandingUp why would you be against it just because you may not have been able to claim the incentive? That doesn't make sense to me. Do you want to stop other women from breastfeeding because you had problems?

I think I’ll be coming to the end of my breastfeeding journey soon. If there was a financial incentive I would continue longer as I have no income at the moment so the income would help. So it would work for me.

How about continuing for longer because it is free and good for your child. Instead of continuing just so you can get a handout.

No but I think it further reinforces the notion that those of us who couldn't or wouldn't somehow failed our babies.

Oh do you want your good mom payment? Oh you aren't one.

AssassinatedBeauty and I didn't. He did. He couldn't take any oral feeds for 9 weeks then had to have a bottle do we could add medicine to it so he could swallow it. I think I did ok expressing for 6 months even if others think that's a crap effort.

Oh do you want your good mom payment? Oh you aren't one.

Yep; I agree. Even if this isn't the intention, it sure as hell bloody feels like it. I already feel crap enough about my inability to do what my body is supposed to be able to do - and frankly the NHS is doing a cracking job of promoting breast is best already. Which is one of the reasons that people like me feel so bloody guilty even though rationally I know I didn't really have a choice.

@SleepingStandingUp I absolutely wasn't trying to imply any failings, and by "you" i didn't mean you as an individual. No one has in any way suggested that expressing for 6 months is a crap effort! Absolutely the opposite, clearly.

There isn't enough money in the world to get me to continue bf

Blisters
Abscess
Baby waking every two hours through the night still at 8 months and being told it's normal for a bf baby
Baby biting nipples and pulling my top up and grabbing my boob painfully
Engorgement
Leaking
Baby refusing a spoon and bottle so I'm screwed when I have to go back to work

I wish I'd never started

How are they being penalised exactly? This scheme isn't really aimed at women who initiated breastfeeding and stopped for whatever reason. It's aimed at women in deprived areas where formula is the norm and breastfeeding is often not even tried.

I stopped because my baby was consistently losing weight - I was absolutely gutted and cried about for days and days however we had tried everything including formula top up with no success. This would be something that would make me feel ten Ikea worse about stopping g despite it being the best option for my daughter - as advised by medical teams etc. Just one more "punishment" for the bottle feeders

But you would have been able to claim the incentives, as you would have breastfed for the timespan they were looking at.

I haven’t read the whole thread so don’t know if this has been mentioned already.

I live in the city where this was piloted and was, at the time, working in children and families services alongside the workers who were involved. It was area specific and only people who lived in the most deprived areas of the city were offered the voucher. The breast feeding rates in these areas is ridiculously low. It is a social and cultural thing that ‘it’s just not the done thing’. A lot of women just wouldn’t consider it because their friends and family don’t do it.

Considering breastfeeding reduces the risk of many infant illnesses I feel that it is valid to introduce the idea of breastfeeding to communities where it is out of ‘fashion’. (Most women still weren’t interested btw!)

Women who bf already have a financial incentive - they don't have to buy formula.

They gontvrea veto buy formula but they probably have to buy nursing bras, breast pads, breastfeeding friendly clothing and extra food for themselves due to the extra calories required whilst breastfeeding,

I might just keep posting this every so often.

Breastfeeding is only free if there’s no value or restriction to the mother’s time. Formula costs a family money, yes. But if breastfeeding means the women can’t go out to work then breastfeeding costs that family money indirectly and possibly more money than buying formula.

Giving me the entire contents of Harrods would not have persuaded me continue breastfeeding after the first few agonising feeds!