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.

notmenotyou I don't recognise any of the stuff you mention. No pain, no suffering, breasts not down to my knees and not used as chew toys. My baby sleeps and naps the same as my friends same age baby who is ff.
My husband does the nappy changes and settling at night if baby is still awake after being fed.

Yes the nhs has no business in enhancing or monitoring breast feeding rates.

Their business is to support women’s choices and its governments and societies business to facilitate those choices.

It’s a great step forward to enshrine the right to breastfeed in public, excellent. It’s also important to help women who want to breastfeed over any hurdles and equally ok to reassure women who don’t they it’s equally fine and show best practise in making up ff.

It’s not the business of the nhs to squander tax payers money on dubious schemes that make very little difference to the general health of a rich western population.

@RockinRobinTweets the trial programme showed an increase in breastfeeding of 6%, in an area with very low breastfeeding rates. So it clearly did make a difference to some women.

@Hatsoffdear what about women who would like to breastfeed but don't feel able to given their cultural/social background? How does the NHS reach out and facilitate them to breastfeed if that's what they'd actually like to do?

What happens to mothers whose babies will not benefit from breastfeeding and where continued breastfeeding might actually be dangerous (because of medication, failure to thrive, severe MH issues, or reaction to mother's milk): will they still be incentivised to claim the money?

Cory. My point exactly.

So this scheme is discriminatory and punitive?

@AssassinatedBeauty

Do low income families get free formula milk? Or is that only if there's a medical reason for BFing not working out? I have no idea.

I can't see why you'd BF just for a bonus payment but not for the ongoing costs unless there isn't any. It doesn't make any sense to me.

As a mother to a child with pku I am excluded from the scheme.

That’s discrimination.

They can get Healthy Start vouchers which can be spent on cows milk, fresh/frozen fruit and veg and formula. So if you choose to breastfeed then you can spend the vouchers on fruit/veg and milk for the family.

Maybe that's also punitive towards those who can't breastfeed, and maybe women who choose to breastfeed should have their healthy start vouchers removed or reduced as they don't need them any more.

Surely this is no different from rewarding school children who are lucky enough to achieve 100% attendance because they’re fortunate enough not to have a health condition? MN is dead against that sort of thing usually (and I agree!).

Perhaps we should offer mothers-to-be a financial incentive in order to pressure them to have a vaginal birth no matter what to also save the NHS money

They can get Healthy Start vouchers which can be spent on cows milk, fresh/frozen fruit and veg and formula.
So they can already spend the vouchers on things other than formula? Maybe they should just extend the existing voucher scheme to include nursing bras and breast pads (and any other breastfeeding paraphernalia that I can't currently think of) and then it would be cheaper to BF, since presumably they're already spending money on bottles and sterilising equipment and all that stuff to be able to FF.

Cancerisacunt
Just because some people are excluded, it doesn't make it discrimination.

My son couldn't go to Oxford as he isn't clever enough, not discrimination.

Not everything is discrimination.

Also, do your children receive special food on prescription because of their condition?
Is that discrimination because other children don't.

If I said what I wanted to right now I’d be deleted.

Disablist posts aren’t allowed.

Hatsoffdear there is clear research showing the NHS would sve large sums treating childhood gastro and other illnesses if more women breastfed.

@waterrat Do you have any links? I'd be interested to read that research.

Who is being disabilist?

If it is me please tell me how and I will report myself to MN.

I genuinely don't understand what the issue is here.

I have to agree with the poster that pointed out how hard it is, I feel I would have easily slipped into PND if I hadn't stopped. I think my mental health is a far more significant factor in raising a healthy child.

My child has a life changing condition and you are crushing them the food that goes in their mouth. You’d prefer they weren’t funded for their food and died.

*grudghng

And should have been a ? At the end

Grudging

My phone

What a waste of money. Why on earth would we pay people to feed their own children? Enough already opt out of providing for them without a cash incentive.

todays formula milks are far superior to those and I think that they are great when b/f is not appropriate

Given the news yesterday about formula contaminated with salmonella and lots of babies falling sick can we actually say it’s superior if so many of the older generations ‘thrived’ on condensed milk? At least they weren’t poisoned. I’ve heard way too many incidents of formula making babies sick through contamination or poor hygiene. How is it not more heavily regulated? How are we actually sure what’s in it and do we trust mulitnational profit making companies to regulate it enough? I agree that formula is the best (really the only)option when b/feeding can’t happen and many babies will thrive on it but it’s not the optimum option health wise in most cases (yes I know there will be medical reasons why some people can’t/babies can’t, but this is quite rare). It should be the aim for breastfeeding to be the norm in a society not a rarity and of course the nhs/public bodies/government wants to promote something that will benefit national health and save them money.

@AssassinatedBeauty
I think that there are many women who try to breastfeed, but for whatever reason - mastitis, latching on issues etc - it doesn't always work out. A lot of women beat themselves up over it and some feel like failures - several threads on here over the years as well as general chat among various friends of mine lead me to that conclusion. I think that offering financial incentives to women to breastfeed is another way to make women feel bad about the choices they make about how to feed their babies, especially those who choose to formula feed, either by choice of through no fault of their own.
I would suggest that a better programme of education and support to women, irrespective of what option they choose would be a better use of resources.

For those saying they have no income. Breast feeding is free, formula is not.

Also how would this be policed? Anyone can say they are still breast feeding and claim the money but they are hardly going to check .