To say BF Mums shouldn't be getting fed if...

[daydrinker]

IF FF Mums aren't?

My local hospital always feeds the BF mums but leaves the FF ones. They have to sort themselves out.

I've been to the local hospital a good few times now with DS and always asked within an hour if I want food

If overnight stay, I'm fed 3 times a day with biscuits and tea in between. Formula feeding mums aren't offered anything.

AIBU to say this isn't fair?

My milk supply doesn't all of a sudden vanish if I'm hungry.

DS was ff and has been in hospital many times since he came home at 5 weeks.
The hospital has a room where parents can go to make drinks and toast. Better than nothing.
I've always been fed as D's has complex feeding needs that can only be managed by me or do and the hospital realise that it's better for me to stay than for them to attempt to feed him and likely resists him if they get it wrong

Having been a FF mum in hospital for weeks on end it can be tough to eat especially when the rules in my hospital state that children are not to be left alone. I have gone hours and hours without food or a drink because my child needed me and having no one else to swap due to Husband needing to work. It is tough.
I didn't choose to FF and what I found worse was the hospital didn't even have her milk available so I had to provide that too. And food in hospital is expensive. My husband would drop me off some food the night before his 12hour shift and then I would have to wait for him to return.. so I could get out for some fresh air and maybe even a hot drink.
If the hospital had provided food even if I had to pay I would have..
it's tough as each hospital does it differently.

How about “breast milk is optimum but if it’s not working out it it’s not for you that’s fine too”

Breast milk is optimum but there are acceptable alternatives.

Not " fine too".

But it is fine too. Absolutely fine.

Serena IME that is exactly what they say. I’ve never met anyone irl who has had breastfeeding militantly pushed at them by the nhs the way people on mn have and given that most babies in the U.K. are ff clearly people know it’s not the end of the world.

It’s more insidious than that. They don’t provide any support for ff mums.

Not sure what you mean by support? Should they tell people how to make up bottles safely? Of course. But other than that I’m not sure what support they can offer when in the most part they can’t offer support for b/f becasue they are so underfunded, understaffed and overworked. Their b/feeding policies clearly aren’t working but it doesn’t take much to work out why.

Laughing at the NHS with their " insidious" breastfeeding tactics.

All that cloak and dagger stuff designed to undermine formula feeding women.

Love it.

'Patients in a hospital not getting fed?

I have never heard of that.'

Plenty of trusts will not supply formula milk to a newborn baby who is a patient, and send out letters to pregnant mothers to that respect, stating that if they don't breastfeed they must supply the baby, who is a patient, with its own formula, which is its food.

I do think that’s a bit of a silly acusation. The nhs is made up of lots of individuals, some won’t give two hoots about promoting it, some will be actively against it (my hv was and my consultant asked me which formula I was going too choose!) some will be the breastapo. It will be luck of the draw who you see and deal with. As a whole body they are meant to promote it obviously but I don’t think there’s an Nhs wide conspiracy to undermine ff mums and pour on the guilt as much as possible.

Expatinscotland but this is about a baby being readmitted to hospital. If a baby is ff then surely they do have to provide their food.

I can understand why they can’t hand out formula on a post natal ward as they have to promote b/f. It would be the height of hypocrisy to say ‘we believe breastmilk is best but here’s formula just in case’ in the hours and days post birth when breastfeeding wouldn’t have been established anyway wouldn’t it?

"Not sure what you mean by support?"

My prem baby couldn't bf and struggled to ff too (was also on expressed milk as well). Because he was well enough for the postnatal ward we received no support in getting him to feed and how much to feed him. We also found out later he should have been on prem baby milk which was never mentioned to us at the time.

I can’t get annoyed about it to be honest. Hospital food is so horrible I’d end up starving either way if I didn’t make alternative arrangements.

I’ve commented a few times. But I really don’t see how they are promoting breastfeeding. It’s simole biology. If a Mum is breastfeeding and doesn’t eat- no milk is produced. Baby can not be fed and will not be fed. A FF baby will be fed regardless, by formula, whether Mum is fed or not. Formula supply will not be affected by the mother being hungry. Breastmilk supply will. You are feeding baby by feeding the mother. Otherwise baby starves. Not the same for someone who is formula feeding.

What additional feeding support for FF mum's need? I genuinely am asking btw, not being snarky.

BF mum's phyically need more food than FF mum. They phyically need more liquids. Without this their milk will start pulling the nutrients etc from the mothers body.

'Expatinscotland but this is about a baby being readmitted to hospital. If a baby is ff then surely they do have to provide their food. '

And I was responding to a comment from a poster who said she'd never heard of patients not being fed in hospital, which, in some trusts, is true of newborn babies.

It is also not for you to dictate to others how they post or to whom they respond on a thread .

Have no idea how I’m dictating to others who they respond to but on a postnatal ward the patient is often the mother, not the baby specifically unless they are poorly or have other issues. You can’t possibly have a situation in which in the hours after birth the nhs says we want to support breastfeeding whilst also handing out formula. I think it’s against WHO guidelines. Their hands are tied as much as it would be nice for mums who have chosen to ff from the start to be provided with it on a postnatal ward.

You can’t possibly have a situation in which in the hours after birth the nhs says we want to support breastfeeding whilst also handing out formula.

Yes you can. My local hospital does. Because they are sensible enough to realise that a FF baby is preferable to a dead one.

I do understand why they feel they need to feed BF mums if their little one is a sick patient and is dependant on their mothers milk. You don’t want mother getting ill or fainting from dehydration/hunger because they can’t leave their baby.

If they don’t have the funding to feed all parents that can’t leave their child’s side, surely the solution is to sell hospital meals to FF parents (and parents of sick toddlers etc) at their bedside??

I have spent months in hospital with my eldest daughter, from a baby to 16.

The paediatric wards (catering for children - 18) provide 'help yourself' tea, coffee, toast for all parents.

I am not in any way commenting on a breast/FF debate, but simply saying that not all mums get food at the hospital, and it is not just babies who can be very, very poorly. I am guessing they simply don't have the money to fund food for all parents/mums

Their hands are tied as much as it would be nice for mums who have chosen to ff from the start to be provided with it on a postnatal ward.

So if I choose to FF from birth, take, say 8 ready made bottles with me, but then need to stay in longer than expected after the birth, and run out of formula (and can’t leave the ward to get it) would they really not give my newborn milk until I could get a visitor to bring more formula?

There i nothing like the hunger and thirst when exclusively breastfeeding. I would almost pass out if lunch was late

This!

My hospital did give out formula milk on the postnatal ward. There will be women on the ward who planned to bf but couldn't. Those who planned to ff were supposed to bring their own but I do not believe they would refuse to provide it if the mother didn't.

So all breastfed babies will expire if their mother goes for 20 minutes to buy her own sandwich, but an FF baby wouldn’t be upset if their mum just buggered off for lunch?

It’s got nothing to do with the mechanism of feeding. I may not have been breastfeeding but I can assure you there was no way I could have left my baby and popped out to lunch. I barely kept my sanity when I could see and touch him all the time. People who say they can’t get worked up or who think it’s fine as they are feeding the child either way clearly have no idea what it’s like to have your child barely clinging on to life. You aren’t going to just pop to Starbucks.