Why are breastfeeding rates so low in the UK?

[Olivebrach]

So related to the news about the Royal College of Midwives changing their policy saying mothers have the right to formula feed and the stigma around formula needs to change ect..

I get it that for people that breastfeeding doesnt work out for/isnt easy, they shouldnt be made to feel like a failure. And the 'breast is best' mantra can be upsetting if that is what you desire to do but it doesnt work out.

But considering the breastfeeding rates are so low in the UK (1 in 200 babies are breastfed at the age of 1). The "mantra" and policy atm currently isnt working to up bf rates..? Clearly more people are formula feeding.

So in your opinion..
what should be done to increase breastfeeding?
And why do so few women end up breastfeeding?

AIBU to think the rates need to improve?

I think that more women work these days and so have to be able to hand off the feeding to someone else. The best thing about breast feeding is the contact and so if you are expressing milk but are not the person getting the cuddles I can see why it would lose its appeal

That's a shame. As a Mum, I won't be the one getting cuddles whilst DS has his milk during the day soon. But I will know he will have it's nutritional benefits by the truckload

I cant see why the best nutritional milk available would lose its appeal just because I can't benefit from it at that/those specific time(s) of day

I agree that longer hospital stays wouldn't necessarily be for the best. I was in for a week with severely jaundiced DS and he never latched on for more than about 10 seconds. I was expressing every 3 hours. The day we got home he latched on and he's been mostly BF since then (will take a bottle from DH).

I honestly feel like getting out of that incredibly stressful environment, where it was noisy, both me and DS were getting obs done every few hours and the bed was too bloody short for my legs was what made me relax enough to get BFing going.

Because it’s hard work and bottle feeding is easier.

Purple bottle feeding sounds bloody exhausting to me

I stopped trying to breastfeed after my supply collapsed due to not being able to eat or drink pretty much during the daytime as I was looking after my newborn and nearly 2 year old. If someone else could have helped me then maybe I could have done it for longer.

I chose to breastfeed as I felt that it was right for me and my baby and persevered during the tough days despite family trying to encourage me to formula feed. I think there are numerous reasons why women give up on breastfeeding including:

• lack of information during pregnancy about the practicalities of breastfeeding. Women should be invited to join breast feeding groups while pregnant to help prepare them i.e. cluster feeding, latch.

• linking to above, lots of misconceptions among women about breastfeeding. For one thing it SHOULD NOT hurt!!! If it hurts then your baby is not latched on properly and you need to remove them and try again! Cluster feeding does not mean the baby is not getting enough milk it’s just how they feed in the early days!

• Lack of support from family/friends. So many encourage formula feeding because that was their experience.

• Lack of private spaces to breast feed when out and about and lack of confidence to breast feed in public. Personally I would breast feed almost anywhere if necessary but I will admit that it was often embarrassing and I did feel judged.

• Return to work practicalities if not taking full year maternity. Personally I think the government really ought to pay statutory maternity for the full 12 months in order to encourage breast feeding. I’d like to see maternity leave extended to 18 months but that’s another issue.

• sleeping arrangements - if not using a side cot or co sleeping can be very hard to do all the night feeds.

@Charolais. There is the problem. You're judging people for feeding their babies shit.
Yes you had an amazing experience breastfeeding and I'm glad that you did, but not everyone does and we need to realise that.

Like has been said. Some ff. Some bf. Some combo. All are mother's and all should be supported regardless of choice and not judged and belittled.

I do think that women often aren't clear about the real benefits of breastfeeding to themselves. It's convenient, cheap, no bottles, no sterilising, and no going downstairs at night to get the bottles.relaxing after the early weeks (it was for me, anyway), and good for bonding.

I can see why poor support in the early weeks can cause women to give up. I've had a few bad days myself, that's for sure. But later on I've always been glad I stuck with it.

Just wanna say I didn't mean ff is shit I was quoting

That is it right there Charolais. Well done you. That “shit” keeps babies alive and gives women choices.

what should be done to increase breastfeeding?

Unbiased training, which, well, fat chance of that. Everyone brings their bias to the table, and when we're talking about such an emotive subject, it's really not possible.

I sound really negative, but I just don't know what can realistically be done on a societal level to increase breastfeeding rates when the behemoth formula companies have their fingers in all the pies. After reading the Politics of Breastfeeding, it's pretty appalling the lengths they'll go to undermine breastfeeding mothers.

And why do so few women end up breastfeeding?

That's probably really complicated, and I believe it's a generational thing - if you don't grow up seeing your own mother/aunties/cousins/sisters do it, it's "weird" and "difficult". I'm not saying breastfeeding is easy - I've had a very hard time with it myself - but we live in a formula feeding culture, no doubt about it. When the going gets tough, mums reach for the bottle. I have no judgement about that. I've been there. But there just isn't enough cultural, grassroots knowledge about breastfeeding to help mothers get through the rough patches. When a postpartum, stressed and isolated mother is struggling to breastfeed and she has to pay £££ after googling for a local lactation consultant or schlep herself to a breastfeeding group (that is underfunded and understaffed by volunteers no less) that's in an awkward location or too far away/not easily reached by public transport, she's not going to bother. It's not realistic.

AIBU to think the rates need to improve?

YANBU. Breastfeeding is a feminist issue. Reproduction and feeding our young is as female as it gets. So of course it's argued against and treated as not important. There are important physiological changes/experiences that happen in a breastfeeding mother's body that protect her from diseases like breast cancer. The best thing a woman can do for her health is breastfeed. Why isn't this talked about more? Because it doesn't make anyone any money!

I've breastfed all of my children to a year or longer. I am well aware of many of the issues women face when breastfeeding. I have every sympathy for mothers who struggle, for babies who struggle, and have supported women through hard times myself. The lack of consistent support by the NHS is shocking.

@Passmethecrisps. Spot on

Half the problem is being judged and for what? Why does it matter if someone bf or ff. Truly how does it really matter?

@Charolais I'm glad it worked so well for you...it doesn't for everyone. My baby is waking every hour and will not settle for anything other than breastfeeding. It's mentally and physically exhausting. She will not take a bottle and hard mentally assuming all the responsibility. My first was breastfed and slept through the night from early on. If I could get my baby to take some of that 'awful shit' from a rubber teat, so I could get more than half an hour sleep at a time, I would jump at the chance

Working is not the main reason - in the US most women return to work far earlier, but often maintain a higher rate, often pumping etc for some time afterwards.

I have mixed fed (with no bf, just formula and expressed milk) for one of my DCs, and have no issue with people choosing to FF, but do get a bit sick of the endless complaining on here about the 'judgement' etc for FF - when we have the lowest rate among either all or most developed countries. Giving a baby formula is not some kind of brave statement against fascist midwives, any more than choosing and being able to bf makes you mother of the year...

NHS: Breast is best.
Me: Ok I want to bf! How do I do it? What do I need to know?
NHS: We can't tell you. Funding has been cut for bf info sessions and support services.

(the most useful info I got was from a lactation consultant who had been fired by the NHS due to budget cuts, then got a job at Mothercare and hung around the breast pump aisle offering free advice)

Because it’s really hard for some people. I’m really happy for those who found it easy. It was not the case for me. I also did not do well with the sleep deprivation. As soon as I could share some of the feeds with my husband, and I was getting a little more sleep then I was an infinitely better mummy. We combination fed for about 3 months before moving to completely ff. it worked best for my family. It is a personal choice. I think that we’re lucky that we live in a time and a place where we do have the option. Isn’t that great?

Why do so few women end up breastfeeding?*
*
Lack of role models in real life in UK. In Sweden you see several bf mums in every coffee shop, on park benches etc.

Sexualisation of breasts - think Love Island's women with their cosmetically enlarged and firmed breasts squeezed into skimpy bikinis.

More support needed. A bf mum with a newborn may need help with the latch several times a day for the first few days.

I would also add lack of support from partner/family... in the early days I had almost no support from anyone with making meals etc and criticised for not doing enough around the house. At the time my baby was latched on to me or sleeping on me almost 24/7... the only time I could do anything else was when the baby was held by someone. It was extremely hard but somehow I made it through and continued to breast feed despite the lack of support.

Haven't rtft.

But I've never heard of people being upset by breastfeeding mothers in public or the mother's themselves being embarrassed... Well, until I came to the UK (for a while) and got together with my husband...

Attitudes like to that must have an impact on mother's...

To those who formula feed and are happy, Bravo.
To those who breastfeed and are happy, Bravo.

To those who want one choice, but end up with the other against their wishes, we need to offer the support that facilitates your first choice.

Truthful and factual information for every woman.
An open environment that doesn't perpetuate myths and obstacles.
Practical, evidence based support for every feeding choice.

And no judgement. Not for the formula feeders, not for the breastfeeders.

Baby #1 had failure to thrive. I was desperate to bf and thought if I only kept at it, took the fenugreek, ate the oats, drank the water, expressed between feeds with my rented hospital double pump, did breast compressions it would be ok. It wasn't and he fell off the chart before I realised I had to give him formula or he wouldn't be here. I did then mix feed until 9 months.

Baby #2 was admitted to hospital on day 5 with dehydration and severe weight loss. Supposedly for "breastfeeding support" but that didn't come for 24 hrs by which time she was on formula through an NG tube.

In both cases I was told by multiple HCPs there was no tongue tie and eventually got a referral through at 11/10 weeks to be told there was one after all.

I was so devastated and felt so embarrassed to give a bottle in public and also to have failed so publicly with both babies. From my experiences I would say:

Support needs to be immediate. 12 hrs, 24 hrs is too late. If there is less pressure to bf then maybe the resources can be directed more acutely towards those who really want it?

Tongue tie training needs to be addressed asap. How come it could be immediately diagnosed by one person after multiple people telling me there was none?

When I was frantically googling "low supply", almost everything I could find told me it was probably fine and normal. There was very little information about people who actually have a low supply. This was quite dangerous in the case of my first baby and unhelpful with my second. Perhaps the low supply was due to the tongue tie but I never felt my milk "come in" or any engorgement or significant letdown. I have milk but never a lot. Even writing that I can hear some posters thinking "oh well you probably..." - no I really can honestly say I tried everything possible. I have since read that PCOS and GD can affect the hormones that make milk and I'm sure other issues can do the same, so it's not just an imagined fake problem that can be fixed by cluster feeding into oblivion.

I think there's plenty else covered by lots of pp, but that's my twopenny worth. to everyone who's ever fed a baby, any way.

I think far more women consuder raising children as far more of an equal partnership these days. We do not expect and are not expected to subjugate our lives for those of our children and husbands’. Because it’s not the 1940’s and no way was my husband being cast in the role ‘provider’ while ‘my job’ was feeding a baby. Holy shit - no!!
We had a baby - not just me. It was a joint decision and we were going to bring up baby and work, rest & play together - equally.
In the west, any differences in the outcomes for bf vs ff can now be ameliorated by other choices or medical science. And at an individual level, it’s a lottery as to whether it makes any tangible difference anyway.
So for me (& many of my friends) it was a no for breastfeeding because:
I do not accept that it’s ok for me be in often significant amounts of pain for months at a time - no thanks
I do not accept that it is ok for me to live with months of broken sleep patterns (a less than 4 hour sleep pattern before being woken would be seen as a medical problem at any other time)
I do not accept that it is ok for me to have no social life or rest time or time for me (unless I’m willing to use what little time I wasn’t feeding for pumping more - which is the most unnatural thing in the world - I’m not a cow)
I do not accept that I should have to manage a logistical nightmare and inconvenience when working (I don’t want to put down everything and have my baby bought to work etc or go and pump or whatever)

I am an equal parent not the ‘special one’ who gets all the responsibility just because I have breasts. He was both our responsibility and both of us needed to be fully involved in looking after him so we both fed him, took it in turns to sleep/wake, had equal amounts of time at work and for ourselves. FF is bloody great and imo in no small part ensured that my DS father was an excellent father fully involved in every aspect of DS life.

Equal doesn't mean the same. An equal partnership is absolutely possible where the woman breastfeeds and the man is in a supporting role. It's very wrong to suggest that breastfeeding means you're subjugating yourself to your partner and child. And this stupid myth that breastfeeding interferes with fathers bonding rears it's ugly head again.

I fedy DD for 18months but that was mainly I think we both 'got it's early on.
The breastfeeding talk I went to as one of only 2classes that actually ran(the other was car seats which mid wives thought the most important)was hopeless and discouraging.All of it was about the baby position,node to nipple and the pictures were from an angle no mother will ever see.
There is begrudgingly help in hospital when I wanted to know if my baby was latching as I couldn't tell.
At home no help at all.Midwife came said you look as if your coping the Health visitor will visit in 10days.
I had problems at the 6week mark which is why I understand that women give up then.I had been doing fine until then ,DD has settled herself to a 3-4hour rhythm and then she suddenly needed to feed all the time,always hungry.I felt a failure,I was convinced it must be because I didn't have enough milk.
After 3 days if her being constantly attatched,and me a sniveling wreck it all settled again.At 6 weeks there seems to be no one to help.It was afterward when I spoke to a friend who was an exmidwife that I realised they had a growth spurt then and feed a lot whichever tally brings up your milk supply so they can gain get all they need at one feed.Why are we not told this?
I only are it because I am too lazy to wash bottles as I find getting up in the night tough with no baby and my now exh did support me and was up at night doings he baby march when feeding wasn't the issue.
I think that however you want to do it,and formula fed do not if you read the board's always result in a baby that sleeps well you should have help.For beginning breast feeding and keeping it going if you want and for all mums where babies do not sleep.
And a bit more researchy baby fed on demand initially then was obviously getting enough to sleep, more cluster feeds at 6weeks.Why are some babies cluster feeding for so long?How can mums be helped,it isn't sustainable so feeding starts.
So if we want to increase bring then rather than usual guilt with breast is best we should be asking women what they ideally would like to do before the baby is born and raised about how to go about it,help available,when you should ask for help.
And partners need to be involved,how else would I have got an uplighter with dimmer switch by my bed,ideal for seeing enough without any of us fully waking.

Sorry auto correct has gone into overdrive.Why do so many alterations happen when you hit the button?!