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?

Neither of my boys thrived on breast milk alone, so I combination fed the first and am doing the same currently. I feel like an utter failure, that people are judging me when I feed him a bottle in public, but he's fed, he's healthy and I breast feed him as much as I can although I don't think he's getting very much.

It is a very British habit to blame the NHS for a variety of problems. But is the NHS really to blame here and is the answer really more support from professionals? I think this is more of a cultural problem. I’m not convinced more NHS support and funding is the answet.

Diabolical - you are in no way a failure!
You're doing what's best for your family. Your children are loved and well fed and that's all that matters. Honestly.

Aln this blaming/judging absolutely has to stop, on both sides🙁

In the grand scheme of bringing children into the world and bringing them up to be happy and healthy adults, what you feed them in the first six months is just one thing. It's just that when you're the thick of it seems so important. Not saying it isn't, but as they grow older there always seems to be another divisive issue that causes people to become judgemental: vaccinate or not? Tablets/mobiles before a certain age or not...and so on.

I don't think our parents felt so judged about their decisions, they just got on with bringing up their children the way they thought best.

Few things.

Pressure to return to work ASAP either for financial reasons or not wanting to fall behind.

The fact breasts are hugely sexualised in this country and breastfeeding seems to be shameful. It may be illegal to ask a woman to breastfeed elsewhere but it doesn’t stop weird looks and tuts from strangers. Most new mum’s don’t feel confident enough to potentially face that judgement.

But mostly I just don’t think FTM’s are informed enough about just how difficult breastfeeding can be so it comes as a complete shock. I remember discovering Lasinoh cream for example when my nipples were pouring with blood and I was in agony, it was heaven yet no health professional had advised it. I certainly didn’t expect them to crack, bleed and cause me so much god damn pain.
It’s messy as sin. I would go to bed wearing about four breast pads and STILL wake up covered in milk.
Unless you express which is very time consuming and makes you feel like a prized cow, Dad can’t help with the night feeds so it’s pretty knackering. Also the cluster feeding! I had no idea I’d have to sit for hour long stretches feeding.
It all came as a massive surprise and I felt utterly overwhelmed. Breastfeeding is not as easy as people make out, at all. Formula is definitely the easier option as much as people like to go on about it being difficult because of washing and sterilising etc.

Aside from the health benefits the main reason I stuck at breastfeeding was quite simply the expense of formula. It is ludicrous.

northernmum seems to be a trend where BF mums, or wannabe BFing ones, are discouraged by FF ones. Maybe that's partly why the numbers are low. You did well continuing with it despite the obstacles and lack of support first time round And congratulations on your second baby, must be so good having the support and a baby that feeds well.

no one wants to see someone breast feeding anyway

^this^ maybe another reason why many are not comfortable around breastfeeding. They are just breasts, half of the world population has them, and they are covered by the baby's head.

There are lots of worse things no-one wants to see in public - i.e. people walking around half naked as soon as it gets remotely warm - and no-one dare say a thing to them in case they cause offence. But get a glimpse of half a square inch of breast when a baby is feeding - usually after a lot of staring and neck crooking - and suddenly people are offended and feel free to criticise it.

When my breastfeeding sister had to have surgery, the hospital made no attempt at all to work with her on making sure that didn't mean the end of breastfeeding - they simply assumed she'd give up.

She had to insist on having her baby with her until shortly before and shortly after the surgery so that she could continue to feed him. The assumption was that he would be left at home and bottle fed during her entire time in hospital waiting for surgery and recovering from surgery (it was very minor surgery).

The fact that she asked the hospital to adjust their policies so that she could continue to breastfeed her baby was treated with horror.

The pressure to return to work in my opinion is a total red herring. Most women take at least the paid maternity leave of the 6 weeks at 90% and the 33 weeks at SMP = 39 weeks in total. If return to work were a factor, you'd expect to see high breastfeeding rates at 6 months, then a sudden drop when mothers go back to work.

But Unicef figures (www.unicef.org.uk/babyfriendly/what-is-baby-friendly/breastfeeding-in-the-uk/breastfeeding-rates-in-the-uk/) show that at 3 months, only 17% of babies are exclusively breastfed. Not many mothers are back in work full time, 3 months after giving birth.

I breastfed for the first 4 weeks and then DD started screaming, bobbing on and off the boob, sucking 24/7. It was hell. I went to HV and was told it was "normal". I tried to access lactation counsellors but none available nearby. I gave her a bottle and she gulped it down. I assumed it was a b'feeding issue and started mix feeding. Her feeding issues continued and she evenutally ended up in hospital but by then I was exclusively bottle feeding (she still wouldn't settle to the boob - or to the bottle either but at least with a bottle I could see what she'd eaten). Eventually she was diagnosed by a paed (after about 1000 unhelpful GP and HV appointments where they told me babies just cry) with a variety of issues including reflux. The reflux medication helped her feeding a bit but by now she was months since I breastfed. Her eating remained problematic until she was about 2 due to the reflux.

More support from knowlegable profesionals able to come to the house and spend time in a non-judgemental way helping would have really helped.

Far too little support and information about how difficult breastfeeding is, but also IMO people care to much about “doing the right thing” when actually it should be A, ok to admit that you’re struggling and B, ok to give the baby a bottle if you’re not managing. If people didn’t feel that not only were they being judged but also that they should feel that they might be judged, then they might feel more free to actually talk about the difficulties and admit that things are hard. And they might also feel free to admit that formula is not the poison they have been led to believe it is, and that if they took a night off and gave the baby a bottle or more to the point let someone else give the baby a bottle then they would have the energy to start afresh the next day if that was what they wanted.

But in the scheme of things it really doesn’t matter if you don’t breastfeed because we live in a country where safe alternatives do exist, and by the time the baby starts school no-one will care or even know how he/she was fed.

I've got twins, didn't fancy a baby on each boob and especially didn't fancy doing it all night by myself. Formula feeding has allowed me to keep my sanity. I never would've coped otherwise.

PolkerrisBeach the first three months or should I say the first six weeks are the hardest though and presumably the time when women are most likely to give up due to how difficult it is and how little information there is on how difficult it is.

The reality is that if you have a baby who screams constantly and giving that baby a bottle relieves that, most women will take the option of bottle feeding given that you can never know when or even if BF will settle into a proper pattern. The idea of having to feed constantly for say six months is not something any woman would want to contemplate, and as such it’s easy to see why women give up or potentially give in to PND.

There are plenty of posters on MN who will say that problems being able to bf contributed to their pnd and that a cloud was lifted when they gave bottles. these experiences should not be ignored in the name of promoting breastfeeding, instead the reasons why breastfeeding is so problematic need to be acknowledged and addressed.

And. Speak as someone who was unable to bf due to the fact I never actually produced milk and have been accused on MN of lying and not knowing what I was talking about unless I had proper tests to confirm my lack of milk....

Blueisland - I agree that it certainly is cultural in that for a whole generation, perhaps more, ff was the norm so our own mothers and often grandmothers are not able to offer the expert advice and support that is needed.

As I explained in a pp, it was a group of La leche league volunteers that helped me through the difficult first weeks.

If we don't have the natural family networks that always helped young mothers in the past and the NHS doesn't have the resources, is it right that women should have to depend on voluntary groups?

While I have never and would never judge a mother for ff, it always struck me as frankly bizarre that the only time I could meet up with other bf mums and talk about and bf openly was once a month in a church hall!

Our bodies are designed to do it, our great-grand-mothers and all those who came before did it, and yet here we are hidden away, often clueless and feeling rubbish because we can't do something that all mammals do...

Sort of reminds me of growing vegetables: everyone with a garden used to do it until a couple of generations ago but until the last ten years or so it had become a sort of lost art. Cooking and homebakibg too now I come to think of it.

Maybe we should have a bf TV show?
Ready, steady, boob? The Great British BF?😁😁😁

Ok, I've gone off on a wide tangent so shall now get my coat...

I had dd on Thursday. I have a ton of milk (managed to pump 90 ml very quickly yesterday) but I can not get her to latch properly. It was fine at first when she was slightly jaundiced and sleepy but now regardless of what position we try, she fights. The positions which worked for ds have her flapping about screaming as does everything else yet she'll happily rest/sleep in them when feeds aren't involved. Giving her a tiny bit of expressed milk to calm her down helps but she just will not go on the breast.

The midwife came around yesterday and had a look, said I was doing everything right and to keep trying breast, skin to skin, breast etc but it's soul destroying. So we're currently combo feeding her formula and expressed breast milk whilst trying to get her to latch. As with last time, my mood fell off a cliff when my milk came in which isn't exactly helping and I'm running out of ideas.

And I think that's the issue. I successfully breastfed ds (hated doing it, but we had no physical issues), I have an excellent supply but it's a bit like childbirth, it needs you and the baby to be on the same page and that can be tricky for various reasons.

I think if someone could put a time frame on it and say "oh 2 weeks from now, you'll back and laugh at the thought of quitting" it would be a different story but when you're exhausted, achy from birth and it's not working and you have no idea if it will work, giving up feels so tempting both for your sanity and for them.

I assumed it was a b'feeding issue and started mix feeding. Her feeding issues continued and she evenutally ended up in hospital but by then I was exclusively bottle feeding

I think one of the most valuable things i was told when dc was being investigated for a health issue was that switching to ff may be counterproductive.

As you saw if there is a genuine health issue formula won’t change anything, by which time you can’t go back to bf.

And also that formula can actually disguise a real issue- it may put on weight and make the baby appear to be feeding better, but if there is an underlying issue it will still be there.

MrsDarcyIwish except that that’s not strictly true. Back in the day babies routinely died because their mother’s milk dried up. If you were rich enough you could employ a wet nurse but the poor had no such luxuries and the inphant mortality rate was high, and part of that will have been down to the inability to bf and there being no alternative available.

DD is 18months and I am still BF. I am the only one in my NCT group of 6 who is. It took 2 months of using nipple shields and 2 bouts of mastitis to establish BF, and returning to work when she was 9 months was challenging. So it's not been easy (I was completely unprepared for how hard it would be!) but not everything that is good for our DC is, so that has helped me carry on. I'm lucky that my supply is great so we had no issues there.

I don't really care what other people do/have done, but I'm glad I've done it. My DD loves it (I don't always) and she's rarely ill unlike her peers (probably no link there!).

My mum FF me and my brothers and sisters, because everyone else did it and she thought it was better for us. She regrets it now and loves watching me BF DD.

Aw I love that about your mum @shopaholic; not that she has regrets, but that she’s supportive enough to be happy for you. There is so much “I did it this way, so you should too” about feeding babies and it really isn’t helpful.

That's true, of course.
But I did find it strange that something as 'natural' as bf - and I say that with no hidden agenda whatsoever - should have become so... I don't know ....mysterious? Elusive?

moonkissedlegs That advert would never be allowed here in the Us. They are very strict about what is allowed and it got stricter about 5-6 years ago. When DD was born FF was placed as an equally valid choice. 18 months later and after Obamacare was passed it wasn't and BF was put above FF. Lots of mothers are complaining and the rates of BF haven't increased.

Could go round the houses answering that question OP, with talk of lack of support, poor postnatal care, etc.

I’m sure those things make a difference, but I think the real reason is that British women are prudish about breastfeeding in public and just generally prefer formula - they’re in thrall to big brands.

It’s cultural. British women on the whole just don’t like breastfeeding much.

I feel hugely sorry for midwives because women just won’t be fucking honest and take responsibility for their feeding decisions. There are so many women out there who are hoping for breastfeeding to fail so they can stop with a clear conscience. And those arsing midwives bloody encouraging/bullying them to keep going...

Tip to any pregnant person reading this:

Breastfeeding can be really hard but if you are absolutely committed to it and can access help, the overwhelming likelihood is that you will be able to breastfeed in some capacity.

If you don’t want to breastfeed, or you want to stop breastfeeding, say these words to the midwife “thanks for the offer of help but I’m not breastfeeding/I’m going to stop breastfeeding”.

If you actually want to stop don’t say “I’d really like to carry on breastfeeding but I’m finding it difficult” because they will suggest lots of ways to make it less difficult and encourage you to keep going. They’ll do that because they know that most mums crack their bag problems with a bit of ingenuity and the passage of time. And because you have said you’d like to continue breastfeeding and they will take you at your word. You will then have to escalate your breastfeeding crises in hope they will ‘give you permission to formula feed’ so you can stop breastfeeding and tell everyone ‘I couldn’t breastfeed and even the midwife agreed I should stop trying’. The foolish midwife who is unable to read your mind and still keeps encouraging you because you have said you don’t want to stop breastfeeding will then appear in your breastfeeding stories forever afterwards as ‘the horrible brestapo midwife who bullied me into carrying on breastfeeding and made me feel terrible about myself”.

Be honest about what you want to do. Be bold. Own your feeding choices.

“Back in the day babies routinely died because their mother’s milk dried up.“

Back in the days babies died from infections and SIDS. Mothers milk dried up or never came in following days of obstructed labour and huge blood loss/peurperal fever which cast women down for many many months because there were no antibiotics, caesareans or blood transfusions.

Some women were horrifically anaemic or had uncontrolled gestational diabetics or tuberculosis.

But outright breastfeeding failure in well nourished, healthy women with full term babies?

Rare.

It still is.

minifingerz, that post to me sums up just about everything which puts women off breastfeeding but probably not in the way you want.

It’s not actually what you’re describing that puts women off breastfeeding and engaging with support. It’s people with your attitude that put women off breastfeeding and accessing support. It’s precisely that sort of attitude which this new thinking about breastfeeding in these guidelines is rejecting. Because the Royal College of Midwives is talking to the women who don’t breastfeed and what they are saying is that the guilt tripping and shaming and blaming and nastiness that come from attitudes just like yours is what puts them off.

You are the problem. You are not the solution.

I’m so glad zealotry like yours is finally being rejected. I honestly cannot think of anything which stands a better chance of improving breastfeeding rates.

Because that post minifingerz, you think any woman having problems breastfeeding would read that and feel inspired to feed.

No. Because that’s not your intention. Your intention is to create shame and stigma around bottle feeding because you think that will make people want to breast feed. Plus you’ll get the age old thrill those who enjoy shaming and stigmatising get. I’m sure the nuns who used to shame unmarried mothers enjoyed a similar thrill.

But it does nothing to encourage struggling women to breastfeed. It just makes you feel good.

I always hate to say it on these sorts of threads but minifingerz is probably largely right.

Women know they should breastfeed but most don't want to. Because actually breastfeeding is a big old slog that most women aren't actually prepared for, hence the high starting rates and quick drop. And when there is a perfectly good alternative right there waiting, its tempting to take it.

I agree Moon.
Mini, other women would be able to breastfeed your child for you in some circumstances.