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?

@StorminaBcup is absolutely right.

When my mum had me she got a week in hospital to learn how to feed. Now we kick mums out after a few hours. Ridiculous. My eldest got readmitted as a result of dehydration on day 4. If we had been in for that week it wouldn't have happened. And importantly it isn't always a CHOICE. When my daughter was readmitted the breastfeeding specialists were all perplexed that there actually wasn't any milk coming off me no matter what they tried. My view on this is that formula saved my babies life because I couldn't feed her. Therefore I absolutely don't see it as anything to be ashamed of. However the NHS should be ashamed for pushing this agenda for years without adequate support.

The six month figure is very old. The latest data show that 44% of women are breastfeeding at six to eight weeks.

It hurts a lot. More than contractions. I'm still going at 3 weeks because I know that the pain will stop as it did the first time and after that breastfeeding is the easier option.

It’s a vicious cycle, people,told they must b/feed, encounter normal problems and hiccups that they are unprepared for, there’s no support around to guide them through the worst patch, subtle pressure applied by family/ friends/ unsupportive partners/advertising undermines b/feeding, they then become the ‘I tried and failed’ person spreading the message to the next friend/daughter that struggles that switching to formula will solve all problems. Support from dh and my mum who had b/f 3 babies was a massive help for me.

Just checked and it is breastfeeding initiation and 6-8 week sustainment

Initiation can include just having a 'try' in the hospital.

I would imagine the drop off is greater at around 4mths. That growth spurt was so hard when bf

I honestly don't think it's possible to improve breastfeeding rates in the UK. We don't have a breastfeeding culture, familiarity with breastfeeding and knowledge about breastfeeding has been widely lost. It's just not the norm, it's not seen as the norm by society, and it's not seen as different enough from formula feeding to merit attempting it. You'd be pushing against a massive cultural/societal block. I think it's a lost cause.

I'd rather the focus be on consistent and proper expert NHS support for those women that do breastfeed. It shouldn't be a lottery based on which NHS trust you're in, or what training/opinions your HV or midwife has. There should be properly qualified lactation consultants available, and more attention paid to the establishment of breastfeeding. It seems that as long as you can demonstrate one feed, the assumption is that breastfeeding is sorted.

Imo the new position statement has been misreported. Here is a link to the new statement

www.rcm.org.uk/sites/default/files/Infant%20Feeding.pdf

Respecting a mothers informed choice to formula feed is a very small part of statement. It is an important part, but the majority focuses upon the need for adequate support of breastfeeding mums.

@Parker231

You summed up my sentiments entirely. I have FF both my DS and it worked out well and they’re healthy.

I just didn’t fancy breastfeeding and my DH was keen to help me with feeding so it worked out well.

Yes and 6-8 weeks is about 44%.initiarion is about 75%.

I think because of our attitude to ffing frankly.

The judgy hysterical attitude towards ffing by the breast is best campaign,NHS and pro breast feeders has backfired hugely. You are made to feel that one drop of formula is wrong and wrecks everything,that mixed feeding is as low as ffing,that breast milk is some kind of elixir of life.

Mums aren't daft. When I was lectured at and had stats twisted,was patronised,faced with scaremongering I switched off and ran in the other direction. I just suited myself and my babies. If I'd have been less alienated I'd have had a go at mixed feeding when the pain and desperation became too much. I think I would have then broken the 6 months goal,just realistically and in my own way.

So glad this statement was made today,long overdue.

I hated it, breastfed my daughter until 6 months but I couldn't wait to stop to be honest.

In my experience because it doesn't work - is fairly pointless in a developed country - my baby had quite severe breastfeeding jaundice because he wasn't getting any milk despite the feeding 'expert' saying he was feeding well. I semi attempted to breastfeed my second but again nobody was able to help and obviously have no confidence in the process. I would not bother again.

There’s little support. When I struggled after DS’s birth all I got was someone telling me at 2am to just put him on. Reply fucking helpful.

And by the time you’ve found and accessed bf support it’s day 5 or 10 or whichever and by that time you’re baby is either starving or on formula.

It’s a vicious cycle, people,told they must b/feed, encounter normal problems and hiccups that they are unprepared for, there’s no support around to guide them through the worst patch, subtle pressure applied by family/ friends/ unsupportive partners/advertising undermines b/feeding, they then become the ‘I tried and failed’ person spreading the message to the next friend/daughter that struggles that switching to formula will solve all problems.

Yes, this. There's a huge generational knowledge gap, exacerbated by social changes that have spread families out more geographically, and formula marketing and the mid-20th-century medical obsession with "routine" caused a huge amount of long-term damage.

They’re changing the guidance because it’s not working. The ‘breast is best’ mantra and guilt tripping and shaming mothers does not work. That has been one of the main planks of breastfeeding promotion for the last decade and it has not achieved any significant rise in BF numbers despite a huge amount of money being poured into it.

They’ve woken up to the fact that our breastfeeding rates are so low because of breastfeeding promotion and the way it is done, not in spite of it.

Mothers don’t want to engage with the practical support for breastfeeding when it comes with a side order of moralising, lecturing and guilt tripping when they are already feeling vulnerable.

It’s also usually done by other women who have successfully breastfed and that compounds the sense of failure and judgement.

We are the only country which promotes breastfeeding by making new mothers feel terrible and our breastfeeding rates are the worst in the developed world despite other developed countries having worse maternity leave, rights and pay.

This will actually bring us into line with countries with better breastfeeding rates and hopefully encourage more women to access support if they want it.

What StorminaBcup said.

its a fairly 50/50 split amongst my acquaintances between BF and FF.

Not many of the BFeeders have continued to BF to one year old though, more common to stop gradually at around 6 months in preparation for returning to work at 9months when SMP ends.

It's evident from frequent posts on here that many women are completely unprepared for the realities of breastfeeding in the early days, experience pressure from partners and family members to top up with formula, which leads women who fully intended to breastfeed to give up during the difficult early days.

I think it's also important to acknowledge that breastfeeding is ultimately yet another a huge burden to be undertaken solely by women and just how restrictive, and disempowering that actually can be for many women who until childbirth probably felt they were on a reasonably equal footing with their male partner.

It's easy to see why many women decide after weeks/months of breastfeeding to think 'fuck that for a game of soldiers' and make the decision to share the feeding burden somewhat with the other parent.

I gave up (and I desperately, desperately wanted to breastfeed, I imagined natural term breastfeeding, I would have breastfed until 4 if need be!) because she wouldn’t latch, screamed at the breast. Midwife referred be for support, but they only came over a week later. By then I had had to use formula. There was just no support. I found it’s all lip service, but when you have real problems, there’s no one there. That was my experience anyway.

I had no idea how difficult and painful bf was.

I was under the impression it was so easy and everything clicked.

It was not. It didn't help my dd was tongue tied and now nothing was done about it. It was incredibly painful and it got to the point where I didn't even want to hold my baby as it hurt so badly. So in the end I gave up and ff.

So when my Ds was born, I was more determined to try again especially as I now knew the pain.

However Ds was a bit too weak to stay latched long enough to feed and spent so long screaming that I ended up ff. I was more devastated this time too. I even thought about trying relacactation at one point. I was constantly in tears and tormenting myself.

I also developed severe mastitis both times and needed strong antibiotics so that kinda ended my bf journey

I think that the people at the top are saying that breast is best etc but the enthusiasm doesn’t trickle down to the people on the ground who are supposed to be supporting women. So many of the midwives, health visitors and breastfeeding consultants I spoke to could only talk about their own experiences and came out with gems like feed through the pain and it’s supposed to hurt.

I think as well that women are socialised to feel that they’ve got to go back to their old lives after having the baby, I know so many women who’ve gone away on hen weekends or nights out when their babies were only a few months old and they feel breastfeeding would get in the way of their social lives.

It really would probably be cheaper for the NHS to encourage formula feeding as there would be less of these issues that take up HV and midwives time, and hospital admissions for dehydration/failure to thrive etc. Very very few people in the UK believe there are any significant differences between breastfeeding and formula feeding, despite what the science says.

As others have said, FF is the cultural norm. You very rarely see people BF in real life or the media. Plus the weird squeamishness about breasts and breastfeeding in our society.

I was wondering this earlier and would like to know how it differs in other countries.

However, I think that a lack of support and a lack of knowledge is part of the reason.

If you return to work you could still breastfeed, for example you could feed just in the morning or the evening, or both. Once you have an established supply it should then settle down to how/when you want to feed.

well, look at the logistics.

most people in the UK have relatively long commutes.
UK employers aren't exactly brilliant at providing space (privacy) for expressing. one woman i work with battled to get a working fridge (team one crammed full every day to the point that some people's lunch doesn't get space) and eventually just bought her own then expensed it (with some challenge).

i know the UK fares far better than (say) American in terms of maternity leave length, in order to establish BFing and cope with lack of sleep.. but we have far far been left behind when it comes to the actual practical realities of BFing and being a population where the majority of women work.

it's not practical, basically, even if you desperately want to try and not give up. the environment is totally against you.

Our culture. It is as simple as that. Most of the above problems are experienced globally but the one thing different to everywhere else and the reason our rates are so low is our culture pure and simple. We are incredibly judgey, prudish and sexist as a nation. There is ‘stigma’ around both methods of feeding dependent on location and women’s parenting, feeding choices, working choices, etc etc are more intensely scrutinised in the UK than anywhere else.
While women are judged and discriminated against in varying degrees globally, there is something particular about ‘motherhood’ in the UK that subjects females to intense scrutiny in a fairly nasty way.

The countries with the highest rates in the world do not have the best healthcare professionals but they are all ‘collective’ societies where self expression and conversations about individual emotions are frowned upon. The mother is part of a system where each person works for the greater good of the family and community.

The UK is an extremely individualistic society and breast feeding cannot be sustained to high levels in its culture.