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?

Biological norm in which bf evolved: mother and baby together 24/7. No work, no deadlines, no commute, nothing. Family members around all the time to provide food, protection, support. Mother would have seen many other babies being born and nursed. No alternatives available.

Cultural norm where bf fails: mother told / believes she needs to seperate herself from the baby so she can ‘have a life’ including sleeping separately. mother left alone for hours during the day with baby and told that she needs to impose a routine of convenience on the baby. She’s unlikely to have seen many other babies being born or nursed. pressure to return to work - again separate from baby at an early age. Alternatives available / offered from day 1.

It’s amazing that anyone manages to bf at all, never mind long term in the UK tbh.

For me, prioritising bf was what worked. As long as that was going well, everything else could wait. So no social life, took a year off work, coslept for naps and nighttime etc. I felt like a total failure as I failed to get us in a routine and I was unprepared for the 24/7 nature of bf. But bf was the one thing I could do well so I went for it. I was lucky that there were no real issues to prevent it, and I had a very supportive DH plus both my mum and MIL bf. But I remember, after reading Kellymom and Three in a Bed, consciously stepping away from a whole lit of cultural assumptions about “me time” and routines etc etc. That really helped.

Bogstandardbelle. So how would that approach work if you also had a toddler to look after or an elderly parent. I done think it should be necessary (or that for most it's practical) for a mum to hide away from the world for 12 months in order to look after their baby.

Obviously people ff for a number of reasons. There may well be those who do so because they're worried about what it will do to their boobs etc and that's absolutely fine and their choice.

But the more important group for the purpose of increasing rates is those who desperately want to breastfeed and can't.

There are lots of people who aren't able to bf, but equally there are lots who think they weren't able to but could have if they'd had the right support early on. Those are the ones who need to be helped.

I read lots of parenting books while pregnant, attended NCT classes, my mother breastfed me for 18 months and still I had absolutely no idea what the reality of breastfeeding in the early days would be like. As others have mentioned - even if you have no supply issues, a good latch and no mastitis or thrush, it can still be painful, it's relentless, the baby can feed for hours at a time, and the burden of night feeds (and all feeds) falls entirely on you. I had no idea what was normal, and a lot of early normal bf experiences (cluster feeding, baby crying at breast etc, nipple pain) make it seem like it's all going wrong if you don't know any better.

So I absolutely agree that more prenatal support, teaching and information needs to be promoted and available. It's almost like the NHS thinks it's best to promote breastfeeding by concealing the harder aspects as if women will be tricked into doing it. I think women who breastfeed should also be part of this - I have several friends who bf and none of them mentioned any of this to me.

Post-natally, one to one support needs to be available immediately. Hospitals should have lactation consultants on call, or at least train midwives better. The community midwives who do home visits on Day 2 should also be properly trained to spot tongue tie and assist with the latch etc. When I complained of pain while feeding on day 2 the community midwife didn't even ask to watch me feed. She also told me I didn't need to burp a breastfed baby ffs.

mariemorgan I don't think it has to be a year, but I had a similar approach for the first 2 weeks thanks to my mum, MIL and DH (doing nothing but trying to bf) and I think that was essential for me.

'Three in a Bed' is a good read. I know the family, the author is a grandma now!

Three in a Bed was my bible. Followed closely by Do Not Disturb.

Traumatic birth - very.
Produced no milk but still tried for 10 days to breast feed with DS being fed milk form a cup while in hospital until I gave up.
Then told I would never have produced any milk due to being so ill in ITU.
Made to feel ashamed, embarrassed and a failure by all the pro breast feeding people.
PND probably exacerbated by the above statement.
I rarely went out because due to all the forceful breastfeeding statements and derogatory comments towards FF mums and didn't want to be seen bottle feeding my baby.

Funnily enough my DS rarely gets ill and his brain and intellect are absolutely fine despite being bottle fed, he's not overweight. My friends who breast fed seem to have quite sickly kids always catching every cold or bug going around! Some of the breast fed babies were overweight and are still overweight kids.

Personally I am very pleased about this new campaign. No-one should be forced to feel as bad as I did, no-one should judge another mothers choices about feeding their baby. Fed is best. People seem to forget that this choice has been going on for centuries with posh people or people that needed to go back to work (yes mums used to work centuries ago!) and used wet nurses or the babies just died if they couldn't get milk. Thankfully we no longer have that to deal with.

What Bog standard said.

I have done both. Bf has been right for our family this time round but in other circumstances (with any night time support at all) I wouldn't long term. So yes to no social life or ability to do much outsider the home. Yes, motherhood has been isolating and I don't think my eldest has really had a great message about equality from seeing hee sisters first year. In our society bfing comes at a big cost and it is totally reasonable for people to decide that isn't right for them or their family.

I grew up in the US and can explain slightly why the rates are better there:

• larger immigrant community from countries where BF is the norm
• shorter maternity leave means workplaces have to make more accomodations - interestingly I think long mat leave in the UK means employers assume women have finished BF by the time they return
• pumping culture and subsidized breast pumps brought in by Obama. Which allows both for working and for freedom of bottle feeding
• distrust of corporatized medical/healthcare within certain communities so avoid formula for moral/ethical reasons

Of course it’s reasonable for women to choose to ff, however I feel like the new statement, much as I welcome the idea of the 20% having their choice respected, is actually detracting from the real issue that most women do want to breastfeed and it doesn’t work out, so choice isn’t really coming into it. Of course there may be some women who secretly don’t want to b/f but feel they should give it a go for appearances, who might feel more confident in saying no now, but I would suspect that’s a pretty small minority. I don’t think the change in statement is actually going to help all those women feel less bad, because they will still feel that the choice wasn’t theirs to make. What’s always apparent from the these threads is that the desire to b/f is very much there, there are other reasons for low rates but it’s not really individual choice sadly.

Thank you, Grandmaswagsbag - there are so many of us who feel the choice to use formula wasn't our choice, and it so often gets ignored for the rhetoric of not trying hard enough / not wanting to which is really upsetting.

Well, by the time ds2 came along, I knew what to do and what I could safely let go, (the biggest change was going to Four in a Bed!) and it was much easier even with ds1 toddling around. I did say it was an approach that worked for me, in my circumstances and I consider myself very lucky that I could make those choices and had that support. So it’s a bit of both - choosing to prioritise BF over pretty much everything else AND being able to make that choice, and put things in place to support that.

I didn’t hide away: we moved continents when ds1 was 3 months old, so all my new friends were mum friends - we met up a lot but boozy nights out / weekends away didn’t really feature until the children grew up.

Clippetyclock- I am really hesitant to ask this, because I don’t want to sound as if I don’t believe you. I do believe you. But would you mind saying what sort of derogatory comments did you get, and where? And how did pro breast feeders make you feel embarrassed and ashamed? Don’t answer if you don’t want to, but I am trying to get a handle on this. I don’t know if it’s where I live, but when mine were babies, and now at a couple of groups I help out at, there are far more bottles than breasts around. When I had ds, for example, there were 6 women in the post natal room, and only 2 bfeeders. The nurse used to come and close the curtains round them so as not to embarrass visitors.

I haven't RTFT but I agree with whoever said it seems like a lost cause.
I'm still breastfeeding my 7mo and will continue to do so until he self weans.

We had a hard time establishing it in the early days but luckily no tongue tie and I was incredibly determined to stick at it. I dealt with the pain and the cluster feeding and the major sleep deprivation and am now out the other side feeling like bf'ing is actually so much easier than ff would be.

It's disheartening to hear people who plan on ff their baby before they're even born quite simply because 'they have no interest' in breastfeeding them. Nobody is going to change this attitude and the breast is best message probably makes people less likely to try. To this end I have stopped caring about how other people feed their babies. I feel very very happy with my choice to bf and I am happy we are still going.

Also - I live in an area with very very low bf rates. Out of a baby class of 18, I would be the only one bf'ing
Luckily have never had any negative comments. But it would be hard to no go with the trend I imagine!

Every baby and mother takes to bf differently. The information given to new mums prior to birth is not great and doesn't prepare them for the realities of breastfeeding or that every baby will feed differently. I bf for almost 6 months however it was definitely not a easy process. I had a 9lb + baby who seemed to be constantly hungry from birth. I was feeding pretty much hourly throughout most of this time. He put on weight very well staying on his centile but it felt at the time like a huge weight of responsibility to continue to bf. When you have a baby feeding that much it's not particularly fun and can be really draining. Although health visitors/midwives commented that he was feeding a lot at no point did they suggest I do anything other than continue feeding him on demand as he was doing so well. When I switched to ff it felt like a huge relief and I felt I could really enjoy motherhood rather than worrying constantly if my baby boy was hungry. I wish I had been better prepared for the reality of a hungry baby and I know when I have my next little one I won't pressure myself to ebf for so long If I have a similarly hungry baby!!

bogstandard

Exactly the same in our house. I felt like that was the only thing I could do well. And definitely ignoring all advice on getting baby into strict routine and own room by 6 months and bottle feeding so I could have a break etc etc

....detracting from the real issue that most women do want to breastfeed and it doesn’t work out, so choice isn’t really coming into it.

so how come BF works out so much better for women around the globe than in the UK. British women are not physically any less well equipped to BF than women in Sweden, USA or Nigeria.
for some it is no choice but for most it is. at least if I consider the FF mums I know. all decided long before the baby arrives.

Clippetyclock- I am really hesitant to ask this, because I don’t want to sound as if I don’t believe you. I do believe you. But would you mind saying what sort of derogatory comments did you get, and where? And how did pro breast feeders make you feel embarrassed and ashamed? Don’t answer if you don’t want to, but I am trying to get a handle on this. I don’t know if it’s where I live, but when mine were babies, there are far more bottles than breasts around.

I fed for two years in total and never met another mum who breastfed past 6 weeks.

I definitely got the feeling ff assumed I was judging, as i often got the defence speech about why they didn’t breastfeed before I’d even learned their names.

I am also not questioning your experience. But i would also be interested to learn more about how and why bfeeders made you feel judged.

I agree with whoever said it seems like a lost cause

It isn’t though. Plenty of other developed countries have improved their rates, including Norway and the US. They’ve taken different steps to achieve this, but it is very possible.

Funnily enough my DS rarely gets ill and his brain and intellect are absolutely fine despite being bottle fed, he's not overweight. My friends who breast fed seem to have quite sickly kids always catching every cold or bug going around! Some of the breast fed babies were overweight and are still overweight kids

Can we please not confuse the fact that benefits of bf are spread population wide, and doesn’t mean that your ff child will be obese or have asthma or whatever.

It isn’t though. Plenty of other developed countries have improved their rates, including Norway and the US. They’ve taken different steps to achieve this, but it is very possible

That's very encouraging. I was just reading an article about Scotland increasing breastfeeding rates actually so maybe I am wrong (it has been known to happen)

The benefits of FF are instant. I found having my first baby completely overwhelming - I was exhausted, scared, felt completely out of my depth and didn't have a clue what I was doing. Being solely responsible for feeding just compounded that. Switching to FF helped me regain some clarity, sanity, control - and sleep!

The benefits of BF are long-term and I was not in a long-term headspace in the days and weeks after DS was born!!!

I'd like mixed feeding to be presented as an option - I always felt midwives and health visitors were saying BF or FF, mixed was never mentioned and was basically presented as not worth trying because it wouldn't work.

I think the problem with mixed feeding is that it can cause problems with bf if you start too soon- you really need to have got the bio feedback supply and demand thing properly sorted first. Obviously that doesn’t apply to everyone.

Ive skipped a few pages so someone might of already said this but maybe we are looking at it wrong.

Marking our selfs out vs other countries on why our rate are so low and how we can improve it but what about why those countries are so high?

In the U.K. even if your on the bones of your bottom you will get cb/tc and milk vouchers so you don’t have to worry about how you will pay for your babies food. In other countries it’s not like that. Look at what nestle? Did in Africa all those years ago, those people don’t have access to benefits and lots of local shops so if your poor it’s breastfeed or the baby dies really simply put, I’ve not 100% on America’s welfare system but I’ve heard it’s not great so it could be the same there the parents just cannot afford to FF.

Over here we have the choice if bf isn’t working for whatever reason be that mental health, not enough milk, hurts too much or just don’t want to we have the option and the money given to even the poorest for them to be able to say you know what this isn’t working for me and to move onto ff.