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?

No support with Bf. The intention is there and the pressure but no actual help.

Stories in the news like - I was thrown out of primark for breastfeeding, then comments saying mother is gross and should Bf in a toilet - make women feel that Bf is dirty and looked down on and makes them feel self conscious about doing it.

Breast are so overly sexualised. Women feel their appearance is more important and Bf boobs can be affected aesthetically. I've heard woman also say they want a c-section to save their vagina. Are bodies are amazing we can grow, birth and feed and baby, but we don't want to do that because men have told us it's more important for us to be sex objects for them.

Ff is easier for many woman.

Because the lack of support, misinformation and societal norms.

I was lucky cause my midwife and HV were very supportive but others are not. My gp on the other hand told me to switch to formula when I had thrush.

There is so much misinformation about breastfeeding around, both about the pros and cons. I have heard it all about being shackled to my baby, my baby not sleeping etc. I have also never been told about cluster feeding, thrush, mastitis etc. There are pros and cons to both ff and bf. One major pro I think is how much cheaper it is but this hardly gets mentioned. Nobody ever tells you how it will be hard at first but will get better as both mum and baby get used to feeding.

I have been stared at for breastfeeding, my HV was surprised I made it to 6 months. I've been asked when I was going to give baby a bottle. I'm currently pregnant again and people just presume you will ff.

Until all of the above changes I doubt breastfeeding rates will change.

There is a cultural block yes, people were horrified that I was still bf my child aged 3, my only other friend who also bf till hers was 3 used to whisper to me "are you still going?" Bonkers!!

Fortunately, I'm a gobshite and there's nowt that embarrasses me, and there's absolutely nowt any one could say to put me off or put me down for this, pure determination and bloody mindedness with utter disregard of judges and pearl clutchers.

And absolutely I did it in public!!!

Also I am exceedingly lucky that I got along with it, and had no problems doing it.

I breastfed for 4 years - I don't know why numbers are so low or what can be done to improve them. I am from a line of formula fed babies, I can only hope that my change will make a difference to the generations to come. I've been very open about my experiences.

Ultimately I think we are just very anti-mums in this country.

Support!

I ebf DD1 till 6mos and continued till nearly 10mos. When she was 3w old her weight dipped and I was highly pressurised to give her formula top ups. I reluctantly did, offering around 10ml formula a couple of times a day for a week. She probably had less than 100ml formula total. But at the 6 w check I was told she did not "count for NHS purposes" as a bf baby. I mean, ffs, I was bfing her every 2hrs night and day for 6w but no, didn't count.

This time round, lots of support to express whilst DTs in NICU and their dietitian is great. Also bf support worker came to our house twice and tongue tie referral came in within a week. Ironically having a highly medicalised start in life has meant I am still largely though not exclusively bfing my twins at 16w which is not super long but furthet than lots go.....

"I found it’s all lip service, but when you have real problems, there’s no one there. "
Thats rubbish :(. Wish this could be fixed

I am finding this v interesting esp the posts that say they felt they were bad for giving formula.

I experienced the opposite - I was made to feel a fool for persevering with bf.

I wonder if it’s more our internal struggle that we then project on to our individual situations?

It was me that put myself under pressure to bf. Before when pregnant I was like yeah I’ll bf and if it doesn’t work I’ll ff.

wow not being able to bf hit me like a bus emotionally (no pressure from anyone) so for 3 months I struggled and I eventually weaned off top ups and ebf till 6 and bf him till 3. My choice my pressure. Lots to give ff.

Politics of breastfeeding as previously mentioned is a v interesting book.

99% of the DMs that I know breast fed but stopped between 6 to 9 months, babies get teeth then.

I tried, no milk came in so had to put on a bottle.

As for feeding beyond 1, even if I had bf I'm not sure I would have wanted to still be at it now he has a mouth full of teeth....

I had a brilliant experience in the post natal ward overnight as well. Every midwife who came to help me start breastfeeding were so calm and helpful. I actually really enjoyed my 1 night stay. Definitely gave me confidence to carry on, and to be fair after labour I have no issues feeding in public!
Not the same for everyone obviously but think that massively helped my confidence. The midwives the next day weren't as good as they were so busy getting people checked out.

Also having the confidence to ASK or reach out for help as a new Mum is not easy.

I was lucky in that where I lived I was swamped with bf clinics and lactation consultants. Yes I paid for the lc but would he so good for all to have this access.

No one told me it would be painful. No one mentioned cluster feeding.
No one told me just how utterly exhausting it is.
No one told me how hard it would be at 3am when your newborn won’t latch on and you feel like a downright failure when he’s a week old.
Formula feeding helped keep me sane. I couldn’t express and just didn’t get on with it.

So if research shows that we are worse than most other countries, has anybody bothered to ask what other countries do differently?
Do they discharge new mums within hours with no support or encouragement to bf?
Do they view breasts as sex symbols?
Do huge numbers regard bottles as the norm?

No meaningful help to establish breastfeeding when I had problems with it. Censorious looks when I fed my flailing child in public. I put on weight while breastfeeding and wasn’t able to lose any until I stopped.

It remains my one of my proudest achievements that I managed to establish it and fed DC for 11 months. I am not sure I would do it for another child. We were both miserable for two months at least as I fought to get it going. No idea it would be like that from NCT classes before birth which were worse than useless - though many peers had much easier times with it so I gather it can be comparatively easy/convenient.

And there’s no way I could have done it without a supportive partner - he actually had to help position the baby most of the time for about four weeks (baby’s head was about one third or less the size of my breast!). Most women don’t have someone whose job allows that level of support if needed, even if the husband is willing to be as supportive.

Given that women are given ‘breast is best’ lectures but very little support and huge amounts of societal judgement for feeding in public, I’m constantly surprised any of us are doing it all.

I did breastfeed and here are things that nearly made me give up earlier than I did (and I didn't make a whole year, I made 9 months)

it was painful initially
I felt a lot of baby books and advice was actually geared towards bottle-fed babies so the standards I was held up were impossible to achieve which made me feel like a failure (eg 4 hours between feeds, father giving the 10 o clock feed)
despite the breast is best mantra I felt uncomfortable feeding in public and felt people judged me and found it disgusting so I became isolated
I found I needed to eat more, was more hormonal and other pregnancy related issues didn't go away until I stopped
I found the pressure of it being all on me, no one else could give a feed, quite huge (baby wouldn't take a bottle and I couldn't express anyway )
The wean at 6 month advice is quite hard if you are feeding every 2.5 hours day and night and feel like your baby might need a bit more food than that.
I had to go back to work and would have found leaking when I thought about my baby intolerable

With the greatest respect those that have breastfed successfully really don't have a place on threads like this but as usual they pile in. It isn't about you,your success isn't what needs to be looked at. The maj want to breastfeed- badly. I breast fed for 6 weeks with my 3 and only struggled to find a place to feed once,that didn't put me off or make me quit.

Just soooo fed up with the breast feeding posts on this threads speaking for others. It's not about you or you suspicions as to why others aren't successful.

The NHS are dealing with and focusing on the wrong group.

It takes money and resources to have a high breastfeeding rate. Funding breastfeeding support would be seen as unnecessary since since formula is a totally acceptable substitute for it. There are higher priority spending that needs to happen like safe materials used in high rise flats before this.

I come from an extended family where all the women have worked for the last 4 generations.

At the moment only 3 of us will have qualified to have a year of work for our babies/children all the rest had shorter statutory maternity leave. However as two of us are self-employed taking a year out was/is simply not financially feasible especially when we are the main earners.

This means most women in my family have started with breast feeding but then gone on to mixed feeding so they could return to work.

If the government wants higher breast feeding rates than they need to pay maternity pay like they do in Norway so women can afford to take 8 months to a year of work.

Btw I have a impaired immune system and have heard some horror stories of some very sick women told to continue breast feeding when they shouldn't have, so those stating scientific fact should be aware in science there are always exceptions.

Oh yes - I could also afford to pay for a lactation consultant - don’t think I’d have managed past two weeks without her. £100 or so - not within the budget of many many women.

I'd say it's a mixture of commercialisation of ff, women needing to go back to work earlier than they needed to previously due to poverty/rising prices, health issues and general pressure.

I had a friend who had to stay at my house with her newborn for a week. Her milk was coming in amazingly and I helped her latch and she was totally bowled over and amazed. And then baby's dad came in and had a go at her and told her breastfeeding was disgusting :( She never tried again after that.

Anecdotally I’ve fed 3 past 12months and felt no teeth.

Not sure what they do but teeth don’t interfere. There must be a “science fact” about this rather than my ramblings.

maybe education with facts about bf good and bad?

I formula fed my first and am currently nearly 5 months in to breastfeeding my second. If I was to have a third I would 100% formula feed. I want nothing more than for my baby to finally accept a bottle.

I hate it and it’s not easy at all. It’s also hard to see the benefits I think. He’s been far more ill than my ff baby ever was, sleeps horrendously, has colic etc...

1. Breast feeding is hard work, can be painful, it’s a sacrifice, a sole burden on the mother, it restricts social life, it’s relentless, sleep deprivation etc - all the realities of breast feeding that some women don’t want to put up with.

2. FF is the norm these days - it’s everywhere. If I see a woman breast feeding when I’m out in public I actually feel a little bit shocked (in a good way though).

There isn’t enough support for women who want to breast feed but comes across problems - and a lot of mothers are told to give formula at the first sign of poor weight gain. Breast milk is pushed to be the best thing for babies but when a problem occurs you’re told to give formula. It’s ridiculous.

For some FF is just the easier option for them so that’s the choice they make.

For all the above reasons I think our breast feeding rates will just get lower and lower.

We are incredibly judgey, prudish and sexist as a nation

Agree. We also seem to have something in our collective psyche that means we like to seemingly like to ignore any public health messages. Preaching the benefits of this and that just doesn’t work here. I don’t think messages about what adults should be eating/drinking are getting through either.

I think people are in general less likely to stick with something difficult if they are aware that there is an "easier" option available. You seldom hear of people without a choice struggling to breast feed, e.g in 3rd world countries.