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 was sometimes made to feel awful for breastfeeding. Often it was just random people but sometimes even friends did it.

I was sitting on the sofa feeding at another child's birthday party when the child's mother came past clearly disgusted and said ' That's why I gave up breastfeeding at 6 weeks but still hindsight is a wonderful thing'. She made me feel as though I should be ashamed of what I was doing.

Another friend came to visit and said he thought it was absurd that I was still feeding after 6 months. When he went home he phoned me to say that he had spoken to all his female friends and none of them had fed for that long. Apparently I was being a matyr and should stop immediately.

It would be useful if the NHS or some other organisation commissioned a big survey into whether women believe that there are any benefits to breastfeeding/risks to formula feeding. My bet would be that the vast majority would agree that there's little to no difference between formula and breastmilk. Every single bit of research is dismissed as flawed or that the benefits are actually down to being middle class or wealthier or better educated or whatever. Why would anyone continue with breastfeeding if there are difficulties when they don't believe there are any benefits?

I was very lucky with DD1 and was able to feed her easily to 16 months. Never even got so much as a sore nipple.

Even then the first night in hospital post section with DD2 was hard - it was all new to her and I'd forgotten! I just needed a bit of help getting her latched on, so kept ringing the bell for help. After a few hours, a midwife said, "are you sure you don't just want to give her a bottle?"

After a few hours! And with a baby feedIng nicely once she was latched on . I found that very odd.

Bf'ing is right for some, ff for others, and mixed for the rest. Nobody should judge anyone else or make them feel bad for their choices (that may not be choices at all) - just support them if they need it. So long as the baby is fed and the mother is happy!

@RomeoBunny, thank you for bringing up the point about folic acid causing tongue tie. It's a little known fact and many countries do not recommend taking it as a supplement anymore. What's quite rotten is that it is now added to flour - it had been in the US for many years but came to the UK a couple of years ago, despite it becoming inactive after it is exposed to heat as it's molecular structure changes. You're not going to be eating flour without baking it! That's an example of big businesses putting their financial interests before the health of society which is, on a macro scale, what lies at the heart of most, if not all, of the health issues and cultural problems effecting the UK. While many will cry that this is off topic, it is very relevant: Big companies force their agenda onto consumers to make them reliant on the companies product to the detriment of their own natural instints and way of being. Not just formula but in many seemingly unrelated ways like supplements in food that can have negative impacts and chemicals in materials from clothes to furniture to cosmetics that effect fertility and cause cancers, mental health issues and thing such as autism.

@AssassinatedBeauty I'm not trying to persuade anyone, particularly. I'm just signposting the data that exists. Class and privilege are major confounds in the data that are hard to weed out completely, yes. But they can be controlled for, and it's far from as simple as to say that they invalidate it.

For the record, I'm no fan of the NHS's current approach to breastfeeding promotion. I would change a lot about it. That doesn't mean that there isn't good evidence they should be doing it.

Imo pengggwn summed it up wonderfully. Its not enjoyable, it ties you down, its painful and they don't sleep as well. After the trauma of birth I just wanted to enjoy my baby not dread feeding time. And because we have options we take advantage of them.

I stopped breastfeeding DS1 at 3 weeks because I was never given any support or told about cluster feeding and thought that DS must be starving! I was 17 and desperate to able to breastfeed my baby. My mum formula fed my sister and I so wasn't able to offer any advice or help.

I managed to breast feed DS2 until he was a year and a half because I researched things a hell of a lot myself. I wasn't given much more support really other then positive comments about the fact I wanted to try (midwives) but received general sceptical or negative comments from family/friends/strangers. I got mastitis when DS was a year old and ended up having to go to the hospital for antibiotics because I was so poorly. The nurse told me that DS was to old to be breastfeeding now anyway so this was the time to stop. I didn't thank god but that really upset me.

I'm now currently breastfeeding DS3 who is two weeks old. He initially lost 7% of his birth weight (gained it all back plus some now) and I had one midwife tell me to top up with formula and made me feel like I was starving him.

I have had a mixed experience when it comes to breastfeeding so I can understand why so many people give up or decide against it straight off, I also don't judge either way. Fed is best.

My sister is currently pregnant with her first DC and has decided not to breastfeed. She left her midwife appointment last week in tears because of the talking down she got.

You really can't win either way!

When I had mine, you could give them cows milk at six months. No sterilisation necessary. Why would I still BF after then? I was working full time, fed up of permanently feeding a hungry baby at the breast and started weaning.

I'd done my bit, it's hardly surprising only 1 in 200 are bf at one year old.

Horrendous experience bf dd with grabby midwives, weight loss and hospital readmission, TT cut at 11 weeks - very stressful and almost lost my mind. Did combined feeding for a while then dropped the ff and still bf now at 18 months.

It seems like there is zero evidence basis to the ways women are supported with bf - it felt so random and sketchy in hospital. There should be studies to find out what approach doesn't stress women out but helps those who want to to feed. I don't think midwives know what actually works most of the time. I got so much inconsistent advice.

Bf gets easier the longer you do it, the fact that there's not much support means more women stop bf early after a negative experience and then share that, which in turn reduces the bf rate. Now it's just a handy way to soothe my dd when she's tired or upset, plus it gets a few more vitamins in her when she won't eat anything but toast!

There is not enough factual info in the public domain about breastfeeding.

Women try it and give up because they don't understand cluster feeding, feeding at night, hourly feeds, getting the latch right, having wet and dirty nappies instead of measuring formula. They think they're doing it 'wrong' and switch to formula.

Had a 5 day labour followed by an emergency c section. They asked if I wanted to breastfeed. I laughed and said no.

There are benefits Assassinated but they are pretty miniscule when you factor in lifestyle choices,genes and the actual stats involved. Unfortunately some research does then have subsequent research debunking it.

Ffing mothers are more than intelligent enough to read the info and make informed choices. The fact is the benefits simply aren't big enough for many to endure the pain and other negatives particularly when we have a good safe alternative.

Improve it by having properly trained hcps with better interpersonal skills and more time to spend supporting individuals.

Never any mention of relactation, just a clear cut "well, if you're not managing to feed after a week, you'll have to use formula" and that's it

I agree - and it puts all the pressure on those first few days. Baby not feeding at day 3? Give them some formula. Baby's had some formula? Oh well, no point trying to breastfeed now - you'll have lost your supply.

I switched to formula at day 3 or 4 because DD wouldn't latch on, and although I was lent a pump by the midwife (who to her credit had spent hours with us trying to help with latching) I was given no guidance at all to expressing. There wasn't much on the internet either in those days. So by day 6 she was fully formula fed.

Totally by chance on about day 7, we saw a different HCP who got us really calm and relaxed, then handed me DD and said 'Give it another try'. Sure enough she latched on and sucked happily for ages.

I went to the bookshop and read through every book I could find on breastfeeding to find out how to relactate. There wasn't much info, and I felt a bit embarrassed asking the midwives for help - like I was being a bit ridiculous and arrogant thinking we could restart breastfeeding.

But what I did read said to gradually reduce the formula, put her to the breast a lot, eat and drink well, rest, and lots of skin to skin.

It was hard especially early on, because I was never quite convinced my milk supply had built back up, but it obviously did as she's now 6'1.

From my POV I didn't want to BF because I couldn't bear the thought of the 'burden' all being on me. I FF from birth with zero regrets.
I think though that a lot of posters have hit the nail on the head, too much pressure prenatally that it's 'easy' and 'everyone can do it' means that no one is fully prepared for the potential onslaught once the baby is here. Lack.of support generally afterwards also doesn't help.

I also think what may help is medical professionals helping more with regards to combi feeding.

*Bedknobsandhoover

So if research shows that we are worse than most other countries, has anybody bothered to ask what other countries do differently?*

I think we do know what other countries do differently but one of the main thing is culture which will take such a long time to change. Budgets are being slashed and the rates are not increasing quickly so there is no 'success' so cuts are made to services like breastfeeding support which this thread shows is so important.
Health visitors are dealing with more child protection issues and again more financial pressure.
No children's centres or support groups and peer groups there have gone
Unfortunately as usual it is down to money and not having the patience /foresight to see that investment now will take time to see a result

cowparsly it is important to listen to those who have bf as well as those who didn't. What worked is an important lesson to learn as well as why people choose not to bf I think both views and their right to choose how to feed are equally important

Also, let's be honest, people would rather listen to their mum's advice than a stranger's, on the whole. If 60% of mums FF from birth, then 60% of daughters are going to do so, too.

@jimijack exactly my thoughts! I am a long-term BF-er and I don’t think I have been asked since I met the HV when my baby was about 2 weeks old. It has always bugged me when Inread the stats, because I think it would be higher if people were actually asked, and it’s not as though it would need to be a massive effort, considering we get 1 and 2 year reviews anyway. Maybe the paperwork for reporting back makes it not worth it (I work in healthcare so am fully aware that it is never a simple case of ‘this person said yes, this person said no’.

“Imo pengggwn summed it up wonderfully. Its not enjoyable, it ties you down, its painful and they don't sleep as well”

And another woman- like me- would say it is hugely enjoyable, gives you enormous freedom, doesn’t hurt and provides you with a pretty effective “sleep switch”............

I suspect if you took into account admissions for dehydration from bfing,the cost that increased bfing support would bring and the reductions of gastro treatment if you increased bottle prep training any alleged savings would be greatly reduced.

you suspect? Babies nearly dying of dehydration because of inadequate b/feeding is massively overstated by the ‘fed is best’ campaign. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen but it’s very rare. Gastro/ chest infections/ear infections are common in babies, Considering that the danger is that the actual formula isn’t sterile, Bottle prep training would be completely undermined by the formula industry anyway. They happily tell parents to make up some specialised formulas (normally ones that contain probiotics completely needlessly) with cold water. I’ve just looked at the apatmil website instructions on how to make up formula and no where does it actually stipulate that water must be 70 degrees like the nhs website does.

Queen your obesity hypothesis is tosh.

are you under the impression I did all this research and came up with the hypothesis myself? A meta-analysis is the gold standard in medical research. These articles have been published in the Lancet and JAMA. The link is well-established and there appear to be two mechanisms, one linked to bottle-feeding reducing babies' ability to self-regulate appetite and one to do with the components of breastmilk itself.

I don't really care what you believe, but if you think all these sources are tosh you'd probably best steer clear of medical care altogether.

I was in enough pain after the birth, I had no interest in roughing out even more pain in my tits for a few weeks to carry on. Colostrum and first milk done and then onto the parenting wonder that is the perfect prep machine 😍

I think advertising formula should be banned, and the formula makers banned from advertising to new mums in hospital literature and magazines.

This. My HV told me that after the government banned the advertising of formula milk for newborns, the formula companies invented follow on milk so that they could continue to advertise. That's the only reason follow on formula exists. The WHO has called on the EU to ban advertising of follow on formula, but so far it hasn't.

If you need or want to ff, fair enough, but the constant adverts for ff on TV make it harder for people to choose to breastfeed.

I feel that we need to look more at caesarean or assisted birth rates which are going up in this country. These mean that milk takes longer to come in, so mum gives up and FFs or gets it in the neck from the health visitor for losing too much weight. I had this exactly - instrumental birth, 6 days for milk to come through, lecture from HV about 11% weight loss. The same HV who was amazed when DH called her about 9 month old DS with D&V and said he couldn't stop solid food and give him a bottle as he was still BF. The milk came in, but if you reduce the number of assisted births you'd see milk come in sooner.

Where I live you can go to a MLU for BF support when you discharge from hospital after birth, which is supposed to be amazing. I had no idea this was an option after DS's birth but it's in the birth plan for my current pregnancy. Such support should be available for all mothers - even our MLU is only available to those mothers who can get themselves there, so you'd need a car. You're not going to chug out on a train with a newborn are you?