Breastfeeding rates in the UK

[Faerie87]

It’s just that really, been reading up a lot on this recently and the statics show that our rates are not as good as other countries, so what is it that other countries do differently?

I currently feed my LG a combination of breast milk and formula, I express for her, unfortunately I was never able to get her to latch properly but would have loved to have been able to feed her directly. I know this can be quite an emotive subject so I thought I would share my experience to show I’m not in one camp or the other regarding this, I’m just curious to find out what is the general consensus on why the Uk does have low breast feeding rates?

I think it’s nice to share experiences of feeding baby’s whether it be formula feeding or breast feeding, and for those ladies who have tried to breast feed but not continued what made you stop? And if you were to have another baby would you do anything differently?

glintandglide I’m going to complain, im told that sort of thing is against WHO code of marketing but not U.K. law sadly. I’d expect more from Boots really, it’s a shame.

I was told that a newborn baby will crawl up to the nipple and latch on. I believed it because I had no reason not to. I know mums who have given up because of the pain in the first few weeks. They had no idea it was normal. I think the pro breastfeeding rhetoric is unhelpful because it is false for most women. So when what happens is different, women think something is wrong.

I've also remembered the paediatric registrar when dd was admitted to hospital at 6 months old. How much milk is she drinking? I don't know I'm breastfeeding. "I need to know how many ounces" I don't know. "Well how much do your breasts weigh before and after feeds". I don't know when feeding is established they feel the same all the time. "But you must know how much fluid she is having" I'm sorry but I don't. It got quite heated. With hindsight I wish I'd been sharp enough to say look, breasts aren't calibrated, surely you just need to observe whether she's hydrated or not - aren't there clinical signs?

I think there are so many reasons. Most of them have been mentioned already. Also, stats not being collected properly and people not being truthful about wanting to bf, or reasons why they stop so they don’t get bollocked by the HV!

It sums up as hcps providing poor clinical advice and support when women are at their most vulnerable.

I know 50/60 years ago when medics first started really pushing formula onto mothers as better, the group most likely to breastfeed were those who did not go to ante natal checks and did not read and advice. So they did what their mothers told them. Now we have a generation of mothers who mostly did not breastfeed, or if they found breastfeeding easy do not know how to help with those who struggle. There needs to be intensive help that is realistic for a whole generation, before I think things will change at all.
And I think the pro breastfeeding lobby who push breastfeeding as easy and promote its bonding impact, do not help. When a mother is sitting with a week old baby that will not latch properly, with very painful nipples and a baby that is not gaining weight, the mother is going to conclude that she can not breastfeed and give up. The pro breastfeeding lot need to be more honest about the reality for many women.

I bought some TommeeTippee breastpads and noticed they have a spiel on the side about 'breastfeeding is great but can be hard...' etc. I note that their bottles (which I also have) don't come with a spiel about 'formula feeding is great but can be a right faff', just a thing about how they're so similar to the breast...

Also agree with using the acronym ‘ebf’ like a badge of honour but sometimes not even knowing what it means. People use it to mean ‘doesn’t have any formula’ rather than ‘doesn’t consume anything else’ so people say they are ‘still ebf their 13 month old’ and I’m thinking ‘you don’t give them any food??’

Yes I have thought that too Ethel. It is pretty meaningless.

Really interesting thread. I've breastfed three babies now, dc1 and 2 until they were nearly 2, and am exclusively breastfeeding dc3 now, who's 3 months.

I think, as others have said, that one of the main problems is lack of support in the early days of breastfeeding, when you're exhausted and feeding takes forever and the baby wants to feed almost constantly, and you may have sore and cracked nipples etc. It is really hard to get going, but once you're there it's great and so much easier than formula feeding. I think so many women give up because they're struggling in the early days, and there needs to be more support from midwives, health visitors, gps to say keep going, let's check your latch and feeding position because it will get much easier.

Plus, my milk took about 5-6 days to come in with dc2 and 3 and I did feel pressure from midwives to think about formula feeding because my babies hadn't regained their birthweight within a week, and I think I probably would have started formula feeding if I hadn't already fed dc1 and knew that the latch was good and we just needed a bit of time.

I also think we need to move away from the idea that women should be back to their 'old selves', as soon as possible after the birth and that everything should always be split 50/50 between parents. If you're breastfeeding, only you can feed the baby, unless you express, but you've still got to find the time to do that. Yes, your partner can do everything else, but babies are only tiny for such a small amount of time and at 6 months they can start having food and will gradually cut down on milk anyway. Obviously it's different if you can't breastfeed for whatever reason, but I don't think stopping for convenience is a valid reason, and there needs to be as much focus on support for feeding your baby as there is for pregnancy in general.

Has anyone had a baby with a low birth weight or a premature baby?

I was told by the hospital staff that I could not wait until my milk came in, I had to give her formula due to them doing a glucose test on her a few hours after she was born.

If her blood sugar levels went down then she would have to go onto the neonatal ward.

I did not know much about colostrum then and although she latched a couple of times I felt she was not sucking and I felt also it was pointless as there was no milk (again I did not know it took days to come in)

It seems if the baby is a normal weight the staff are happy for you to establish breast feeding even if it means waiting for milk to come in, however I felt I did not get that choice with a small baby. Anyone else with a similar experience? X

That’s true ethel and I still say I’m EPing for my 8mo, because it’s a lot quicker than saying what I’m actually doing which is complimentary breastfeeding, but not by breast, by bottle iyswim! Or predominantly pumping? PPing? Does that work?

There is not enough support, including the option for free, screened donor human milk rather than formula (paid, giving vast profits to the rich few) if needed. Couple of great new campaigns on this human-milk.com/index.html and humanmilkfoundation.org. Great video on the first link. i don't think either have any government support, which says a lot.

There needs to be a lot better information about how critical support is for at least the first 6 weeks. I soldiered through with no 2 but it was so hard. I might have been tempted to give up had i not done it before. Much better support the first time, 8 years ago.

Breastfeeding is not always easier than formula feeding after the early days. My SIL fed until 8 months and still had painful and sometimes bleeding nipples at 8 months. Multiple people checked latch and for tongue tie and she was told by all specialists that there was nothing wrong. She decided to persevere anyway.
I think it is more accurate to say that for most women it gets easier. For some women it won't.

It's definitely not long working hours or the cold.

Where I am in the States women go back to work weeks after birth and it's well below zero for five months of the year.

I have a wide circle of friends with children, I'm friends with midwives too so see a LOT of babies. I don't know of ONE person in my 7 years of living here that formula fed at all. Every single mother I know exclusively breast fed until at least a year old. Most breastfeed longer.

DS is almost 5 and has just stopped his morning fb. This isn't that uncommon where I live.

All income brackets and classes breastfeed here.

It isn't even a question which you will do here.

I know several people who've had babies in the NICU for different reasons and they all expressed.

I'm one recent case where a Mother had terrible complications there was a Facebook appeal for donor breastmilk, formula is seen as a very very poor second choice and a last resort.

"Breastfeeding can be challenging. New mothers may need time to establish their supply and support to get feeding on track. If supplemental feeding is necessary, the safest option is screened donor milk from a human milk bank. Along with skilled lactation support, donor milk can help to support mothers to establish their own confidence and milk supply.

We believe a new approach is possible. Mothers want to help other mothers. All that is needed to increase the amount of donor milk available is the resources and will to make the logistics possible. Our core vision is to ensure that all babies can have access to screened donor milk when their own mothers cannot produce milk, or need time and support to get there."

From humanmilkfoundation.org

Wouldn't it be great if mums who couldn't breastfeed themselves could get free human milk instead of lining the pockets of the formula industry. There used to be more mili banks, they got shut down. The government has, in my opinion, systematically taken away support for breastfeeding. It's not surprising rates are low.

Has anyone had a baby with a low birth weight or a premature baby?

My dd was born at 35 weeks, wasn’t low birth weight, but she did have bad jaundice and dropped more than 10% weight quite quickly. I have to say the hospital were extremely supportive in helping me b/f. The scbu staff came every 3 hours for a week to cup feed her my expressed milk. The only time formula was mentioned was when the consultant suggested she might need tube feeding to help clear the jaundice, but by that point I had tons of expressed milk so we would have been able to use that instead. She eventually got the hang of feeding from the breast after a week. I think I was really lucky to have such great help from the hospital.

Because in this country we boot mums out of hospital as soon as possible with little
support after what is a major event for the body.

40 years ago my mum was kept in for a week to learn how to feed.

It's no good the country bemoaning we have low breastfeeding rates when there is very little support. The breastfeeding volunteers I saw at hospital could barely communicate and were not healthcare professionals. A 20 minute visit from a midwife when you're at home and she's also got to inspect your stitches and weigh the baby doesn't really cut it.

I am sick of the rhetoric criticising formula feeders when the support isn't there and the answer is quite simple.

I'm still bf my youngest..he's nearly 9m now. He won't take the bottle and now I'm back at work it's a massive problem. I work evenings and he can,.at times, get quite distressed as he wants to go to bed but wants me. In my view, the length of maternity leave/financial worries can make bf problematic. Also the lack of paternity leave available or lack of family available to help.

I'm not sure I'd bf if I had my time again

Fwiw, I can compare as my eldest was ff

For me it was the sheer relentlessness if breastfeeding that made me quit after a few weeks. No one told me about cluster feeds, latch problems or that the baby would just suckle for fun and I’d be attached to him fir up to 8 hours at a time. It was only when I started feeding that a heard anything about those things. I found support groups really dismissive of my difficulties. I was basically told to suck it up and that this was all normal. I think if had know n realistically how intense it would be I might at least have been prepared for it. I think women have forgotten ghosts hard it is nd why mothers turned to formula in the first place. Pretending it’s easy and making women who can’t cope feel shit about themselves doesn’t help, I think there is far to much pressure and a lot if smugness amongst mothers that manage it too. Why can’t you just say ‘feed my baby’ rather than ‘breastfeed’ ? It’s the new version of going through childbirth without pain relief and wanting a medal for it. Also a failure to recognise that everyone is different and that what you can cope with isn’t what another woman can? I also hate the lack of support for mixed feeding. I have ended up pumping and giving formula. It works for me but I’m making it up as I go along as midwives just look down on you for not breastfeeding. More woman would be open to trying breastfeeding or mixed feeding if there wasn’t so much pressure to do it exclusively until 2! Surely it’s better to try to encourage women to try it and give it up or give some milk rather than all or nothing.

@amazinggrace16 I’m sorry but researching and planning does NOT mean you get a non medicalised birth! Are you crazy! You can’t control how your baby will arrive. You might get lucky but many many women who want natural births end up needing interventions. This is NOT because they are being cajoled by Doctors but to save their babies lives. Plus I’m sorry but why should a woman who finds breastfeeding difficult decide not to do it? It is natural but sometimes the difficulties outweigh the benifits. I got seriously depressed breastfeeding. I wasn’t bonding with baby and I had to just say enough is enough s formula is a perfectly fine alternative.

I breastfed because I discharged us. The midwife on duty told me I would never be able to breastfeed for physiological reasons.

I discharged as they were pressuring me to give formula when I knew it wasn’t needed.

As soon as we got home DD latched herself and that was it.

Had I remained in hospital I’m sure we wouldn’t have BF at all

My experience of bfing my 3 dcs has been that my friends and family think I’m a nut job. Everyone is “oh well done” for the first month or two then it changes to “when are you stopping”, “can’t you come for a night out”, “can’t we have the baby overnight”....

Im feeding DC3 now at 18 months and I’ve basically had to pretend that I’m not to most people. Culturally large parts of this country are against BFing, however much promotion has gone on.