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?

I agree fourquennelles. One has only to look at infant mortality at the turn of the century.

A friend of mine is an Historian. She told me that prior to the 1800's it wasn't childbirth that led to the most infection related deaths of mothers but mastitis.

Bearing in mind that I developed infective mastitis I think I would have died despite a relatively easy birth. Without a wet nurse (or the resuscitation at birth) ds would have inevitably followed.

Spanglylycra, I gave birth 40 years ago at Queen Charlotte's. Domino births were the thing then. You were in and out in 24 hours. No one I knew was kept in for a week to learn to breast feed. There was a lot of pressure to feed because of recent research which showed how beneficial it was for the baby. It was uncomfortable at first and the standard remedy if you were in pain was a cabbage leaf in your bra!
I think that some posters imagine that the old days of the NHS were full of help and support like Call The Midwife. There was far less choice then. Far less emphasis on the mother. No one showed me or suggested formula feeding so I just got on with it. i suppose I was a bit scared I would get into trouble if I didn't try hard enough.

Early thr only stats rrporrted nationally in England are from the health visitor 6-8w check

Thank you stealth. I always wondered where the 1% at 6 months Figure came from, as I haven’t seen a health visitor since early days but that may just be me?

When ds was 6 months old and 9 months old, I was asked if I was still feeding him quite lot. He's 19 months old now and I still feed him at night and when's he's irritable and upset but I don't tell anyone as I know I would get a negative reaction. One dad even said that he though you weren't meant to breastfeed past a year.

That figure came from the infant feeding survey 2010. Best we've got as it hasn't been repeated.

I was desperate to breastfeed both my babies and failed. I was in agony both times despite being told my latch was brilliant. I’m white, middle
Class, uni educated and affluent and I had plentny of milk and babies gaining weight. I had amazing support both times due to living in an affluent area. Yet I still failed. My mental health started to decline both times due to the incredible pain I was in. I got thrush both times making it even more excruciating. I dreaded feeding my babies. My mental health still hasn’t recovered this time, 4 months on from my second. I still feel useless. I guess I just didn’t try hard enough and wasn’t mother enough to sacrifice everything to get breastfeeding right?? I truely think I’d of thrown myself off a bridge if I’d of kept going.

I’m not really sure what my point is, but all I know is some comments on threads like these and the news stories upset me. The language used, e.g failed to establish, compound my feeling of guilt and worthlessness.

To anyone who gave it their all and still failed like me I know it wasn’t through lack of trying but doesn’t make it any easier to accept.

Absolute horrendous failure to fund postnatal care and make breastfeeding a priority for those who want it.
I had to battle to breastfeed, midwives and nurses in hospital tried to help but made it worse by very chaotic and conflicting advice, lots of grabbing and squeezing, comments about big boobs 'squashing the baby's face'. We managed in the end but my god, it was terrible. I think the midwives were overstretched and advising based on their own experience rather than any training. I might as well have asked any random group of women to help.

I didn’t have a low birth weight baby but there was a risk that he might end up struggling to feed so I expressed colostrum into syringes prior to the birth in case they were required. The hospital provided the syringes and advice on how to express antenatally. I think this helped him regain his birthweight within a week, as although I didn’t end up needing the syringes my breasts were already geared up for production. However, this wouldn’t be possible with a premature baby (I didn’t start expressing until 38 weeks) and not everyone is able to do it

Lack of proper support that doesn't cost the earth I think!

The comments about research, I mean no offence by this as I'm sure I was exactly the same when expecting my first! But no amount of research, knowledge can prepare you for the reality. My birth was straightforward, very little pain relief (just an hour or so of gas and air) but it was traumatising! I knew all about how frequent babies BF, I'd spoken to friends, been to the workshop. But again, nothing can prepare you for the hideousness of a baby who doesn't sleep for more than 40 mins between feeds, whilst trying to recover from birth. Reality is very different to the research's

readysetcake If anyone failed it wasn’t you

@readysetcake , you sound exactly like me. Big hugs to you. XX

Myself personally, I thought it would be a natural thing to do and it would just happen with my first- when she arrived I had no clue and very little guidance. I lasted 3 days before my other half made a Tesco dash at 2 in the morning on the 3rd day for formula as I was in utter pain with each feed and couldn't cope with the agony of it. I was emotional anyway (obviously) and sleep deprived which concocted the end of that for me.

I then tore myself to shreds with guilt for failing for months after and still now regret not trying again even after a few bottle feeds.

Currently growing DC 2 and all of the above has been thought about already.

It's not so much about research making the process easier, but about actually knowing what is normal/to be expected and what isn't. For example, women thinking milk comes in on day one, or that babies shouldn't be feeding for hours at a time, or that babies miraculously know how to latch perfectly and feed. Without doing my own reading, I might not know milk doesn't come in immediately and would panic that I didn't have proper flow on day two or three. Whereas now, I know that it's normal and not a reason to panic. Likewise, I've learned about cluster feeding and that it doesn't mean baby isn't getting enough. Without learning that, I would probably have assumed that something wasn't working. That's more the kind of thing I mean.

Support and information are very different things. I had all the information. And to be honest even if I'd had more support from midwives etc, it doesn't help when you're surviving on no sleep, have blocked ducts and mastitis and feel horribly anxious every time you feed!

Of course, but information still helps. If women are giving up because they don't know milk doesn't come in on day 1 or 2 (and they are because I've read the threads on here), then that's so unfortunate and sad, because it's something so easily avoided. It's important that there is easily accessible information and support provided to all women, but it is also our responsibility to go out there and look for it ourselves. So yes, education should be better, but we need to be proactive about looking for it too.

Most women start breastfeeding the intention is there. The fact about half stop by six weeks is down to lack of support and lack of normalisation imo.

@readysetcake I feel the same as you about how these threads stir up emotions. Three generations of women with useless, empty breasts not producing anywhere near enough milk to sustain their babies. No amount of education or training creates milk that just is not there.
Thank God in the past for wet nurses and in the present for formula.

I don't think it helps that it's made out to be easy and painless. It's constant and pretty painful for the first few weeks. If I hadn't had my mum who pointed out it was totally normal to be painful and constant aIong with my stubborn attitude I might have given up.

I also think the fed is best and happy mummy crap doesn't helped either. They should be realistic and not try to sell it with them images of a model all done up gazing at their baby. It's hard work feeding a newborn every 2 hours around the clock, chances are your nips aren't going to take too kindly to being sucked on 24/7, so it's going to hurt at first. Why suggest otherwise?

@nellyelora

I think you are right about generational change but also the reasons women moved away from breastfeeding in the first place-because it’s hard! Generations of woman probably saw their mothers tied to a baby and saw formula as an easier and welcome development. I did imagine it would be hard but not as hard as it was. If every midwife you see sings the praises of breastfeeding and how natural / convenient it is you beleive them. Plus I didn’t necessarily beleive posts online about how hard it is as generally people that have a positive experience don’t post. It’s only when you are doing it that people own up to the reality of it. Plus as I said many of the things I found difficult (like the cluster feeding) were dismissed. I was made to feel like a ‘softy’ for finding that hard. I didn’t care about the other tasks like tidying etc so help from relatives wouldn’t have mattered. What I needed was sleep and I couldn’t do that with a baby attached to me. Not sure what I’m saying really other than that I think women are often villified for taking an easy option but really there isn’t anything wrong with that. Having a baby is really hard. Learning to breastfeed can Be really horrendous and we mustn’t try to see this as something that needs fixed. Just need to respect that it’s not for everyone and appreciate that we live in a culture where there is a choice. Mums here are well nourished and can feed their babies if they so desire if not there’s an alternative

@readysetcake i remember you from antenatal group. Sorry your mental health suffered due to breastfeeding. My mental health was poor for the first few weeks due to sleep deprivation and breastfeeding making me pass out but fortunately we both got the hang of it and my baby helped my boobs not feel big and sore and then I'd feed her half asleep. I don't think any ff mums are bad mums, i just know im lucky to not have to buy formula which tbh both my mother and mil said they breastfed as it was cheap.

I agree with @Celebelly - that was the point I was trying to make with my post. I think having some kind of inkling of what is normal and what isn't will assist women in being able to establish breastfeeding. It does not necessarily mean you will be definitely be able to breastfeed as there are many other factors involved.

A friend of mine is an Historian. She told me that prior to the 1800's it wasn't childbirth that led to the most infection related deaths of mothers but mastitis

Gosh, that’s fascinating. That definitely surprises me. I would have thought it would be sepsis or something considering most of us now have help delivering the placenta (so presumably is a not insignificant risk it doesn’t come away naturally?) and I know of many, many women who have had to have D&Cs or ERPCs either for retained placenta or, more likely, for miscarriage. I know my own one (MC) was on medical advice worried about infection.
You’d think without the jab to make the placenta come out and with more pregnancies and more miscarriages retained products / sepsis would have been a really high cause of mortality.
Sorry off topic a bit!

“What I needed was sleep and I couldn’t do that with a baby attached to me”

This is how I ended up cosleeping, though HV was useless in this respect and just said “we advise against that” and had no other suggestions

However, cosleeping is not an option for everyone, and it doesn’t necessarily get you much more sleep - just safer if you are at risk of nodding off on the sofa whilst holding the baby

And nearly 5 months on I’m not getting much more sleep tbh, but he won’t take a bottle now so here we are. I didn’t keep going because I was some sort of superwoman - I was just lucky that things weren’t otherwise so tough that breastfeeding had to give