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 am still bf my 4.5 year old. I did not plan to do this. I have not been asked if I bf since DD was about 6 months old. She is my third, I bf my 2nd until 9.5 months again was not asked and my first I expressed for 6 months. I had barely any support and mostly it’s been wrong. My sister is a midwife and she help she people with breastfeeding, but she still talks about foremilk and hindmilk and has no idea about cluster feeding. She’s has advised me and I just nod and smile. She went on a course and I can guarantee whatever she’s learnt was pretty poor, this could also have have one thing to do with it. Additionally despite such poor advice, the hospital I gave birth in did not supply formula, yet were very overstretched so could never have given decent bf advice.

Yep laurG I completely agree. Nowadays, if affordability isn't an issue, FF is the easier option. Yes once BF is well established, months in, it's certainly more convenient rather than making up a bottle. But when we have perfect prep machines, ready made formula, it's so so easy. Stopping BF and switching to FF for me did wonders for my mental health, and how happy I was as a new mother generally.

I actually wish they would teach how to cosleep. I had some near misses falling asleep breastfeeding wish I'd just done it from the start.

@laurG I never had midwives extolling the virtue of breastfeeding, perhaps it was because I said, when first asked, that I intended to breastfeed so they didn't feel the need to push it?

I agree, formula is convenient and gives freedom to parents and I have friends and family who used it precisely for those reasons. That's absolutely fine, I have no issue if someone wants to formula feed. I don't want women to feel that they have to breastfeed or feel anguished because they struggled.

I only got through cluster feeding because I co-slept. It's against the NHS advice and I appreciate it's not for everyone.

I think there certainly hasn't been the support by midwives that is needed. When I had my first baby 11 years ago it was all 'breast is best' beforehand but once babies were born it all went out the window. Then it was about any means to get a baby to feed. My son only fed for a short time at each feed and the midwife told me he wasn't feeding for long enough and to try expressing but if I couldn't to supplement with formula. I spent a miserable time desperately pumping milk to give him in bottles as I was determined not to give formula. But if I hadn't read a lot around the benefits of breast-feeding and had been strong enough to keep going with the pumping then I could have easily started giving formula which would have led to less sucking and more need for formula. Looking back on it now I know the short feeds were just how he was as he continued that way. He was also clearly getting enough as on his first weigh-in when it is normal for babies to have lost weight he'd already gained! The midwife congratulated me on continuing breast feeding but it was no thanks to her!

The other thing is a lack of peer support. I attended a breast feeding group at my local Chrildren's centre with my second baby. It was very popular and figures showed how breast feeding rates had increased in the area over the years the group ran. Of course then the Tories came along and closed all the centres so really goes to show there is no political will behind breastfeeding.

I wasn’t (despite my very best efforts) able to be my first children but fb my subsequent children until 12-18months.

I think that the trauma of a very very bad birth with no human kindness and no sleep for several days stopped me breastfeeding. Combined with only getting advice from maternity assistants who told me a few bits of wrong information and more or less assaulted me in the process.

I would like to see women who have been through traumatic births being given an hour to talk it through in the next day or so with a midwife. Having sleep prioritised by having staff monitor and help more with the babies. Also that you are routinely seen by a specialist breastfeeding consultant/midwife if you were able to feed for any reason at birth (NICU/surgery for you or baby etc)

Welshmaiden - my experience exactly replicates how you've described yours no amount of research, reading and information gathering could have prepared me for the toll that took.

Welshmaiden, that sounds dreadful and I completely agree about the lack of human kindness.

I think I was very lucky that the midwives were so patient with me. I was pretty messed up in the days after DDs birth, found feeding agony and looking back was absolutely terrified of DD. Feel like I narrowly avoided serious mental illness.

I agree that nothing quite prepares you (though that's true of the whole newborn experience, I think!) - and I had a pretty easy time of it, comparatively. I knew that cluster feeding was normal but the second night of DS's life, when I'd had two hours sleep in the last 48 hours and I was starting to realise how badly my stitches hurt, knowing it was normal that at 3am he'd been latched on for the last four hours didn't make it any better really. My DH had to keep shaking my shoulder to keep me awake because we were both so scared I'd fall asleep and drop or smother DS - cosleeping helped me a lot a couple of weeks later (and my local maternity unit come as close as they can to encouraging it without officially doing so) but at that point I couldn't latch DS on lying down so it wasn't an option.

Formula companies spend around £25 per baby on promoting follow on milk which is just a scam to get their name on TV and circumvent the laws re infant formula advertising.

38p (approx) per baby is spent on breastfeeding support, education and promotion.

Formula companies spend around £25 per baby on promoting follow on milk which is just a scam to get their name on TV and circumvent the laws re infant formula advertising.38p (approx) per baby is spent on breastfeeding support, education and promotion.

It's appalling. Formula companies should be non profit or forced to give over 50% of their profits to initiatives to help new mums. Why it's acceptable to make money from formula is beyond me.

Good point about co-sleeping - I think in my places with high breastfeeding rates co-sleeping is the norm.

I couldn't imagine having breastfed without co-sleeping, no way. Sitting in a chair, trying not to go to sleep for hours of cluster feeding? Hell no.

I know there are risks, but I also think there are risks with feeding on sofa at 4AM. There are ways to safely co-sleep, but its not talked about as its not recommended by NHS.

I think all the safe sleeping guidance needs to be balanced against the risk of accidentally falling asleep on the sofa but I that's a whole other topic.

I think maybe it is starting to shift, at least in some places. In my antenatal breastfeeding class the midwife leading it openly said she'd coslept and that it improved breastfeeding rates, while acknowledging that it wasn't the best practice recommendation. I was given a leaflet when I left hospital with a list of people who shouldn't cosleep - smokers, people who have been drinking, etc - and bed situations that you shouldn't cosleep in (waterbed etc - though who is sleeping on a waterbed anyway?!). It didn't actually say it was ok to cosleep if none of those applied to you, but it certainly felt more encouraging than many of the other sources of advice out there.

Our little one is 7 weeks. He's pretty much permanently attached to my boob at the moment. I'd say he was clusterfeeding... But that infers he has gaps where he is not... We'll get one three hour stretch at night. Otherwise he usually wakes up after an hour/ hour and a half to feed.

We're not co-sleeping, but I am considering it because of how tired I am. Fortunately my HV said whilst it's not advised - if I want to, she'll help.

I think all the safe sleeping guidance needs to be balanced against the risk of accidentally falling asleep on the sofa but I that's a whole other topic.

I am becoming more and more convinced that the safe sleep guidance, while very well intentioned, is pretty problematic. I don't know anyone who follows every bit of it (we don't - aside from the occasional cosleeping, he also goes to bed before us in the evening) and I think the danger of providing guidelines that most people seem to find difficult to follow to the letter is that it ends up getting entirely ignored as impractical.

Formula companies spend around £25 per baby on promoting follow on milk which is just a scam to get their name on TV and circumvent the laws re infant formula advertising.38p (approx) per baby is spent on breastfeeding support, education and promotion.

I wish there were some way to balance this out. Maybe the government could bring in a law stating that for every advert a formula company makes, the same company has to fund a pro-breastfeeding advert as well. Notice I say "fund" - the NHS would direct the advert, the formula companies would just pay for them (otherwise they would just use the opportunity to subtly portray breastfeeding negatively!).

I'm another cosleeper, it makes life so much easier, I'm sure I've slept through half the night feeds. We were lucky to have the space that DH could be banished to another bed while DS was very small, so it felt marginally safer.

“I am becoming more and more convinced that the safe sleep guidance, while very well intentioned, is pretty problematic. I don't know anyone who follows every bit of it (we don't - aside from the occasional cosleeping, he also goes to bed before us in the evening) and I think the danger of providing guidelines that most people seem to find difficult to follow to the letter is that it ends up getting entirely ignored as impractical.”

I agree with this - and I think it’s cruel that you are basically told that all the things that are lower risk in terms of baby’s sleep are the things that are more likely to make mothers utterly sleep-deprived but they have no support for dealing with that. At my postnatal group a woman said “what do you do if your baby just cries when put in the cot and will only sleep in your arms” and the HV said “have you tried patting and shushing?” Of course she had bloody tried!

There is no differentiation between “you are seriously risking your baby’s life if you do this” and “there is a small increase in risk of fatality if you do this”. There needs to be room for “this is more risky than this, but here are some ways that you can minimise risk factors” or similar. Basically treating women like adults and giving them the full info so that they can decide how to manage the many risks associated with caring for a tiny helpless infant (same with pregnancy risks really)

I think all the safe sleeping guidance needs to be balanced against the risk of accidentally falling asleep on the sofa but I that's a whole other topic.

^^ This.

Actually with pfb a Velcro baby I got that from MW and HV. Was told how to safely co-sleep and was told it might be better in afternoons to work out lay down bf so I didn't fall asleep on the sofa.

We moved and next HV was horrified by co-sleeping and insisted the occasional bout of falling sleep on the sofa with baby was better – when I pointed out that wasn’t back by research I got basically threaten with SS unless I did as she said. From then on it was a nod and smile to everything she said and I did what I’d done with first.

First area has much higher bf rates and never had an issue while out bf – second area got loads of tuts and disproving looks and comments.

It's complex of course, the the biggest problem is our own mums didn't breastfeed - the minute it got tough (and for first time mums the first few days are hard) there they are saying "bottles were good enough for you" or "get some rest, a bit of formula won't hurt" a sleep deprived new mum has to be pretty determined. I was, I ignored mum's pleas, and I had the most amazing community midwife who sat with me the day after I came home for nearly two hours in the evening long after she should have finished (she arrived after she should have finished in fact, she did accept some dinner thankfully, little something for her dedication).

It's also now quite a class divide - with educated, professional women more likely to breastfeed, partly because they have read up I'm sure. My cousin didn't even bother trying, all she was interested in was being able to drink without guilt again (pretty sure she drank way too much in pregnancy too but that's another post!) Our alcohol culture means this could be a factor.

Interestingly my French friends got a lot of jibes for breastfeeding beyond a few weeks - she was told she was depriving her husband, he was told by his friends that his wife would get out of shape - not something I've heard here.

The best way to improve breastfeeding rates is to normalise it, that means laws guaranteeing you won't be hassled or asked to go to the toilets, it means the right to access a private room and fridge if you return to work quite early, it means access to drop in clinics at hospitals/health centres with people trained to support you (they don't need to be drs or nurses, volunteers who have been trained would be fine). Our local coffee shop is doing its best with breastfeeding mums drop ins twice a week (the owner is a great advocate and has been trained to support women), but everywhere needs this, not just affluent suburbs.

Good god there are some patronising arse holes on here and their "class divide" but hey at least they have a nice middle class coffee shop to feed in.

Class has nothing to do with it. Support available does.

Class has nothing to do with it. Support available does.

But there seems to be less support in working class areas - and that's all anyone has said. It's objective fact that there is a class difference in breastfeeding rates, and pretending there isn't just perpetuates the unequal provision of support.