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?

It never even occurred to me not to breast feed.

I bf my kids. I would guess low bf rates are partly cultural and partly because pretty much everyone in the UK can afford formula milk and clean water. Affordability makes bf a choice, not a necessity.

Just read through the whole thread! I’m Irish and breastfeeding rates are even lower in Ireland. I think there are plenty factors.

HCPs get minimal practical breastfeeding training (I don’t think we got any really useful information in my medical school on how to actually go about breastfeeding). Postnatal care here in the UK is appalling- certainly you are more likely to give up when you are exhausted, in pain and in a horribly hot, overcrowded postnatal ward with minimal practical support.

We’ve lost our cultural knowledge on breastfeeding. My mother constantly undermined me breastfeeding my daughter. “She couldn’t be hungry again”. “There’s no need to be a martyr, I’ll give a bottle”. Then when she wouldn’t take a bottle it was made out to be a disaster when really it was fine. There was also an expectation from grandparents that I would want to be away from my baby and “get back to normal”; I was treated as selfish for depriving them of the chance to babysit. Little things in the early days really irked me- mum would offer to take baby for a walk for an hour to let me nap and then not return for 2-3 as she was busy parading “her baby” around and trying to “settle her to go longer between feeds”. Then after around 6 weeks it was “she’ll stoll be wanting it at the school gates if you don’t stop soon”.

On top of that even when it’s easy and straightforward it’s exhausting being constantly attached to a baby. I had a very easy baby to feed but the clusterfeeding in the early days was still very hard and all the talkbof it being normal just irritated me when sometimes I just wanted to put the baby down!

I honestly felt that living away from my family, in an area of London with high breastfeeding rates is why I succeeded! There was plenty support from other mums and I only had short periods of family pressure to give bottles (when they visited!).

I do get the impression that those who do have local family are more likely to FF with the logic that anyone can have the baby and mum can have days and nights off. The level of entitlement in some grandparents is also pretty disturbing.

I mean in theory a multigenerational household could be a great help to a BF mother but only if the members had the right attitude.

I bfed all mine, DD2 only for 4 months because she had a weak suck and was falling asleep after 5 minutes and then waking up 10 minutes later because she was hungry.

@rinceoir couldn’t agree more. My in laws are v supportive but when they visited in the early days there was a lot of “he can’t be hungry again” and “wouldn’t it be lovely for [my DH] to give him a bottle” etc etc. Luckily they don’t live near so it didn’t happen very often!

@SnuggyBuggy

I'm lucky. My mum and dad (live ten mins drive away) are really supportive of breastfeeding. So of I've needed an hour they're cool, but haven't tried to kidnap baby. Also, mum - being proud first time grandma - has always wanted me with her when showing off grandbaby. For example she I voted me to a WI fundraising coffeemor ubg for the church they meet at. Her friends got to coo over Henry, but everyone was super respectful of me. Chatted nornly, brought me tea and cake when he wanted to breastfeed. I was super impressed, because some older ladies can be grabby. They women were not.

I've also been lucky that the BF support after leaving hospital in Cardiff is pretty good. So we're happy still at 7.5 weeks.

I suspect my MIL - who is a nice lady, but clearly has baby rabies - would be pushier on the give him a bottle and I can wander off with him for a few hours plan. But she lives an 1hr and 45 mins away and is in the process of completing the sale of her house.

From what i've seen people simply give up too easily. In my NCT group of 8 mums only two of us persevered past the 6 week point

My experience was it's just SO hard to get going. I BF one but not the other, and it wasn't that BF isn't supported or tolerated by society - if anything I think most would feel very proud they've managed it - but it's just so damn physically hard at the beginning, and there isn't enough practical assistance at hospital, and then at home, to help women feel confident enough to keep at it through those difficult first weeks.

Obviously there are LLL groups etc but personally I'd never want to traipse out to those alone with a newborn, it's intimidating. Unlike some countries we do have good BF alternatives and in those early stressful weeks I think mums just do what makes life a bit easier.

I do also think that what's easier is also what you're used to. I've never made a bottle of formula but I know I'd be terrified of doing it wrong - I get really anxious about sterilising the bottles for my expressed milk. I would have worried about how much baby was taking and whether we were on the right formula. Obviously I'd have figured it all out just fine, but my point is that if breastfeeding is your norm then formula feeding sounds like a scary hassle, but for most women in the UK it's the other way round - but I think both are just what you're used to.

I breastfed my DD for 5 days until she soft meningitis and was being tube fed. Selfish maybe but as a 19 year old mum who had just had a surprise baby(only found out at 7 months) I couldn’t deal with expressing so I told them to go to formula. It was okay with me, she’s a bright and healthy little girl now. My DS had issues latching really bad, but was a healthy baby, I tried all the support but no one knew why he would just fall to sleep even after not feeding for hours and hours but if you offered formula he would take it. I ended up trying nipple shields out of desperation which the breastfeeding specialists and midwives kept telling me would lessen my supply and I should persevere without nipple shields, but when he hadn’t fed at 6 days for 7 hours it was try that or give formula. I tried it and managed to breastfeed for ages, I had a huge over supply, they was a little miracle, and he suddenly had interest in feeding every couple of hours. Everyone was shocked at how well he suddenly fed from them and how much milk I produced even using them. If I had listened to people telling me not to use them I would have ended up formula feeding.
FWIW, I’m from a lower class family, and the only one to have breastfed since my great grandma.

In my area (fairly middle class) I was honestly a pariah for bottle feeding. Even though it was EBM... I got so many questions and comments about why I wasn't breastfeeding. I had to hold my head up high but it was hard x

@NotMadeByDesign I used nipple shields when my dd was 5 days old. My Sil happened to be a breastfeeding peer support volunteer and she was vehemently against them, and it seems to be a popular view in those circles. However, she wasn't able to explain to me why they would harm my attempts at breastfeeding, she just kept saying they would. In the end I only needed to use them for 2 days; that was enough time for my nipple to recover (it was incredibly sore but I didn't get to the bleeding stage) so I always recommend them to friends if they are struggling.

I am shocked at how little the NHS value breastfeeding knowledge.

On here I've seen story after story about badly informed midwives and health visitors.

At my six week check my GP blithely informed me she knew nothing about breastfeeding and I should probably just stop if it was too difficult. . Thankfully I was in leafy north London and able to access incredible private support.

It's borderline irresponsible to push the 'breast is best' line so hard and do so little to practically support women.

I agree that the emphasis on 'perfect' breastfeeding (no nipple shields, no mixed feeding, no expressed bottles until after a certain point) is unhelpful.

If nipple shields help mums to breastfeed for longer, what the hell's not to like?

@LaurieMarlow
It's borderline irresponsible to push the 'breast is best' line so hard and do so little to practically support women.

Exactly. And yet this is exactly what happens.

Interested in this - sorry bookmarking but will come back

It’s not just borderline irresponsible- it is downright cruel. You are setting up a good proportion of women to feel like failures

When I had my son I just didn't want to breastfeed. In my mind the idea seemed a bit weird to me for some reason. My attitude totally changed after a few months and the group of friends I made at baby group all breastfed and I ended up feeling really embarrassed for my decision and totally inadequate. In hindsight, I don't think I would have coped. I had pretty bad postnatal and I think the demand of breastfeeding wouldn't have helped. When I was pregnant with my second, I wanted to breastfeed and was super nervous incase I got pnd again and wouldn't cope. I went back and forth deciding what to do. When I went in for my c section, after she was born I was put to sleep due to complications. Whilst I was still in theatre they asked my husband how she was to be fed and he panicked and just said formula. He knew that I had been going back and forth and he thought she needed feeding there and then. By the time I came round, she had already had her first feed and I was too tired, too sore and not thinking straight enough to care. After a few hours I was a bit gutted about it but was too scared to say anything. When we came out of hospital 8 days later, we had the visit from the midwife and she asked how she was being fed and we told her. He reply was "it's probably for the best." So that was it. I thought that's just how it would be. She's now 8 months and I'm still plagued by guilt but felt like I didn't get any support. No one ever asked ME how I wanted to feed. Everyone told me that BF was really pushed in hospital but I never had that experience.

Rinceoir I identify with you, my in laws were just he same “oh is she hungry” “oh she is such a hungry baby isn’t she” “I’ll take for a look round the garden” urghh I was so knackered and is a post partum haze I didn’t have the energy to respond - I think this is all normal. Fortunately my own mum breastfed and I had a what’s app group with two good friends who were also breastfeeding which was an invaluable support.

Also agree with what others have said Re too much emphasis on perfect breastfeeding. I’m mixed feeding my second - she has one bottle a day of formula, it’s great! I went out yesterday to meet freeness, husband fed her no problem, returned to a sleeping content baby. I had a great time and hand expressed in the loos while I was out! Wouldn’t have dreamed of doing that first time round cause I was too her up about ebf. I’ll probably end up feeding my second for longer because of it!

Friends not freeness

Honestly - a complete lack of proper support for breastfeeding. The MWs and HVs lack the specialist knowledge needed.

NCT also did me the world of damage by telling me that it would all be easy and natural, and that the baby would know what they were doing. Well, it was hard, didn't come naturally and the baby didn't have a bloody clue what they were doing. So when both DD1 and DD2 fed CONSTANTLY, I was totally unprepared. When that gave me cracked and bleeding nipples, and each feed took the scabs off, I was totally unprepared. When the pain was excruciating, I was totally unprepared.

There needs to be much, much better support available. And realistic expectations delivered to mums before they give birth about what breastfeeding will really be like. But there also needs to be some relaxing of the 'ebf or nothing' message. Babies still get the benefits of breast milk and Mum gets a bit of break with combination feeding. The message I got when looking into supplementing with a bottle was that my breast milk would all dry up and my baby would starve. That's absolute bollocks. I actually think if we relaxed the militant position on breastfeeding, more women would actually do it.

As I said to my HV's manager, if she thinks she can tell me how to feed my baby and say things like bf mothers put their babies first, she needs to be an expert and be able to give sound evidence based advice. About all she and every other HV does. If the best they can do is a head tilt, smpathetically or otherwise and spout a whiney "I don't know any mode than what's in the leaflet" they shouldn't be saying women have to engage with them for advice and they certainly shoukdn't be conducting any clinical checks.

Without a doubt, as many pp have said, there is not enough training. But I also think training isn't enough. The only people who can understand breastfeeding properly are people who have gone through it themselves. Would you take driving lessons from someone who had done extensive training on driving but who had never actually driven a car?

When DS was small I had a lot of people coming into my home calling themselves experts but now realise they didn't actually know what the fuck they were taking about. The amount of terribly advice I got was breathtaking. I was given a supplemental system by the hospital (which ultimately saved out bf relationship) and one of these 'experts' had no idea what it was. I had to talk her through it ffs! And this woman is still going into peoples home telling them she is an expert. DS is nearly 3 and I still get upset and frustrated when I think about it all.

I didn't need support. Sounds like I was lucky but I think using lack of support as a reason is not enough. Many women don't breast feed because they don't want to. I breastfed because I believed and still do that it's best for my kids. And because I couldn't be arsed with formula