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?

Why has it took my paragraphs out, Stupid thing.

Education. I have had 2 friends give up on breastfeeding because they thought they were not producing enough milk. One who's mil told her that she was starving the baby who was actually just cluster feeding. The other who's partner was convinced babies should only feed every 3-4 hours so she was obviously doing something wrong. If people were told that milk doesn't come in for 3-5 days and that babies will feed very often at first then they might persevere for longer. I also think that they need to be told how difficult it can be in the beginning but after a few weeks it will be easier and much simpler. By 3 months my ds has a sort of routine and life is pretty much back to normal.
I have heard it all from in laws about not sleeping, being tied to me and dad not bonding etc. Luckily my dh is very supportive.

I’m a week into being a first time mum and I have nearly given up several times. Had a traumatic birth and it took 5 days for my milk to come in, the colostrum clearly was not enough for her despite everything online saying it was, she was so hungry, and my nipples were so so painful from how hard she had to suck.

I’m pumping like mad and putting her on before every bottle feed, as there still isn’t enough coming out to fill her.

It’s so frustrating, we only bought a bottle kit and steriliser for expressed milk, never intended on using formula at all.

If you look at the stats though 81% try right after birth, at 6 months only 34% and at 12 months it's 0.5%. It's at 6months and 12months that are rates are much lower. I think over here the first 6 months is really pushed but then after that no one seems to really care. At 9-12 months many mums have to return to work too which would explain the sharpe decline.

From personal experience I fed my first child until 13months, I had to combination feed (she had 1 bottle in the evening) at about 3-4 months old as she wasn't gaining enough weight. I exclusively fed at 5-6 months, then introduced solids at 6 months. She self weaned at 13 months but she was only feeding once or twice a day from 11 months which worked well with returning to work. Second child was a bottle refuser he's never had a drop of formula and only drank from something other than me at 12 months. We are 15 months in and he's no signs of slowing down. I'm finishing off a qualification at the moment so I don't have to go into the office everyday at the moment, if I did I would have had to stop or reduce to just morning/night at 12 months.

In my experience there was lots of support in the first couple of months, but when I hit problems at 3/4 months there was very little support. I just did my own research and managed to top up for a couple of months and got back to ebf. I've also found once I've hit the 6 month mark people start to say "so when are you going to stop?" Last week I was at my husband's grans and she asked "you aren't still breastfeeding are you? When I replied "yes" "Are you weaning him off?". It just doesn't seem the done thing (although she didn't breastfeed any of her 4 children and she's 90!). My own mum who breastfed 3 kids for 12 months has also started to ask me "when are you going to wean him?". So yes it appears that breastfeeding over 12 months isn't seen as the norm. Even amongst those who have breastfed.

“I read somewhere that a lot of those studies don't class you as breastfeeding if your expressing or 1/2 and 1/2 feeding or started food early. Different factors that even though there's breast milk they were discounted.”

A couple of people have said this and I don’t quite get it. At 6 months whether or not your baby is BF is self reported through their red book isn’t it? So unless mum chooses to say her baby wasn’t EBF due to 2 tsps of Broccoli, they will accept her saying baby is EBF.

Fair enough in the early days the question is asked by the midwife or health visitor but not once past newborn stage

Yeah it’s not so much a stigma of breastfeeding / being shamed for breastfeeding - obviously most are encouraged by health professionals to breastfeed but I feel there is then a “oh the baby shouldn’t need feeding more than 8 times a day!” or “your three month old baby is still getting milk in the night? This is highly unusual!” crap that comes after (by relatives or anyone you happen to meet even doctors) that makes you feel that you’re doing it wrong and result in you feeling shamed.

That's a very good point about how it's recorded, the only time I was asked if I was still feeding was my 6 week check, it wasn't recorded anywhere after this.

nothisispatrick I’m really sorry to hear of your traumatic birth. It’s really normal (in fact, perfectly standard I think?) for milk to come in on day 5. You will struggle to express in the early days, the pump is nowhere near as effective as a baby at getting it out.

It sound like your baby is just establishing the supply they need- is your latch ok?

The signs they’re not getting enough milk are lack of wee/ poo and qualifying weight loss. Please don’t worry! You’re doing an amazing job

Culture, culture, culture. We are very different culturally in terms of attitudes toward mothers, work & breasts. The class system creates barriers for the poorest to comfortably feed. I’ve studied this in some depth and I’ve tried sharing it on here numerous times but got told last time that people ‘try to tie themselves into intellectual knots trying to justify low feeding rates’ The truth is, even in areas where support is good, rates are low in where a ‘culture of breast feeding’ doesn’t exist.

The sad thing is, British society, on the whole, is not breast feeding friendly, even though there are pockets of upper middle class communities where it is the norm.

I'm not sure how the stats are recorded, but there seems to be a glitch somewhere, as uk rates, while poor, are not as bad as say Ireland and probably France.

It's a perfect storm of factors, all well expressed on this thread. Fundamentally we don't have a culture of breastfeeding and that leads to misinformation, confusion, unrealistic expectations and lack of support.

Setting realistic expectations is probably the most useful thing that could be done in the short term. Many people give up because they aren't prepared for how difficult and intense it is in the first few weeks (and don't realise it gets much easier). I'm still bitter about the 'it doesn't hurt if you're doing it right' NCT counsellor.

The US is a really interesting example because they've created a culture of expressIng over there, which can't have been an easy cultural change.

Are France worse than us then?

Another point is that babies are learning how to breastfeed just as much as new mums are. While they are born with the innate reflex action to suck, latching and feeding is a learning process for them too (and hence why sometimes their behaviour, frustration or seeming dissatisfied isn't because they aren't getting enough milk, but because they are learning how to feed properly and it takes time to get it right). But the temptation is to think that they are hungry and then supplement with formula, and then it becomes harder to breastfeed or supply drops, and it's a vicious cycle.

For me, it was the disparity between what I was told and the reality. I was breastfed and determined to breastfeed. Well, just expected to as normal really.

Went to special NCT breastfeeding classes, was told baby knows what to do, it's natural, you'll be fine etc.

But my baby didn't know what to do! It was a disaster and if I hadn't been so so determined I would definitely have given up. By day 3 I felt a failure as I had to give the poor child some formula to get some food into him and give my poor nipples a break.

Then I discovered nipple shields after a midwife advised trying them and that worked well for a while and we gradually got the hang of it and got the latch right. All this in the space of about 3 weeks but honestly 3 weeks can feel like forever when you have a newborn.

I went on to feed 2 more children and am now a trained peer supporter but I can never forget the difference between expectation and reality.

I think people need to be more honest before baby is born. It might put some people off but it might make people like me not feel such a failure when I wasn't in the slightest!

Lack of support. Midwifes and health visitors knowing shit all about breastfeeding if you run into real problems (they only seem to know what a basic baby book would tell you, and I saw MANY and begged for help... but they didn't have a clue how to help me).

Weekly rather than daily BF support groups. A week is too long to wait.

Being discharged from hospital before you are BFing well.

A lot of women really do want to BF but do not have the correct support.

Doesn’t seem to be much consensus on France vs U.K. bf rates as google shows simultaneously the U.K. having the lowest Bf rates in the world and France the worst in Western Europe

Like others have said I've no idea where they get this info .... after DD was about 12 weeks old I can't recall being asked if I was BFing.

It’s recorded in your red book after each scheduled medical/ HV appointment (do the routine ones from newborn. However if you don’t filll it and the HCP you’re seeing doesn’t, then it doesn’t get done. IME it always has been tho

You should be asked at your 6-8 week review. Which you should have

I agree we aren't prepared for cluster feeding and many of us don't have a lot of support to get us through that stage. A single mum of multiple children may well struggle to find the time to sit with the baby for hours on end.

I don't think the all or nothing approach helps or aggressively pushing the health benefits. I think honest information on how hard the first stage is but emphasis on how it does usually get easier and even have some advantages would work better.

glintandglide

No her latch isn’t great. The only position that’s working for us at the moment is lying down in bed. And I don’t know if I’m making things worse for my supply by giving regular formula, I would just rather she was full and content.

Cultural expectations play a big part in it IME.

I had an easy time establishing BF with my first, had a mother and MIL who’d both breastfed for a time, and a supportive health visitor.
But because my baby was having short, frequent feeds, and got grumpy in the evenings as well:

My mum: “But she needs to take a full feed? Have you tried giving her a bottle?”

My MIL: “Oh dear, is she crying again? Do you think it’s something in your milk?”

My HV: “She can’t be getting enough hindmilk with that. You’re taking her off before she’s finished.”

Luckily my baby was piling on weight and obviously fine, and I had the confidence to stand my ground, but it was hard and I doubted myself. And that was with BF going well!

I Think it must vary massively regionally. In my area bf is the norm, people totally assume that a new mum is bf. And not an eyelid is batted when mums bf beyond a year.

It does. I assume youre in London or south east?

I had my two children in different hospitals and the experiences couldn't have been more different. The hospital with DS1 pushed formula on him and offered no breastfeeding support at all. Once a midwife asked if I wanted help but he was asleep at the time and she never came back. We left hospital after 3 days with him never having latched on successfully, and he never did. I gave up trying after 10 days. With DS2 he also struggled to latch but the midwives helped with every single feed until we got the hang of it. It was still really difficult and remained painful for the first 10 weeks or so but the breastfeeding group at the Children's Centre kept me going.

Breastfeeding over a year is extremely unusual anywhere in this country