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?

@harrietm87

Sorry, should clarify. I had pretty much no collustrum either and he was absolutely besides himself with hunger.

This did surprise the team on the postnatal ward.

A woman’s right to chose not to BF should be as respected as any other decision she makes about her own body. That should be final.

The worst I found, was my breastfeeding WHO accredited friendly hospital, who refused to help “artificial” feeders in anyway despite providing decent support for the BF mothers for the few hours they stayed in the hospital post birth.

Also we need help on how to give up, which I found utterly lacking. I needed to give up after 8-9 months and no one could help me. I had to starve my D.C. off the breast which was traumatic for both of us, and meant days without milk for them.

The things that endangered my breast feeding (though I’ve now managed to eBF 3DC):

1. Really badly informed HCP who make nonsense statements (pain being wrong) and encourage expressing and top ups, and other practices which hinder.

1. Businesses trying to monetise breast feeding, pushing pumps etc at mothers. BFing is most successful when it is an exclusive relationship between baby and breast. Pumping causes a lot of problems.

1. Lack of preparation prenatally. Understanding it is a full time job, thinking realistically about the 4th trimester and involving the whole family unit in this would be helpful.

The Womanly Art of Breast Feeding is essential reading -get this to every woman instead of Emma’s Diary.

I think expectations are key. IUGR and greedy babies run in my family so I didn't see DDs demands for constant feeds as abnormal. Actually it did turn out I had reduced supply for 2.5 weeks but that was luckily resolved easily.

hersymphony can completely understand why you feel both exhausted and a bit disappointed. As I said, it did come as a big shock to me quite how unequal breastfeeding made me and DH, and the fact is it is restrictive in some ways. I went to a new mums group at my local children's centre (which was generally one of the best things I've done for my mental health since I had DS as I made a good group of friends through it) where every week the course leader insisted we do something for ourselves and then we reported back what we'd done the next week. Most of us breastfeed but it was so noticeable how big the difference was for the formula feeders - their 'thing for themselves' would be a half day shopping, lunch out without baby, etc. The breastfeeders would be 'I had a half hour bath' or 'I painted my nails'. I don't think the formula feeders were having an easier time overall - having a baby is hard work however you feed them! - but it was so noticeable how different it makes things if you can leave baby with dad for more than an hour or two.

I think BF does get easier than FF but when you are going through the worst of the newborn stage it's hard to imagine a time when they won't want to constantly feed and take their time doing so.

I do make a point of telling any friends struggling in the early days that it’s like a switch flipping and BF gets so much easier than FF because no one mentions this. So many have come back later and said I was right and they try and pass it on too. I think people don’t realise, and the worst of both worlds is to struggle breastfeeding then go through the co fusion of FF

I fed both of mine nearly 40 years ago and it was very much the norm amongst my friends. The book, Breast is Best, was very influential. there was a lot of research that showed breast milk had huge benefits and so most of the NCT mums all exclusively fed our babies.
I remember a snooty cousin saying to me that she could have breastfed but she didn't like the idea and found it distasteful. She was unusual though. It was encouraged by midwives and clinics.
I honestly thought that breast feeding rates would go up not down.
I remember Pamela Stevenson doing a skit on 'Not The Nine 'o'Clock News', showing a woman with her tit out on the bus (but without the baby).
Perhaps, the pp who said that some of today's mothers don't like the tie that breast feeding brings. You can't easily share nights with your partner or hand your baby over to someone else for the day.

When we had our first baby my MIL said 'so does she do ten minutes each side every 4 hours then?'. I thought.....more like 4 hours each side with 10 minutes in-between! If I was the sort of person to worry about it, comments like that could easily have made me feel i was ' doing it wrong'. I've breastfed 5 children now and it's a big part of my relationship with them, but culturally that's clearly not the norm.

It's nice to see that it does get better and i sometimes think that i should have persevered.

But god i hated it. I was in awful toe curling pain from just a few days in and was almost afraid of my baby in those first couple of weeks. I watched a few youtube videos and got a better latch and the pain got better but then DS started to latch for 30 seconds then pop off, on, off, on, off, on, off for hours at a time. I concluded that it was because i didn't have enough milk and so began to use the bottles more and more until i finally gave up.

When it did work well it was nice but the majority of my experience wasn't good sadly. I will try again if i have another though.

My experience of formula has been quite good. Yes, i needed to take more stuff out with me but we managed.

@reallyanotherone completely agree.

I was terrified of bf my first because I was so worried about "supply issues" because everyone around me seemed to have them and with DH being 6ft6 and expecting a large boy I thought I was bound to fail. My own mum was telling me formula is better because breast milk is like a watered down version and baby isn't often happy on that. It's all the stupid myths being passed down generations that doesn't help either!

There should be no shame if people want to ff and would be best if people were honest.

I do think we need better support in hospitals. My American relatives had lactation consultants come and visit them several times before they were discharged and gave them direct contact details for home visits if they were struggling. They said they'd have ff without that support in the first few weeks.

When I asked for help the midwife peered over whilst changing the bed and said "that looks about right".... then rushed off elsewhere.

Lisa it’s not so much disappointment as worry that I’m doing something wrong and that I’m failing because I’m finding it harder now (not the feeding, but the lack of freedom and the fact that I have only slept for more than 2 hours at a time maybe twice since he was born). Logically I know it’s all normal, I’m just responding to my baby’s needs, he is happy and jolly and I love spending time with him. But we’re both on another thread where people are saying things like “babies shouldn’t be that needy at 5mo” and it makes me feel crap and I didn’t expect it either

I disagree about the pumps, i think their wonderful. When dd needed to spend time in her cot with the blue light phototherapy the doctor came round and said, you can't breast feed, she needs milk quickly then onto phototherapy so we'll give you formula, you can talk to the midwifes about bf, they're the experts. Midwifes said to BF, give expressed milk then top up with formula. The best person, like someone else mentioned was a student midwife who had the time to show my dh how to burp the baby, (she did a big mucus sick) as she'd not been burped before as she'd fall asleep on breast, then a watched her swallow air in her sleep. She helped with hand expressing and got me syringes, though the next person got me a pump which was excellent. My milk came in early and well but my baby was too sleepy and i didn't have the energy to lift her in and out of the cot so my dh did it, when he left i was buzzing people to move her from me to cot and back as i was scared of Co sleeping. Im sue i fell asleep and someone just turned off my buzzer... I think with my second child ill keep them in bed with me as a tiny newborn while i recover physically. Also pumps are great for when you need to be apart from baby. I do think hand expressing that i was taught in hospital is in some ways better than pumping as i can use it to make my boobs soft enough to latch without my nipples being sore or creating a strong let down right for when baby wakes so she chocks. So best not to use it for a newborn.

My mum breastfed all of her children. She always said how easy she found it etc. Out of 3 girls I am the only one who has breastfed her children for longer than 2 weeks.
One sister tried but got no help and baby wasn't gaining so she moved to formula. Other sister has always been honest that she just didn't want to. So in my house breastfeeding was normalised growing up but still only 1 out of 3 has managed it. I had my children a decade after my sister and I got so much more support from midwives etc. So maybe things are improving.
I went into it thinking that I was going to do It, on day 3 when I was struggling my mum sat with me and told me "it does get easier" and she was right. I imagine if you are the 1st to breastfeed in a couple of generations and have no support from family it must be extremely hard to see past those first few weeks.

Yes with a newborn people saying “it’ll be much easier at 12 weeks” or whatever seems like an eternity away when you are trying to figure out how to get through the night without falling asleep on top of your baby

My eldest is almost 24
My gran failed to feed my mother
My mother didn't because she thought it disgusting
I was not wanted
My baby was going to have everything I hadn't
My labour was mismanaged and my baby took a long time time to resuscitate
Antenatally the midwives said bf was totally natural and every woman can do it, there was no suggestion that breastfeeding could be continuous, difficult and could hurt
Started well, sleepg baby
Didn't know the continuous feeding from 5pm to 1am was cluster feeding
Nipples cracked and bled
Became engorged
Told to use chamillosan and told it was totally natural - it contains lanolin - I am allergic to lanolin
Day 3 to day 9 had 5 different midwives all giving conflicting advice - day 9 engorged - no warnings about mastitis and left with a cheery you are doing so well you can have a day off tomorrow.
Woke up with "flu"
Rabg mat ward because I was worried about baby catching it and advised if I was bfeeding he was getting antibodies so no need to worry
At 5.45 noticed breast was red and angry abd rang mat unit - told to ring gp vecause needed ab's asap.
Rang gp and told they didn't care what mat ward had said the dr's had been working all day and I should have rung earlier.
Had to ring emergency dr
Dr arrived at 8.45 and write ab prescription whilst telling me by nipples were so sore because I had fed too much and no baby needed more than 10 mins each side every four hours
DH had to get to a chemist in Earls Court that stayed open until 10pm
Midwife arrived next day and made excuses rather than apologising.
Saw gp to have baby checked over
HV came next day and said it was nothing to do with her and filled out her forms
Struggled for another three weeks and asked hv for help. I was in severe pain after feeds. She told me to wrap myself in a blanket and air my nipples.
I objected and she told me to phone the nct if I didn't like her advice
Also told me that bf mothers put their babies furst abd ff mothers put themselves first
Complained and reported her and asked her boss the role if the hv. Told it was to make sure i talked enough to my baby fir him to develop speech. Told her i never wanted to see a hv again and got 3 calls
GP refused to do baby checks so changed gp.
NCT had me on an industrial milking machine to relieve breast pain
NCT milk machine lady took one look and went out and bought me bottles and formula and showed me what to do.
Ifelt a complete failure by the time my baby was six weeks old.

I never saw another hv, my next pgs were consultant led and I limited the hcps coming into my home to two moving forward.

A formal complaint resulted in a breast feeding counsellor being appointed.

Looking back I think I suffered from PTSD. It was caused by poor midwifery and hv care. The pnd cleared after about 9 months.

I breasfed my next baby for 9 months because I knew what to do and did nit let hcps disempower me.

With my first baby I needed either high quality advice or to be empowered to switch to ff.

Wandsworth 1995. I hope things are better now because it was a disgrace then. It upsets me even now.

Embracethechaos you are describing a specific situation in which pumping is helpful but marketing them to everyone hoping to BF in otherwise uncomplicated situations is detrimental.

The amount (and type) of milk produced should occur in response to baby feeding. If you add in pumping you are likely to get into oversupply, which can mean thin watery milk with fewer calories, and weight loss. Expressing can’t replicate the diurnal variation in milk type. Baby fed expressed milk at night therefore might not sleep so well -driving the idea that FF babies sleep better. There are many more examples of how expressing damages the fine balance of the breast feeding relationship.

I imagine if you are the 1st to breastfeed in a couple of generations and have no support from family it must be extremely hard to see past those first few weeks

It’s not lack of support, is miseducation of previous generations. My mum was trying to be supportive, but ff was marketed to her as this new, superior, scientifically formulated feed. It was more hygienic and safer as everything was sterilised, you could be confident baby was getting exactly the right amount at controlled feeding times.

So her “support” and knowledge was what she knew- feeding 8oz every 4 hours. She would worry that more frequent feeding meant lack of milk, the fact that we had no measure freaked her out. So she’d say maybe i should give a bottle, just in case, or to see- if she drank it we’d “know” i had no milk...

Although m/w were just as bad. Every time a m/w saw me feeding they’d say “feeding again? Shall i get you a bottle, give yourself a break?” Maybe they’re just hungry, maybe your milk isn’t in yet... all the usual. In reality they were trying to fix a problem that didn’t exist, i was happy watching tv with her latched on, she was happy latched on and dozing. In fact i credit the fact i never got sore nipples to her never unlatching!

Yes, sorry, hersymphony, 'disappointing' was a rubbish word choice - sorry if it felt belittingly. I don't think it sounds like you're doing anything wrong - you're doing a great job looking after him - but it must be really hard. That thread is full of utter idiots who seem to have been shipped in from 1952.

Completely agree with the above poster^^ my mum and MIL were both hugely supportive, as were my sisters, none of them BF. My family didn’t try- MiL did but was given the old “you can’t BF a baby over 10lbs” line. They really were wonderful support but there were many confused looks about not knowing how much baby was taking. But when I asked why I needed to know they had no idea. It was just a false reassurance Mothers were led to believe they needed. The trust that your baby will take what it needs had competently disappeared for some generations

Not at all belittling Lisa, I was just clarifying 😊

@sahknowme My NHS Trust does tongue tie whilst still on the ward if there's a clinic running that day. I know I'm fortunate to live near a hospital which is one of the few in the area which does them on that basis. DS1 had his full tongue tie snipped when he was 1 days old.

Breastfeeding is undermined in th U.K. by marketing, misinformation and odd attitudes ( there’s a weird media obsession with constantly discussing public breastfeeding and whether it’s right or wrong). I recently ordered a tube of Lansinoh as I was having latch issues with few days old baby, the tube arrived from boots and in the packet was a bloody tommy tipee bottle ‘freebie’. Thanks but no thanks, I’ve made a decision to bf, I’ve done it before so have more confidence than a first time mum but the suggestive marketing is pretty astounding. They might as well have popped a note in saying ‘oh give up love it’s clearly not working out’. Also I always snort when I see the misinformation that’s put about regarding drugs/ diet when b/ feeding. I was on a concoction of drugs and strong antibiotics in hospital but was still advised to b/feed, why are women being told by gps that they can’t take antibiotics etc when feeding when in a hospital setting they don’t bat an eyelid?

That is disgraceful did you complain to boots? This sort of thing should be Included in the rules against advertising formula