Is EBF always worth it?

[Storm4star]

Not a TAAT, but I have just read yet another thread from a woman at her wits end of tiredness due to EBF. I have been here a few months now and it seems to be a common theme. I am honestly not trying to be goady or controversial. I know breast is best for baby but at the expense of everything else?? It’s great that more women are encouraged to breastfeed but have we gone too far the other way? Is it really worth sacrificing mums mental and physical health, her relationship, the amount of time she can spend with her other DCs just to breastfeed? AIBU to think fine yes let’s encourage breast feeding but to also encourage mums to do what’s best for the whole family, and to not feel a failure if they decide to switch to formula?

We all differ. I don't agree with the posts above that it is always hard to breastfeed and we may be picking scabs off breasts. It was not like that with me with the single babies or the twins. In the first few days before the milk came in they fed a lot and I got a bit sore but most of hte time it was actively enjoyable, the build up, the let down reflex the massive release of oxytocin. Absolutely wonderful, not sometihng horrible to be endured. As I sa, people just differ.

Just make your own choices and don't bother about what other people say.

I had really bad mastitis 7 days post partum. Included a hospital stay. After that cleared though I've had a good time BFing. Some days can be tiring, especially with clusterfeeding. However I really enjoy the time with my son. It's also helped my mental health by forcing me to slow down and take it easy. I'm glad I persevered. Baby boy is nearly 10 weeks.

I did have good local support though. We have an NHS BF support team in Cardiff.

To answer your question bluntly. No - of course it isn’t always going to be worth it. That can only be answered by each individual mother that has tried.

Do I personally feel it’s been worth it to EBF? Hell yes! I love it. Yes the pain, yes th cluster feeding etc but I am so glad I persevered and now DS is almost 1, I feel as though I have this wonderful incredibly effective parenting tool that I can do in my sleep (some nights literally!) that solves everything, that provides myriad of health benefits not just to my baby, but myself. That didn’t cost me anything (apart from a tube of lansinoh etc!) that has been hand on heart one of the best experiences of my life. The feeling of looking at this bright little thing and thinking I’ve nurtured him with my own body makes me very happy. That’s just my experience.

My reasons for wanting to BF before he was born - I just assumed (even before researching it) that milk made especially for him must be better than artificially produced milk. I have no idea exactly how much of a difference it makes as I can’t go back in time with my individual baby and ff him to see if it’s even noticeable. None of us can. My own personally opinion is that we don’t know enough about BF to know it’s full range of benefits and that nobody is going to plough that much money into research as nobody profits from breastmilk like they do formula.

However, I have no judgment towards any woman who chooses not to breastfeed her child.

No it’s not always worth it. Cliche, but happy mum equals happy baby, so do whatever works for you, your family and your baby and don’t worry about people’s opinions. I was desperate to BF my first, and she nearly ended up in hospital as I simply didn’t have enough milk. It nearly broke me to give her formula, but she thrived. Baby number two was FF from day 1.

For me it's been worth it. Though we hear a lot about BF, so it's easy to presume a lot of support is out there, in my experience we are still very much a FF culture. We have some of the lowest BF rates in the world. I think this makes it very difficult to BF when it doesn't need to be. We are good at making people want to breastfeed but bad at helping them to actually do it.