Bf rates uk vs us

[Silkyanduna]

Just found out my American sil is expecting and she said they only get 6 weeks maternity and that’s pretty standard for the US. This made me think how much I would have struggled to breastfeed past this point if I had had to go back to work. With the uk in comparison having pretty good maternity leave AIBU to question why the Uk breastfeeding % is lower than in the US ?

Sorry for using the wrong term.

My DCs had only breast milk for 6 months then started solids alongside breast milk. They never had formula. I expressed in return to work and they took bottles during the day.

Most women who breastfeed continue noce solids are introduced. I have had 5 children. I have always gone back to work in weeks and I have never fed a baby ever from a bottle actually, not even fed it expressed milk, formula, water, juice or anything. It is just easier to stick it on the breast and more enjoyable (for me anyway)

In the UK whether you breastfeed relates more to educational, income and class status than whether you return to work or not.

I can see how you would prefer to do what's normal for your peer group. The UK is still pretty class divided even if some like to pretend it isn't

@Xenia if you went back to work in weeks, and your babies didn't have bottles, what did they have when you were at work?

You can feed even a very small baby liquids from a cup or spoon (they lap it up like a cat apparently) so I suppose a bottle isn't necessary (though much easier!)

I don't see how mixed feeding after introducing solids is easier, already have to wash up bowls and spoons and bibs, why would I want to add bottles to that when I could just breastfeed?
Though right now I kinda wish I wasn't breastfeeding any more after my nearly 14 month old has been on the boob 7 times in the 3 hours since he got up and threw most of his breakfast on the floor.

For those who say breast fed babies get all the vitamins and minerals they need then explain why the NHS advice to me and several of my friends in the last couple of years was to give our babies vitamin D drops daily if they were having less than 500ml of formula per day?

This advice was from GPs, health visitors and paediatricians, and directed across racial groups.

Breastfed babies do not get enough vitamin D or iron after 4-6 months. The lack of vit D was not a problem when people spent more time outside (but now we know about skin cancer) and lack of iron is not a problem when iron rich foods are given early enough.

Xenia's nanny feeds the baby bottles, clearly. Her experience not being especially representative of the average UK mother...

You don't get vitamin D from food anyway, you get it from sun exposure. The UK is too northerly and our lifestyles too indoor for adequate vitamin D exposure from sunlight.

Iron rich foods yes absolutely should be among the first foods offered -which is why it is very strange that the UK advocates waiting to feed babies foods such as meat and seafood (including shellfish) when these are the highest sources of heme (most absorbable) iron. In fact the only source of dietary iron they are "allowed" if starting before 6 months (and since you're meant to start BY six months, that's most people) is green leafy vegetables, which are often bitter tasting and therefore not especially palatable to babies who have been used to sweet breastmilk or formula, and pulses, which are fairly unusual in the diets of most non-vegetarian/vegan Brits and so are not commonly among the first foods offered to babies. You are supposed to wait to give them dairy and eggs as well, which are much more common sources of iron alongside meat and fish.

Oh - doh - sorry - had mixed up this thread with a weaning one - half of that ramble was irrelevant, sorry.

Both my boys were born in America, I worked for a good company and got 3 months maternity. DS1 has special needs and never latched, I did pump for about 6 weeks. There is no health visitor program so no support is given for things like feeding. DS1 was actually born on the day I was due to do a breastfeeding class, so I knew very little. With DS2 I managed to find a local la leche group and I breastfeed for 3 months and then pumped for about another 3 but also had to supplement with formula.

Some small companies only have to offer 2 weeks maternity! The short maternity and lack of health visitors makes getting support for breastfeeding hard.

Ah, I thought Xenia was saying that her babies had never been given a bottle, ever, by anyone. I was imagining trying to open cup or spoon feed a small baby for months! I couldn't imagine why that would be done rather than use a bottle.

Well Dd survived on breast milk and that vitamin enriched food of Milky Way bars for 3 years.

Her mouth would clamp shut if I offered her a bottle or food.

To her eating was what everyone else did and it didn’t apply to her.

Actually the midwife at my antenatal breastfeeding class (otherwise very sensible) tried to persuade me that I didn't need to get DS used to a bottle at any point because since he'd be six months when I went back to work he could drink expressed milk or formula from a cup. Having seen him drink water from a cup now (nearly 9 months) I think she was mental, as I might as well as pumped milk straight into the floor and down his top if I'd done that and it would have taken his poor dad all day to get a feed in him.

My experience is not too different from most working mothers who breastfeed - the child minder, nursery or nanny or father gives the botter but when the bother is with the child she breastfeeds it. It's the normal way. I could never see any point in giving a baby a bottle when my breasts were full of milk wanting to feed it direct!

The reason people often do it this way is to the baby associated its mother with the breast. If the mother gives it two options that might confuse it.

however I have never said all women should breastfeed. It is entirely up to them. i very much enjoyed it in all kinds of ways - some of the most important, lovely experiences of my life actually, all that oxytocin, the let down reflect, the feeds in dead of night even . If you don't like it don't do it and in the West with sterlisation available it is perfectly safe not to breastfeed - which is NOT the case sadly in a lot of countries however.

NewAccount - cup feeding of babies is a real art! I was lucky because my mother mastered the art and gave my DC a cup of formula from 3/4 months. I breastfed exclusively but for the odd cup feed of formula.

True, I suppose it does make sense.