To think less women breastfed

[bbyno2]

Stats are out that at 8 weeks of age almost 50% (49.3%) of babies are being breastfed. The way threads go and people talk around breastfeeding on mumsnet and my peer groups aibu to think it would be a lot less.I thought like 30% max as those who breastfeed seem to act like they are a minority (I guess they are by 0.7%?)

Data: www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/resource/breastfeeding#breastfeeding-of-infants

At 8 weeks, some who stop still will be even if it tapers up gif shortly after. I couldn’t, but I did express until 12 weeks (not exclusively though as I didn’t have the supply) so the data seems a bit black and white to me.

*tapers off shortly after

All my friends and NCT group breastfed. A fee went on to combi-feed, but that’s still breastfeeding.

My epilepsy meds aren't suitable for breastfeeding. But I gave it a go for a few weeks.

I hate data that's too black and white.

Well yes, YABU to doubt those stats unless you think the methodology is wrong or something.

It really just depends on who your peer group is. Almost all the mums I know were breastfeeding at 8 weeks, and the only mum I know who exclusively formula fed from birth did so because she couldn't breastfeed as she'd had a breast reduction for medical reasons. Then again I know there are areas and NHS trusts where exclusive formula feeding is the norm.

I think by the time the babies are a year old, breastfeeding mums really are a minority - the first result on Google suggests it's 0.5% which seems surprisingly low to me, but that could again just be because most of my friends were still breastfeeding their babies by then. I know mums still breastfeeding their two year olds, which must be even rarer.

I would be interested to see how it lines up with the previous Infant Feeding Surveys which were really comprehensive and valuable.

Sounds like initiation rates have fallen since then.

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/infant-feeding-survey/infant-feeding-survey-uk-2010

I think it drops considerably after 8 weeks doesn’t it? I think it’s 0.5% by a year in the UK.

know some women really struggle with it. But I also think there’s a huge lack of support available to really help. In many countries that comes from mothers, aunts, friends, etc. But I think there’s still a squeamish attitude in the UK.

I also think there’s still (unbelievably) some really dreadful stigma surrounding it. I certainly got the ‘bitty’ jokes from women who should know better.

The data is for either full or partial breastfeeding at 6-8 weeks. “Between 2009/10 and 2018/19, the percentage of infants totally or partially breastfed at six to eight weeks fluctuated at around 45%, before increasing to 49% in 2021/22.”

Considering the advice is exclusive breastfeeding until six months, that seems like a very low number to me.

Every woman I know in the UK who had a baby tried breastfeeding. We know that bottle feeding is very much in the minority for first feeds in the UK. But there is such a fall off in breastfeeding by 6-8 weeks. What happens to cause that? There are many reasons but formula feeding starts as a minority and becomes the majority when babies are still newborns.

I was definitely in the minority, breastfeeding at baby groups, but all my close friends breastfed. 50% seems about right to me.

My first was bf for 12 weeks and then I went back to work. The other two were formula fed from the outset. They all grew up happy and healthy.

Infant feeding seems almost tribal to me. You can feel like you're in a minority even when you aren't statistically depending on what most people immediately around you are doing.

All my friends breast fed except me, who tried and couldn't

I am the only one of my friends who gave up breastfeeding early (6 weeks is the longest I fed for). Every other woman I’m friends with or in my family BF’d until at least 6 months, many up to 12 months and a couple beyond that.

I definitely felt like the odd one out!

I'm one of the rare breastfed until 2 ladies.

Of my 9 strong NCT group all breast fed until 6 months and by 1 year that had dropped to 7 still breastfeeding. 3 continued to feed until 18months and then there were the last 2 at 2 years old. I suspect though that we were an unusual group, of my second baby friends the vast majority are formula feeding.

It was really rare to see a bottle fed baby in the bit of South London I was in. NCT group was 8 of us, everyone tried bf. One it didn't work out for but the other 7 of us were still all ebf at 8 weeks, 5 carried on past a year. Wasn't unusual.

It varies wildly - in the (very small) baby group I was part of, way back in 2001, at 6 weeks 5 out of 6 of us were bf. By a year it was 2, me and one other lady. When we all had our second babies (at roughly the same time, weirdly enough) 4 out of 6 of us were bottle feeding, I was breastfeeding and our 6th only had one child. I fed both of mine to past a year, and that was very unusual round here to the point where the hv was surprised when I couldn't answer the question about how many oz of milk my DD2 was taking.

So, at eight weeks, just under 50% of babies are breastfed or combi-fed and yet you’re shocked that breastfeeding is perceived to be the minority? It is the minority. Even at only eight weeks in (keeping in mind that WHO recommend breastfeeding for two years) over half of babies aren’t breastfed at all. I only know of one person who breastfed until 2 years (not that I’ve conducted a survey on it). The data you’ve provided supports the perception you’re trying to disprove. Am I too cynical or was there an ulterior motive in posting?

If you read the stats breast feeding depends on ethnicity, age and socioeconomic status.

This means if you ebf, partially breast fed or didn't at all then those around you will be highly likely to be doing the same due to where you live.

Only 0.5% of UK babies breastfed at 12 month old? If that’s accurate it’s tragic. I doubt it though - is this data fed through health visitors and include pretty much everyone?

All of my NCT group breast fed at first. One gave up at 3 months (because she had twins and it was just too much for her). Others tailed off up to a year. A couple of us carried on until 2 years. DS was 2 years 9 months when he stopped.
I noticed that there were generational differences in people I knew. My parents & their friends were very much in favour of formula, but my grandparents and their friends were very much in favour of breastfeeding.

I moved from a fairly low income area, where I was the only one in a busy baby group breastfeeding (the only one out of 20+) to a fairly affluent area, where nearly all the babies were breastfed. The difference was very surprising.

I realised I'm in the minority when a colleague was shocked that I'm still breastfeeding my 22 month old.

I thought this was a trend too, and wonder why. Is there just more support for BF in more affluent areas?

The key metric for me is exclusive BF- I imagine that figure is very low. At 8 weeks I imagine most have a least a bit of breast milk, so that figure does seem super low.

The number exclusive BF and no formula at all at 6 months is tiny in my experience.

In those stats it doesn't meant 50% are exclusively breastfed, I suspect that number is much much lower.

What I see is at 8 weeks 50% are exclusively formula fed. And the other 50% get some amount of breastmilk through some mechanism. When they say breastfed, they don't require that it is done directly or completely.

So the 50% population of breastfed 6-8 weeks olds is made up of:
Exclusive breastfeeding
Combi fed (breastfed direct and formula bottles)
Combi fed (breast milk via a bottle and formula bottles)
Combi fed (breastfed direct, breast milk via a bottle and formula bottles)
and probably some other combinations I've not thought of.