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

Didn’t go to any baby groups so no comparison but I used formula from day one. It’s only on Mn are people interested in how others feed their babies

No, I mean the actual product of breastmilk is free. It is made by the mother for the baby. You don't 'need' anything more than boobs to do it.

I know a single mum of 4 whose on a very low income. She'll be the first to tell you that a big reason why she breastfed her youngest 2 was cost and lack thereof. She doesn't have any breastfeeding bras or tops or pumps or kit. She just fed them.

If you've got money for formula, you've also got money to spend on breastfeeding if you want to do that.

If you've not got money for either, the free product could be a viable choice.

@DappledThings don't assume bottle = formula. My DS was exclusively fed breast milk for over 12 months (up to 14 months he was mixed BM & cows) but it was only ever from a bottle as he couldn't latch due to undiagnosed tongue tie.

Try being an mother who exclusively expresses...then you really are in the minority & you don't belong in either tribe 😂

You miss the point. Many mums on low incomes don't have the luxury of being at home to breastfeed and have to return to return quickly.

A tub of formula costs about the same as an hour pay in minimum wage. Extortionate but a lot cheaper than not being able to work at all.

I think I view 50/50 parenting very differently than a lot of people on here. I also don't see breastfeeding as a barrier to equal parenting.

To me, 50/50 doesn't mean doing half of every job. I look over the whole course of the kids' lives. At some points it will be more me (my DH couldn't do half the pregnancy) and at other times it will be more him (I have to travel quite a bit at the moment for family reasons) it averages out over time.

My DH never gave our daughter any milk, but he did a ton of other stuff for her. For our son he could only give a potential 4 bottles a week out of 14 given. That didn't mean he couldn't do anything else for them. Or that he'd met his dad quota with those 4 bottles.

He's as much a parent as me. How we fed our children as infants has no impact that. It's such a small amount of our children's lives.

But then I grew up with a similar set up. My dad was just as much a parent to me as my mum. He did everything for us apart from breastfeed us. He was the one who did more of the emergency child care etc as he had a job that was more flexible.

I'm surprised its that low! Obviously these things vary massively from place to place but most people I know breastfed till 6 months. In our NCT group we all tried breastfeeding, 6 of 8 were still breastfeeding at 6 months and 5 of us made it to a year.

It's extremely class/income based. If you're hanging around more people on benefits, or unemployed you're going to see a lot less breastfeeding.

This is an interesting point. My first got probably 50ml total formula in the early days, given by a midwife, as she struggled to latch. Then she was breastfed exclusively to six months. It’s funny to think that 50ml means we go in the partial cohort. I continued to breastfed for more than two years (but she had a bit of formula between 7-12 months too).

My second has never had any formula.

I've seen many many people say that, and many of them truly believe it, but often their families do not look equal to me. It's still the women that usually do more of the nights, the cooking, the child rearing, but still sees it is equal, because he does more than in some families.

With my accidentally bf baby, we desperately tried to keep a balance of equal (but different) parenting, but the difference in how our daughter sees us is light and day compared to the equality we have with our ff child. He was (is) fully involved in every other aspect. With a mixture of SPL, Covid and other things, he's been round in her life full time for at least half of it. He is very much the 'other parent'. I'm the one she cries for, goes to when injured, sleeps with at night.

It's wonderful when it works out totally equal despite breastfeeding, but it's a lot harder I think. We tried and failed

@happysingleversary

That's amazing. I am on a fb group for women who bf past 12 months and that's helped. But when I've mentioned recently that I still bf to a couple of women I really got the feeling they thought I was strange. One of them who isn't a mum asked if my dd ate food as well??

Think it's massively area dependent, I wasn't able to with either for various reasons though expressed for both for several months. I always felt like the odd one out bottle feeding and actually found people questioning why I wasn't breastfeeding.

Not necessarily - we’re a higher tax bracket family, both DH and I have degrees and post grad qualifications. One doctor, one accountant

Here here. So fed up with people trying to force their opinions on mothers - whatever they are. Do what’s best for you and your family.

Tragic? It's a slightly sad statistic because there are indeed some benefits to breastfeeding and many women wish they were able to breastfeed longer (myself included after I lost all supply at just 4 weeks). To call it tragic is just ridiculous though. I'm sad I couldn't breastfeed for longer but nothing about my situation (or mixed/formula fed babies in general for whatever reason) is tragic.

They DO think you're strange!

So what? Do it as long as you can because you only get this one chance to do it.

I fed on the bus once (I always fed discreetly as in didn't show my boobs) and the woman behind me moved away.

It just doesn't matter :)

Meant to add. If anyone had ever said anything to me, which they didn't and I fed everywhere all the time, I knew what I would say. I would have said 'thank you for your comment but I only care about my baby's needs and not about your views'

that was going to be it.

Anecdotally, I honestly thought more women breastfed than formula. In my friendship group, all but one have EBF (and the one who formula fed had to for medical reasons).

I don’t have children yet but hoping to soon and I plan on formula feeding only. I know my own mental health and I think that the stress, pain and discomfort of breastfeeding would make me more like to experience PND.

But I really worry I will be judged by my fellow mums and midwifes for that decision. TBH, even by DH a bit as he’s a primary teacher and has done a lot of research on child development through his uni studies and thinks BF is better.

My mum formula-fed me and my siblings from birth. We don’t have any allergies and always had strong immune systems. We rarely got tummy bugs or colds as children. Hopefully that might be some strong genes I can pass on to my own children?!

This depends on your circle of friends and family though. I have very few friends who didn’t or doesn’t breastfeed so from my viewpoint nearly all mums breastfeed

I don’t think it’s tragic really. I think the WHO recommends BF to 2 because the advice is worldwide, inc in areas of extreme poverty where babies & toddlers don’t get weaned on a wide range of foods

in the western world, where we have good access to clean water and a variety of food and most babies are eating a good range of food by that age then no, it really isn’t tragic

I don’t know anyone who used formula. I’ve never seen a baby being fed formula. However, the local supermarket has an aisle full of it. Our own social circles, whether in real life or online, are very poor sources of information on the population as a whole.

I had a lot of pressure from HV to formula feed, my supply wasn't great and D's had an undiagnosed tongue tie that meant I had to express. I fought tooth and nail and it was to my own physical detriment but I did manage to reinstate breastfeeding fully after he had his snipped. I then suffered from Reynaud's syndrome in my nipples which was agony. I am cursed with a very stubborn disposition and I was fortunate that my mental health was ok despite everything. I also had a supportive husband willing to pull his weight (many on here don't seem to) and only one child to worry about. I also had decent enough financial circumstances that I could take a year mat leave. So I got through it, I can absolutely see how many might not.

I think it depends on your peers as well. I have a friend who is part of a group where they are very social. As soon as they could they were out with and without their babies. I don’t think the idea of staying at home to establish BF would appeal. As well as not drinking.

I know the figure is only 1% make it to exclusively breastfeeding at six months. That's horrendous. It's all a lack of support available.

Do babies not have a massive growth spurt around that point and need more milk, start cluster feeding too boost supply?

Many mums aren't expecting to be tied to the chair and see bottles as the answer. I think if you can ride it out beyond that point you'll keep going.