Breastfeeding and MN. Why so different to IRL?

[Gogogo12345]

I had read many many threads on here about the " restrictions" of breastfeeding. This morning is a child free wedding that the OP will apparently be EBF an 8 week old. This is a common theme. All these EBF babies.

Yet in real life there are only about half of babies that are still BF ( even partly)at all by 6-8 weeks
And only 1% EBF at six months

So why does it seem about99% of mumsnet babies are exclusively breastfed for months on end?

Did anyone say that?

Depends on your social economic bubble/area - higher social economic class more bf in stats I think still.

With pfb I was in BF area - most women bf till at least 5 months till ML was ending - often introducing food around same time- many others did so for over a year introducing solid around 5-6 months as well - didn't have anyone say there went beyond 2 - though if they did they may have learnt to keep quiet about it.

Then I move to an area no-one else BF. Few that did did it for 6 weeks then there was often a growth spurt with lots of additional feeding and HV would then recommend a bottle as baby was hungry and soon baby was fully FF.

When I had issue with BF in second area on-line pretty much was my only option for advice - HV were useless - bf support couldn't access with no childcare for toddler and my entire family FF and were vaguely hostile to BF so where else could I go for advice but somewhere like here?

Why would you lie about feeding a baby lol

And MN individual posters may vary, but it doesn't make a difference to this collective bias towards the middle class.

I'm still BF at 15m. School friends BF til 18m. Bump and Baby friends all BF up to about 9m at least, though I'm the last one standing now.

Not true - we started weaning at shortly after 6 months as my DH and I both fell ill so we delayed starting weaning by a week. The baby doesn't turn into the proverbial pumpkin if they haven't has solids the minute they turn 6 months . But the 1% figure reflects how rare it is for a baby still to be EBF at the point AND for weaning not to start until 6 months (I have no idea when people typically start weaning compared to the guidance - I expect there is a lot of variation though for individual babies).

I agree that the figures are likely out of date. I also think that ‘exclusively breastfed’ is a high bar. I breastfed both my kids beyond age 2 but they were never exclusively breastfed in that when they were under 1 they would have formula when their dad was looking after them (I never liked pumping). So breastfeeding was a massive part of my life for a long time, yet if exclusive breastfeeding is the bar then I am recorded as a non-breastfeeder. It doesn’t capture reality.

All three of my babies were EBF for six months and then I continued BF alongside weaning. They wouldn't take a bottle and I had to delay my return to work until one of them would take a cup at around 11 months as otherwise he wouldn't take any liquids. I carried on breastfeeding morning and night until they were around 12 months (youngest was around 14 months). And I had to miss a child free wedding with one of them because of EBF. Does that help?

Well you say that she will ‘apparently’ be EBF’ing an 8 week old. That sounds, to me, like you don’t believe she will be and your whole OP sounds like you don’t think that people do? You then say that you BF’d for 12 weeks so why are you questioning why others speak about how they also BF’d? Just weird.

Sorry quote fail @Gogogo12345

There are loads of posts on here about formula, perfect prep machines, how do you sterilise on holiday etc. so I don’t know how you’ve come to the conclusion that 99.99% on MN-ers breastfeed. But you’re probably not wrong that there are more BF posts and I imagine that it’s because you’re less likely to post about feeding if you’re formula feeding because the instructions are there on box, anyone can give baby a bottle. Whereas breastfeeding can be trickier, especially early on when establishing supply so maybe more reason to seek advice and it’s a simple fact that it does require planning to have substantial break from the baby. With the wedding thread example, if the OP was going to formula feed she probably wouldn’t need to post for advice as her mum could babysit and job done. Also, MN isn’t exactly representative of the whole population. See also all the posts about private schools but in reality only something like 6% of kids are privately educated! Breastfeeding rates rise with maternal income and education. And the stats are highly flawed because if baby has one feed of formula in the NICU that then won’t count as EBF even if you go on to breast feed until they start school!

Yes, I'd like to know the difference between expressed bottle feeding and exclusive breast feeding.

I was lucky enough to get my son to take an expressed bottle, but all he had was breast milk and Calpol til six months.

I would think that medicine made a bigger difference than breast milk coming from a bottle tbh, and I doubt there's many babies that don't have Calpol in the first six months.

Only one NCT person was still going after 6 months, most lasted about 6 weeks or less. The one still going after 6 months did it until about age 3

It'll be this. MN skews heavily to a higher educated demographic.

Really that's actually very interesting i wonder why.

Incidentally I have breastfed all of my babies to 9 months, 16 months and now still going with no. 3 at 9 months

Support available in local area especially if there are problems makes a massive difference.

If I'd had less experience community MW - would have stopped bf pfb in early weeks - and if not access to bf support services possibly in first few months. I could access help so made it to 12 months.

New areas DS - vey much on my own with just on-line help - if I hadn't already bf - if there were protection supposedly with bf for things in my family they could have inherited - if DH and I were well educated with associated confidence if I wasn't so stubborn - I'd have stopped.

As it was I had HV, GP - pharmacists all making out I was odd or difficult for bf past early weeks. Toddler groups - where I was new I had a mother complain I was bf - other groups I was highly praised when frankly I'd have preferred not to garner attention.

All of that with only DH support it was a lot of pressure to put on myself looking back at frankly an already stressful time- 2 house moves in first 8 month post birth.

Third baby - only one took to bf no issues. Plus family by then had given up trying to influence me.

I think it’s demographics too.

Munsnet is quite middle-class and so is breast feeding in my opinion. Of my NCT group of 8, half the babies are still EBF after 6 months. BF groups usually full of slightly older and more MC mums.

Sounds snobby but I think it’s the reality.

I'm curious about why you were adamant you wouldn't?

You find it surprising that some people post about EBF babies when by your own figures 50% of people are still breastfeeding at that time? 50% being... erm... half? So not really statistically surprising at all?

I think the "1% EBF by 6 months" is a somewhat extreme figure - IIRC this is the percentage of babies who have only EVER had breastmilk direct from source. So anyone who topped up with formula, even once or twice around birth, or who expressed and had someone else bottle feed occasionally, or started weaning a week or two early (or when my DS2 grabbed my panini at 5.5 months), would not count in that number.

UNICEF states that 34% of babies in the UK are still getting some breast milk at 6 months. And IME once women have got to 6 months, many carry on for quite a lot longer. The big drop off in breastfeeding is in the first 3-4 months, then it tails off much more gradually. Anecdotally, that figure seems much more likely - much higher rates in my close friends, but overall seems realistic.

Wow that's catty.

I don't think it's a can't be bothered thing. I exclusively breastfed and fed both until toddlerhood but don't think it's as black and white why people don't.

Culture is a big one, all my close university friends breastfed exclusively but we're all quite similar, midddlw class nurses who are are bit hippy. In my town less people breastfed and I think a lot was to do with the idea that breastfed babies spent hours cluster feeding and the mums felt they had to keep busy doing stuff etc. Also it's tough when everyone you know does something in a certain way to be different.

I don’t want to turn this into a FF vs BF debate but I tried for weeks to BF my baby, who was extremely small from IUGR and had other issues like hypoglycaemia, and would not latch at all. I ended up FF him after expressing for 2 months almost broke me. It definitely wasn’t the case that I ‘couldn’t be arsed’ as I sought help from numerous experts and pumped all that time to maintain supply. It was a lot more work than some people I know who have BF babies who have latched easily.

Northern bird here and I'm literally the only person I know who breastfed so the stats always make sense to me.

The comments and judgement from other parents and people in public made me finish feeding DD earlier than I would have liked (10 months). When I had DS I was a touch older and more confident and felt able to brush off the comments so EBF him til 2.

I guess bottle feeding parents don’t need to ask for advice?

For the record I EBF my two beyond 6m. I don’t know anyone else who did the same.