To think that "97% of women can breastfeed" is a load of crap

[elliejjtiny]

I've been seeing this phrase a lot over the years, about how 97% of women can breastfeed and all the rest of the people who say they can't just need support.

I would guess that 97% of women can probably produce milk (although I wouldn't be surprised if it was lower) but there is so much more to breastfeeding than the mum producing milk which never seem to be mentioned. Mums with disabilities/medical conditions, babies with disabilities/medical conditions, babies who are born prematurely, mums separated from their babies and mums on medication that means they can't breastfeed.

When people gaily spout that 97% of women can breastfeed I find is so annoying and inaccurate. It's usually the same people who want the number of c-sections reduced as well and think that everyone can give birth with no interventions, they just need to stay mobile and ignore the nasty doctors.

No.

When you take out social factors, the benefits of breastfeeding shrink massively. Less tummy bugs and ear infections whilst breastfeeding, and lower breast cancer risk for mums for a period. That's it.

It's really interesting looking at sibling studies where one child is breastfed and the other isn't, for example, as most of the benefits disappear. Which either means: (1) to get the benefits, you only need to bf one child and the other magically benefit (even retrospectively if they were born before their bf sibling). Obviously that's silly and not the case, or (2) women who breastfeed are more likely to have other socioeconomic factors which protect their children's health.

Interestingly, I ff one and bf one, so the formula child should magically be healthier because I bf her sister. My bf child has a lot of health issues, and the formula one is as strong as an ox. Oops.

There is some evidence of increased symptoms in artificially fed babies, (autism runs in my family, despite the last two generations all being breastfed) but not increased rates of autism. The reason isn’t clear, it could be the lack of micronutrients in artificial milk that impact neural development, the lack of skin to skin and responsiveness of artificial feeding, the pathogenic gut flora from artificial milk, or other factors. It’s not well studied so it’s difficult to say definitively.

Your statistically insignificant study group of two children is an anecdote, not clinical data. I also have two children, both fed and raised the same, both very different in many ways.

But, no matter what you claim, all the peer reviewed studies that take all variables into account show that artificial feeding negatively impacts short and long term health outcomes for mothers and babies.

That a poster thinks it appropriate to link on here a survey showing the potential negative outcomes of not breastfeeding (despite the reality being far more complex) - complete with a picture implying we are gullible idiots - I have to be honest, the insensitivity just staggers me.

I would say that the number of women who wilfully refuse to breastfeed is vanishingly small. So many posters on here, including myself, have explained why bf was effectively impossible for them.

I also tried for six weeks and baby was nearly hospitalised for malnutrition.
I had lots of help with technique, baby was latching properly, but ultimately I was not producing enough milk

@LaughingCat it’s normal not to be able to produce colostrum before birth - colostrum production is triggered by the birth of the placenta. Yes some women can express beforehand but they are the exceptions not the rule.

I couldn’t get a drop out before I gave birth and even once I gave birth I couldn’t produce any milk via a pump at all. I was actually told by one bf supporter with my DC2 that this meant I had a very low milk supply. Fortunately I had been through the same thing with DC1 who was exclusively bf so I knew this was absolutely rubbish, but a lot of women would have just believed it - this was advice from a qualified bf supporter and also seemed plausible!

There is a lot of misinformation out there.

I spend a significant amount of my time supporting women with feeding issues and decisions. I’m fully aware of the barriers and issues women face, I see it all the time, and I’m very aware of the emotional toll of these struggles.

But that doesn’t alter the fact that artificial feeding is linked to increased health risks, and I will always correct misinformation when I see it. Excuse me if I occasionally find my patience wears a little thin when faced with repeated claims that it makes no difference what babies are fed.

I think being encouraged to breastfeed whilst simultaneously being told your baby isn’t gaining weight fast enough (based on weight charts of bottle fed babies!!) is soul destroying.

Also being told you’re not producing enough milk when your baby is cluster feeding, going through a growth spurt etc is also demoralising.

if we are truly expected to breastfeed, the information supplied by “experts” needs to change….

@Futurehappiness in the U.K., for the vast majority who ff, it’s a choice. It’s a minority on threads like this for obvious reasons. That doesn’t take away from your own feelings if sadness/anger/regret/guilt/disappointment, but everyone I know who ff chose it for reasons including: they wanted to see how much milk the baby was getting, they wanted to share feeds and night wakings and to be able to leave the baby sooner, they didn’t like the thought/sensation of bf, fhey wanted to get their bodies back asap.

Those reasons are all perfectly valid and tbh it’s a bit patronising to assume that it’s everyone’s second choice.

I have ADHD and breastfed my child very easily (it took 2 days for her to learn how to latch but then smooth sailing)

But I did continue my stimulant medication throughout pregnancy so maybe had more "normal" dopamine levels due to that?
And she did also drop centiles from being mahoosive to average - unsure whether connected or not

This happened to me too . Readmission to hospital on day 5 with a jaundiced, dehydrated, screaming baby who had dropped a ton of weight despite me BF almost constantly.

After 24 in hospital trying to BF, then pump, then top up with breast milk followed by top up of formula, all every 2 hours, I was delirious with stress and fatigue.

I kept mixed feeding for quite a while, but several years on I wonder why I did that to myself. Even after hearing everything we'd been through the local BF support groups all kept telling me I could drop the formula if I just tried harder.

I'm very confused by that post. ADHD is associated with lower levels of dopamine, not raised levels. Not producing colostrum pre-birth is not in any way related to your ability to BF after birth, it could be helpful if you can gather a bit to help baby out if they are struggling to latch at the start and sugars are dropping, but often takes hours of hard work to get even the tiniest amount. And fussy behaviour on the breast is really normal and how baby stimulates your milk production, it's not indicative of low volume.

Bf support groups are usually made up of mostly unqualified mums sharing their experiences. They’re great and have their place - especially for emotional support - but they’re not a substitute for properly trained medical advice that can assess whether there is a problem with milk supply. This is something that should be checked and identified at the first midwife home visit. It’s a failing of the system. It doesn’t mean that bf shouldn’t be promoted and encouraged.

Conditions that may (but don’t always) impact milk supply and are fairly common are pcos, gestational diabetes and thyroid disorders. Imo anyone with any of these should be flagged pre-birth and given additional support.

Yes actually now you mention it I remember reading somewhere when I was deciding whether to continue my meds or not that a possible side effect of taking stimulants was reduced prolactin (and therefore milk supply) due to the higher levels of dopamine

So untreated ADHD would have LOWER levels of dopamine than an "average" person and therefore unlikely to have a negative effect of milk production just from having ADHD, is that right?

Sorry baby brain 😅

Hard at first with baby 1but managed 6 months. Easy with second and managed a year. Hard at first with third and managed two years. Lots of support with third baby, zero with the other two. Perhaps because I was more able to ask for it as I got older than in my 20s?

While I think Nothing worthwhile is easy I also think that can be a privileged thing to say. circumstances are different for everyone. Formula is a life saver for all sorts of reasons and I’m glad it exists.

We have a choice - breast or formula. I didn’t want to breast feed - didn’t try. DC’s are perfectly healthy. Healthy babies = happy parents.

I agree. From my own experience I have had NCT members say that they wanted to drink so didn't want to breastfeed, family members choose not to because (and I quote) 'it's too icky', close friends say they didn't want their breasts to sag so wouldn't do it etc......

I don't think it's quite that simple as the dopamine/ADHD relationship is more of a hypothesis than established fact. And are stimulants just bringing dopamine levels up to "normal"? I'm not sure if the poster is implying her difficult labour/induction/C-section is ADHD related too?

ADHD could impact on breastfeeding due to executive functioning, stress, overstimulation, boredom tolerance and several other reasons, but there's nothing to suggest that low milk production is in anyway connected to ADHD brain chemistry.

I actually found BF very straightforward with both DDs but was completely open minded as to how I would feed them beforehand, and I'm sure if it had been at all difficult I would have gone straight to bottle and formula. So I/we were just lucky, I claim no moral high ground whatsoever.

You can drink in moderation and breastfeed though. The amount that passes to the milk is like a shot in a swimming pool. I do think there's a lot of nonsense in the media and old wives tales about having to restrict your lifestyle. For example, avoiding fizzy drinks and "windy" vegetables. People seem not to know that milk is made from blood. The fibre from cruciferous vegetables that can cause wind does not pass into the bloodstream. The bubbles in fizzy drinks do not make your blood fizzy.

No they don't. That's my point. The ones that actually take the variables into account show short term only benefits for babies in terms of tummy bugs and ear infections. That potentially life saving in some countries, but not the UK.

The benefits are vastly inflated and from poor quality studies that don't take into account socio economic factors. Babies who are breastfed are likely to be healthier

Wealthier mothers are more likely to breastfeed, and so you could just as easily say that owning an expensive car means you're likely to have healthier kids.

We need to stop the relentless pressure in mums to breastfeed, and also be more open to women mix feeding as often that's a practical middle ground for women.

That’s correct but the point was being made in response to a poster who said that the “number of people who wilfully refuse to bf is vanishingly small” - which is obviously a load of rubbish because lots of people choose not to/simply don’t want to, and whether their reasons or valid or not doesn’t change the fact that it was their choice and they’re not all hand wringing about it or consumed with guilt.

Yes, there are definitely a sizeable minority of women who just didn't really want to BF but seem compelled to say they "couldn't" instead, which skews public perception on the matter.

thats such an interesting point re: pre-birth checks for conditions that might impact ability. If the indicators are known, that would be really useful.

re: the support groups/professional advice/waiting and persisting, that still bamboozles me a decade on. The need to feed a baby to hydrate if nothing else, is so urgent in the first days and weeks, that even if the assistance is on tap, this isn’t an issue where time is on your side for many women and you can’t just count on going through a list of things to try searching for an answer while the baby is at risk of kidney damage. Even getting the equipment for bottle feeding and knowing how to do it was hard for me as the midwife didn’t support this, specifically told me not to buy equipment pre birth as it wouldn’t be necessary, the parenting classes didn’t cover it and the nearest store was an hour away for me. I remember practically hallucinating in Mothercare. I think my child’s birth fell awkwardly the demise of the highstreet and on tap deliveries!

I never said to anyone I couldn’t. I just said I didn’t want to. I had nothing to hide or be ashamed about. I’m proud I raised healthy happy children regardless of that being from formula.