To be annoyed at someone on the bf/bottle feeding forum saying that formula should only be available on prescription

[pigletmania]

That person obviously has found bf a complete and utter doddle and might not have encountered any problems with it. These comments do nothing to promote bf imo only reaffirm the stereotype of bf matrons. If formula were to only be available on prescription it would penalise those who are struggling to bf and need that extra to top up, or those who have made the choice not to bf though respecting their decision is a bit to me.

How many women really choose to FF? I think a lot more start of BF but fail miserably due to lack of support (mainly from NHS). It is not much of a choice - I certainly did not feel empowered when I "chose" to FF DS1 - I had a tear stained/snot covered face when I gave him his first bottle. I was devastated.

I HAVE THE ANSWER
find out antenatally what women want to do
then fine the PCT for every woman who wanted to bf but stopped before 8 weeks. Invest the fine in more support
HA

It would cost the nhs a fortune because about 1% of women exclusively breastfeed to 6 months so the vast majority of mothers would be zooming to the GP for a prescription. They'd be wasting doctor time, receptionist time, and the NHS medication budget. If the idea is that they could be told they were malingering badasses who should bloody well get on with breastfeeding, well, obviously there'd be a massive outcry. Rightly so. If it's more a question of hey love, before you give up on this, I've booked you into a breastfeeding hotel, well that's a nice thought, certainly, but again, it ain't cheap, requires a massive culture change and may not fit in with people's wishes and needs.

yep - put in on prescription and make it free

I formula fed DS1 and breast-fed DS2 so am not favouring either side but I do think that formula is a total rip off. £7+ per carton is daylight robbery.

"I HAVE THE ANSWER
find out antenatally what women want to do
then fine the PCT for every woman who wanted to bf but stopped before 8 weeks. Invest the fine in more support
HA"

What... take money out of the PCT, then put it back in the PCT, involving man hours, unnecessary admin and thereby decreasing the overall amount of money available?

Was that a joke, or do you actually work for the NHS?

Same as me fledtoscotland. DS1 was FF and DS2 was BF. Formula is bloody expensive.

I think a far greater priority is properly staffing maternity units so that babies are born safely. Once we have a reasonable standard of care for mothers and newborn babies we'll have the luxury of worrying about how their (capable, competent, loving) mothers feed them.

There's no such thing as 'free' in a welfare state, fledtoscotland

given the majority of mums ff and pay for formula to foist a huge bill on nhs in cash strapped times is ludicrous

current media and professional literature tells us spending cuts are a-coming.money is tight,their is a recession.free formula is untenable

well yes, skegness, and there are lots of reasons why it would be a difficult turnaround in this country in particular, we just don't have that tradition of paying for public services that the scandis do.

but i think that the OP of the other post should definitely be allowed to raise the issue without being sworn at and having nasty threads started about her.

if people were happy with their choice to bf they wouldn't respond in this way, imo.

btw, LOVE formula, dd1 was on the point of damaging her kidneys when she got it. but had there been more and better support available for me (one that knew more about the cocktail of high bp drugs i was on) i'll always wonder if we'd have got to that point.

of course free formula with the present levels of support for breastfeeding, is untenaable.

But if we had a change of culture which led to Scandinavian levels of breastfeeding, the money the NHS would save would more than cover the cost of making formula available to babies who need it.

I don't think anyone makes the argument that we should have formula on prescription within the status quo viz bf levels and support levels. That would be plain stupid.

No, lots of people probably aren't that happy that they formula fed their babies@Aitch. Bit of a cheap shot, that, though.

HB - you would have to trust the government to make the right decision. Do you?

The right decision about what?

what? how is that a cheap shot? i wasn't happy formula feeding my children, would much rather have bf them though for a zillion reasons, so i'm speaking from experience. you should search the archives for my name when this article (from 2006) was first discussed on here... not a happy bunny at all. please don't take everything so personally.

To increase the level of BF care as well as putting formula on prescription

do people really believe that if put on prescription mums would still have a choice???
having just had a dispute over the expense of one of dd's drugs with the GP, because of the cost, I can't see gp's giving out prescriptions.....without giving the mum a hard time, just what they need at that time.

apologies to the op of the othe thread, she is not stupid the comment was.

vote for someoen else if you're not happy with the govt.

BF is natural - we all know that. However so is having babies but I'm not very good at that and probably would have died if I hadn't had a c-section. So I do understand why some women don't bf and it is also hard bloody work in my experience.

I bf and am proud of that as its been hard but I don't 'look down' on those who ff. I saw my sister utterly devastated when her milk didn't come in and was furious at the lack of support/help she received post-natally.

My mil is still sad that she failed to bf nearly 40 years ago and has I know found it hard to watch me bf as it has brought back sad feelings for her.

Don't most of us just want better support for women so those who want to bf can succeed at it?

Aitch, I'm not taking it personally. I breastfed my babies. And I've been here since 2005, and used the bf-ing boards a plenty when I had difficulties.

I just think that there are some really rather ridiculous arguments being put forward on this thread and I am disputing them.

i don't think anyone's arguing that mums should be given a hard time, are they? support, i think, is what people are after.

At the moment of course not.

But the Scandinavians had roughly the same rates of BF as we did 40 years ago. Things can change and they do and it's not impossible to imagine a scenario where there is enough political will to do this. I think it's a bit of a counsel of despair to just accept the idea that things can never change, govt.s are never to be trusted, etc. The NHS would never have been invented if everyone had thought like that in 1948.

Yeah, cos all the parties are so different... they may have (very) slightly different ideologies but for them all cheapest = best.

so what was the cheap shot then mrsmattie? i don't think you know what you're talking about tbh, if you managed to bf your kids. whereas i do. believe me i'm qualified to comment on whether or not people are happy with their 'choice'.

Gee, how understanding for those of us whose milk never came in. No matter what we did. Some people are just ignorant and rude.