To demand a harder hitting campaign to promote breastfeeding?

[WashwithCare]

I?m sometimes taken aback to hear mothers gave up bf-ing because it was sore, or involved feeding for hours at a time? What did they expect? What did they think newborns do? Didn?t they imagine that anything chewing on your nipple for 10 hours a day was going to nip a bit?

But then again, who can blame them? Breastfeeding for the minimum WHO recommendation of 2 years is practically unheard of. Nearly everyone will tell you it?s absolutely your decision, and fine to stop. The public info campaign is fluffy and vague about the benefits, and the baby on the follow-on formula milk box looks decidedly peachy. Lots of women are so mis-informed, they believe that formula is almost as good as breastmilk.

Is it time for something a little harder hitting? How about this for a tv ad; (scene 1) mum feeding her newborn a bottle telling her mate how hard bf-ing was. Caption: Breastfeeding Hurts. (scene 2) same mum, but now older, bald and sick, hugs toddler. Caption: So does breast cancer. FADE to caption: "Breastfeeding significantly Reduces your Life Time Risk of Breast Cancer". Followed by cheesy inspirational slogan.

WWC So you don't think recurring blocked ducts, mastitus or very painful, sore, cracked, bleeding nipples are reasons to give up breastfeeding?

Oh and BTW it is quite possible for a newborn baby to pop out for a walk with gran. After the first week most babies won't feed more frequently than every hour unless it is a growth spurt and then they may feed several times in an hour.

Actually this thread shows more similarity to a filibuster.

If you behave like a troll then that's how you will be treated.

veryliitlecarrot - apologies, I am thinking of the 10 day review figure, where 55% of mums have arleady given up bf-ing. by 6 weeks only a quarter of mums are still bf-ing..

www.isdscotland.org/isd/5939.html

You are right, those who try and initiate is much higher. I'm not a great fan of the initiation statistics though, as you count as a positive if you try to bf for 2 minutes... so it is only really a measure of mums who are fundamentally opposed to bf-ing. But I don't want to split hairs with your - surely we could agree that bf-ing rates are scarily low?

Nappyaddict - again I don't want to split hairs - it wouldnt' have worked for me personally, but I'm sure many mums did have gran take LO out...

The point I was making though is that it is a very idealised picutre of motherhood. Both bf-ing mums will spend early weeks trapped in the chair feeding A LOT... I would prerfer an add that said - bf-ing was hard work - but it was worth it!

Agree with you washwithcare about the initiation stats. I've worked in a hospital with a very high rate of initiation of bf (85%). However, by the time you get up to the postnatal ward most mums seem to be bottlefeeding....... Very frustrating. The midwives on the labour ward encourage all mums to do skin to skin and put their baby to the breast, but the postnatal ward is generally staffed by over stretched staff with bugger all training in bf support.

If you really care perhaps you should put a bit more thought into why so many women are unable to continue. I was seen once by a HV after I gave birth. Once. That was it. To carry on bfing I had to find my own support. Any campaign should be pressurising the government into funding proper bf counsellors rather than making women feel guilty if it doesn't work for them.

Oh what a great idea! And then the 2% of us, like me, whose milk never came in, no matter what they did, will feel even worse about it until they can resign themselves to feeding their babies formula! I could have cried for 3 days instead of the 2 I did cry for!

Brilliant!

I'll call the brilliant ad agency that did that 'Career Woman' advert first thing today! They'll love it!

You, for example, are a twat.

Funny, in one thread WWC was 6 months pregnant, and now, miracle of miracles, she has a three year old she has breastfed and co-slept with.....hummm....

I agree with you, LadyBiscuit. There should be far more breastfeeding counsellors and maternity units should be dedicated to supporting breastfeeding.

There's a big but here and I think this is what the OP is trying to get at in a rather cackhanded way... a lot of women say they'll give breastfeeding a go but give up at the first sign of trouble.

I wonder if those women who gave breastfeeding a cursory 'try' would give up so easily if they actually knew the statistics. I'm not saying that to be nasty, it's a genuine question. Honestly? If I thought it would raise my baby's chance of getting leukemia by 30%, it would take wild dogs to stop me from breastfeeding. If I thought it would raise my baby's chance of SIDS by even 1%, I would do every last thing I could to breastfeed.

Thrush, mastitis, blocked ducts etc. are horrendous. I've been there. But they CAN be overcome. (And check my history, I've posted support for women with thrush and tried to raise awareness of breasts thrush in my network because I had it missed by midwives in my first baby and we both ended up in a lot of pain. HPs are not good at diagnosing thrush. I sought out a BFC off my own back and harassed my GP and HV until I found a solution. It took a lot of bloodymindedness to get them to listen.)

Now, we shouldn't need to be determined to breastfeed, we should have enough support to get over the obstacles and difficulties easily.

But determination helps. I'd like to see more women being determined to breastfeed and to overcome the obstacles and I think education breeds determinedness. Yes, I know some of you had bleeding nipples, abscesses etc. etc. and those are extreme examples. I'm not really talking about those cases where you hit a real crisis point. But plenty of people give up because of very small things which could be easily overcome. But at the moment, due to lack of support, they need determination to even overcome the small things.

I really don't know why this thread is still going on Its sad actually, that someone would use breast cancer in order to do their trolling. Tragically, there are plenty of women who bf & then get cancer & die (someone I knew all my life died from breast cancer during christmas. She had found out while bf). Nothing is black & white, and no ads will help change the reality of the fact that loads of things play a role in our lives, bf just one small element. WashWithCare, if you're trolling using such sensitive issues, shame on you. If you're not trolling, you're even worse in a way, you have a completely skewed, black & white picture of life.

Thing is when you have tried and bled, and sobbed and the pain was worse than labour and you are cursing your naivety on how easy BF would be and you get bugger all support it becomes very hard to step back and say to yourself.

'Yes, despite my failure to be determined and demand more support I can look at those statistics without guilt and shame and take them for what they are'

It just doesn't happen. I have been racked with guilt for 3 years and am now pregnant again and thinking about BF every day. Am dreading failing again and feel sick even thinking about how awful it's going to be.

Threads like this make me want to say fuck it and not even try. I avoid BF threads because they upset me so, that is my issue I am painfully aware of that. I don't know why I am posting tbh. Hormonal and emotional and maybe it's been a long time coming, saying it it loud so to speak.

All I do know is that I found the OP deeply offensive and I'll be damned if I'm going to read between the vile lines to see the deeper issues.

You'd love me, WashWithCare. I perservered breastfeeding dd on demand though she was dropping down the centiles and it should have been pretty obvious that she was becoming too weak to demand anything much. The HVs kept telling me she wasn't getting enough, but I had to know better. She ended up in hospital looking like a little skeleton. But hey, I've reduced my risk of breast cancer so that's all right then.

I know, Gibbon and I'm so sorry

I'm probably doing the wrong thing trying to actually debate this because WWC has really gone too far.

There are a few who tried their damnedest to breastfeed and couldn't. If breastfeeding is leaving you in agony and at risk of depression or with serious bonding issues, then the risks outweigh the benefits and you made a good choice to stop. Guilt is understandable but it's not deserved.

This is why it's really hard to educate about breastfeeding because it's going to hit those who KNOW and who really tried and feel bad about it not working out, when you're really trying to reach those who DON'T know.

To draw a poor analogy, it's a bit like putting out a leaflet about aerobic exercise dropping your risk of heart disease. Now someone who cannot partake in aerobic exercise because they have a severe disability is going to be upset by this campaign because they know they are at risk and can't help it. But the leaflet is still worth it because it has to reach the majority of people who CAN exercise.

I think we need to educate because most women don't know the statistics. They don't think breastfeeding is any big deal and they believe that formula milk is the same as breastmilk. Many of these women would berate those who drink caffeine or have a home birth or vbac because 'any risk is too much' - yet for many women, the choice not to breastfeed raises the risks. And a lot of them don't realise by quite how much.

PLEASE dont bring a topic like breast cancer into this little jape, so fucking tasteless given many ppl will have had direct and indirect experience

Ha ha ha.

Shame on you lot for being taken in!

Glad someone is amused bonsoir-as senstive as ever I see

Carmen, I'm sorry. I do know what you are saying it right, truly I do. I have my own issues and I need to work through them.

I'm stepping away from the thread now, was cathartic to write it down though and I'm sorry if I made you feel your post wasn't made with the best intentions.

Bonsoir

I am not "taken in" . I just think mentioning b cancer (troll, real, I dont give a shit) is fucking bang out of order

glad you find it so amusing

I'm sorry, Gibbon.

I've been pondering on this issue over the last few days since the facebook 'breast cancer awareness' bra thing but I suspect this thread isn't the time or place.

I apologise.

We are all doing a very hard job as mothers and there's only so much we can do.

has anyone seen LeQ and this person in the same room together....????

just kidding

TheSecondComing, you're right, it's not worth talking about all this further...We're just feeding this awful thread.