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.

By Allidon Sat 16-Jan-10 22:07:04
No, of course it isn't trivial. But your argument is that the majority of FF infants are not fine. A list of risks which affect a minority does not prove that statement.

TBH, I don't know if they are fine and neither do you...

What I do know is that Mum's generation was breasted, and my generation was more likely to be FF.

We are in the midst of a huge social experiement, and it is hard to work out exactly what the ipmlications are.

All I can say with certainty is that everytime some good evidence on the impact of FF comes out, it is never good news.

My personal feeling, as a long-term bf-ing mum, is that the intimacy and bonding is important to good mental health for a child. It is hard to explain how comforting and reassuring a toddler finds being fed by Mum - but these are harder things to measure than hospital admission rates...

the 25 percent is still getting some breast milk at six months. Of women who initially BF, 33 percent are still BFing at that point.

all from the 2005 feeding survey.

what about self weaning? my son lost interest.

Sounds like a nursing strike - at 17 months, it's too early to self-wean, I think

really? maybe i could have tried harder (was three weeks ago now) but it felt like the right time to stop, anyway. My SIL fed all hers until 3.5, in case you feel light on company. She's on number five now, he's about to turn 3. will be curious to see how long she goes, since the others were mainly weaned when another baby came along, but this is her last.

"My personal feeling, as a long-term bf-ing mum, is that the intimacy and bonding is important to good mental health for a child. It is hard to explain how comforting and reassuring a toddler finds being fed by Mum - but these are harder things to measure than hospital admission rates..."

Yeah it felt really intimate and fluffy to be constantly rejected by my young son when I was forcing myself to do my very best for him through the most agonising pain.

Oh dear God, I've got to get out of this thread before I explode.

Ooops, no sorry chandelina; you're right it's 25% at 6 months. >1% exclusively BF at 6 months.

Yes, nursing strike is most likely, esp in curious toddler whose found an exciting world - assumign you're not pg, which might be another issue? I never had this issue with DD - who is more of a boob monster - but have known friends to go into darkened room wiht no telly to go for close bonding time to get interest going again and get their milk up.

But 17mths is a great achievement and if you're both happy, I think that is the important thing. If LO does show interest again, no harm in letting him/her suckle though, as still poss to get your supply going again even now.

Just to say to other potential mums or nursing tots - Lots of advantages in feeding post 18 mths... frequency falls, you don't need to do the public thing anymore - sick baby will take bf when they won't take anything else... great comfort - great sleeping draft on planes... Very few problems, as early teething difficulties are all in teh past...

GS - Sorry! It is really hard to promote bf without upsetting mums who didn't feed. Hope you get an easier time with the new baby!

gaelicsheep No-one else can tell you about your bonding experience with your own child. Just as no-one can tell me that feeding my son for as long as I did didn't contribute to my PND, as a poster attempted to do earlier. I love BFing, and I'm sure the intimacy was very beneficial for my son but it wasn't always beneficial for me, sadly. I do feel terrible for saying that but there you go. WLC won't like it.

Or even WWC!

WWC...how can you categorically say '17 months is too young for self-weaning'? Every child is different.

I must admit I was a bit taken aback yesterday when I bought the Feb edition of Mother and Baby. In this edition, their regular feature tracking one woman through her pregnancy to the early days of motherhood is about a doctor who during her pregnancy does a six-month placement in an Obs and Gynae hospital unit. So you'd think she'd be well informed about the realities of breastfeeding, right? Apparently not, because when the baby's 11 days old, she announces that she can't keep up with the baby's demands for milk and 'seems to be feeding for hours', and when she takes the baby to her mum's for a few hours baby screams through hunger. Her mum comments that she 'looks exhausted' and she decides to switch to formula, meaning her husband can also help out.

Now, I know it's her decision, but surely, shouldn't a doctor:

• expect she will be tired at this stage in things regardless of anything else? She had a baby 11 days ago, for goodness' sake!
• be aware that newborns feed for what seems like, and even is, hours at a time? (I was another one who didn't know this at all, btw. Fortunately, I got on well with bfing, but it is the single most important thing I'd tell any new mum trying to bf - don't freak out that s/he seems to want to feed for hours, that's normal.
• understand some of the reasons why it might be worth trying to bf for longer than 11 days? There is no mention of her having painful nipples, or any other problems aside from 'being tired' - which I maintain would be the case regardless of how the baby was fed! - and her mum commenting on it.

I must admit, I read the feature and felt disappointed that a doctor would take such a view so quickly. At the hospital where I had my DS, there were many young working-class mums and locally that demographic is very unreceptive to breastfeeding. I really can't blame them for not wanting to try, since there is no support system to encourage them to do so, and the NHS approach, as has been said, is about as subtle as a sledgehammer and much less persuasive, what with it mainly being about posters and the repeating of 'breast is best' without any actual practical help half the time. They understandably are going to be very reluctant to bf. But for someone who is informed and ought to know the benefits and also the realities of bfing, I felt it wasn't the effort you might expect - especially having read on here stories of women who perservered for longer under much less favourable conditions.

i do agree things get so much easier with an older baby, and there's no reason to stop at six months or a year or whenever if everything is going well.

Thing is WWC, you're trying to promote, not only BFing, but extended BFing, which is another thing altogether and I think you might have a bit of a struggle with that one.

Many women are unable/unwilling to continue BFing when they return to work. Yes, it's possible, we all know it's possible but personally, I wouldn't have wanted to be doing all that expressing etc. Luckily I didn't have to as I didn't return to work. A lot of women 'want their body back' after a while of BFing. You may not understand that or feel that way but we're all different. Personally (and giving away too much information about myself!), I found BFing interfered with my sex life and I wasn't prepared to let that go on indefinitely.

That is surprising Eightieschick. My guess is that she just wasn't that into the idea in the first place, despite presumably knowing a lot about the benefits.

I do know most FF babies are fine. Most children in this country will more than likely have had some amount of formula as babies, yet most children are healthy and you couldn't pick an EBF child out of a line up. Statistically, most babies who are FF do just fine.

If this generation is "a big experiment" as you say, we will never know the results. Our diets as a whole vary greatly and have changed a great deal in the past few decades, there are genetic inclinations to diseases and mental health conditions, some smoke (varying amounts), some drink (varying amounts), it would be impossible to control for everything past the stage of childhood. BF is a tiny piece of a very big puzzle.

Just wanted to say WOW!

Having followed this thread, I decided to pop over to the breastfeeding section, just to see what the advice was on there - amazing! Really lovely posts, completely supportive, encouraging and totally non judgemental.

I think this particular thread should carry a health warning

Oh god yes, no one with current problems should be anywhere near this thread!

standanddeliver, thats how ignorant you are in you post at 19.54 16th jan! where on the NHS website does it say it DOES OR MAY protect against CANCER? or SIDS?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! still waiting? I haven't said anything about ear or chest etc.... I am talking about MAJOR illnesses or DEATHS!

POINT PROVEN! I prove you wrong but still you try and make me look as if i AM the one in the wrong!!!!

Extended breastfeeding and how do you think I can do that, their is no milk banks here in the North East! and nor would another humans BM be suitable for my child! SO TELL ME PLEASE?!

my son is not only COWS milk protein ALLERGY! but he is also lactose Intolerance and also citrus allergy, so please tell me how I can safely breast feed my child, and take care of my older child and for it not to impact on my own health by cutting out the basic and also needed foods in a healthy diet!

Im sure your wonder of wisdom on the matter, alongside expert medics (since my son is one of 100,0000 babies to suffer this allergy, amongst his lactose Intolerance and CMP? come on tell me PLEASE! waiting for your expert opinion on it!

Rainbow I tried to contact you by PM, and I accept your apology, not that you needed to I might add, as its such a emotive subject to all. I just hope that one day we can come to a solution to solve all this "hatred" and non support amongst each other, we all have our ideals lol x

Thankyou x x x

It is a big shame if you given up bf-ing because you didn't understand how to deal with your son's allergy

WWC COMMENT ABOVE!

sorry I had to comment on this classic, I didn't know how to deal with my sons allergy, he didn't just have one allergy, he had 2 major allergies, and also a intolerance, verging on allergy I might add, but Im still waiting on your wisdom to tell me how to overcome my child's allergies and intolerance?

OPINIONS ON A POST CARD PLEASE!

Rainbow, sorry I am catching up on posts, No I haven't asked on here as quite simply I am relentless to do so, because of this thread, and also the back lash. How sad is that. I want and need help from other mums in my situation, (well not that their is many tbh) but hes now weaned and all I can give him is veg and nothing else, then when he turns one, he will go into hospital and go on food trials to see how bad his problems are (allergies/intolerances) x x x

I have been consistent all along here, shame I cannot say the same for some, but Im made to be the bad one, or the one that is lacking in understanding and research, Im lucky tho that I can keep consistent about MY posts x

Havent read through all the posts but i didnt beastfeed, didnt want to , never will, and no amount of hard hitting campaigns would convince me to.
I dont see how harrassing mms via tv ads to do something they dont want to do is beneficial for any baby.

standanddeliver, tbf to LMH, WWC did imply that LMH only gave up breastfeeding because she didn't understand her son's allergies, and if she'd only looked into it further she could have given up eating all the foods her son is allergic to and continued bf. That isn't really a fair judgement and WWC has no right to tell LMH that she didn't do enough to continue breastfeeding.

LittleMrsHappy

Here is a statement about the link between breastfeeding and a reduction in breast cancer. It comes from the cancer research website:

'Breastfeeding can protect you against developing breast cancer. We don't know exactly how breastfeeding is protective but we know that it definitely is.'

www.cancerhelp.org.uk/about-cancer/cancer-questions/how-is-breast-feeding-related-to- breast-cancer

It took me about 3 seconds to Google that.

Nonetheless, I agree with you that WWC was wrong to suggest you should have breastfed your son.

850 posts in I thought I'd stick my head in and see what it's all about. What a horrible thread. And many of the self proclaimed bf 'experts' should be ashamed of themselves for getting drawn in. If you really want to help promote breastfeeding, don't get involved in bitchfests about feeding like this - that'd be a good start!