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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

breast is best

643 replies

Haitch27 · 14/02/2010 00:56

Is anyone else who is pregnant sick to the back bloody teeth of the 'breast is best' campaign being shoved down your throat everywhere you turn and being badgered by health carers to attend breastfeeding 'workshops'?? Maybe its just where I live but it seems to be everywhere yet the one thing no one says is "are you planning to breastfeed"? Assumption that all Mums will!!
Curious to know as I said if it is just my area or is it everywhere?

OP posts:
theboobmeister · 14/02/2010 21:41

Ruby is right. There is a lot of research on the costs to society of FF.

A recent, very high quality study, concluded that "an estimated 53% of diarrhea hospitalizations could have been prevented each month by exclusive breastfeeding and 31% by partial breastfeeding. Similarly, 27% of lower respiratory tract infection hospitalizations could have been prevented each month by exclusive breastfeeding and 25% by partial breastfeeding". And there are a lot of hospitalisations - 12% of all babies by the age of 8 months!

And more here

Basically this is why we are seeing so much BF promotion from the govt, because the accountants have started to crunch the numbers and realise that FF costs us all in terms of unnecessary child ill-health.

sparklycheerymummy · 14/02/2010 21:51

My ds decided to breastfeed..... he took to it straight away and it would have been wicked to stop him but it isnt easy.... greedy boy, sore nipples, leaky boobs etc....... at the moment it suits him and my dd has awful problems with formula so am reluctant to stop bf ds. I have done both and i sooooo think its wrong to criticise mothers for choosing what is best for the family unit. Its good for dads to have a role but i just express for that!

Every brestfeed counts..... i like that

i have had mental health issues and if someone had made me feel bad for ff daughter i would have crumbled..... dd would have suffered and so hardly good for anyone! I get fed up of the whole YOU MUST BF CAMPAIGN....and there being no advice about ff.... my midwife said she was not allowed to offer advice about ff in detail!

If BF is best..... which i know it is where are the resources to help..... good feeding rooms on every town centre.... more bf friendly places, mmore free loans of breast pumps, free nipple shield and nipple creams and breast pad etc etc

Skegness · 14/02/2010 21:53

The 12% figure is for ALL hospitalisations of babies under 8 months in the study, I think. Only 1.1% of that 12% were hospitalised for diarrhoea and 3.2% for respiratory tract reasons. Totally accept that breast feeding is protective in these areas (one of my twins became dangerously dehydrated after a d and v bug at 18 months about 2 weeks after I weaned them both from the breast) but am always unclear on the scale/cost of the problem.

MillyMollyMoo · 14/02/2010 22:07

If BF is best..... which i know it is where are the resources to help..... good feeding rooms on every town centre.... more bf friendly places, mmore free loans of breast pumps, free nipple shield and nipple creams and breast pad etc etc

Nobody would dispute that at all, my sil FF because she didn't feel she could afford to eat well enough to give the baby everything it needed through breast milk but the government would give her formula for free. Now that's a sad reason.

runnybottom · 14/02/2010 22:13

I don't think we need to spend money on feeding rooms to hide bf women away. I thought the point was to normalise it, not reinforce that its something that shouldn't be done out in the open.

sparklycheerymummy · 14/02/2010 22:15

that certainly is a sad reason....... my friend was on income support adn she got milk vouchers but also she got fruit and veg vouchers...... am sure she did!!! (or was that just when pregnant???) If I have got it wrong..... which i often do..... it would be a good idea!!!

BUt also the resources i needed should be available to ALL not just the lower income families.

sparklycheerymummy · 14/02/2010 22:18

runny bottom..... i am bf and dont always feel comfy in public..... i still do it but it its not easy.... very big baby, noisy fussy feeder, very large breasts adn have to feed football hold therefore need somethign to rest arm on etc etc..... a lot of people give up because they find it hard to feed in public..... feeding rooms would at least get more people doing it perhaps..... not saying it has to just be for bf mums either...... just better baby facilities!!!!

bubbleymummy · 14/02/2010 22:18

Mmm very sad that you sil thought that. Bm is always nutritionally adequate for the baby no matter what the mother's diet. It is only when women are severely malnourished that the quality of their milk is not as good.

MillyR · 14/02/2010 22:18

I thought that milk vouchers could be used to buy ordinary cows' milk for the Mother to drink if she were breastfeeding. Is this not the case?

sparklycheerymummy · 14/02/2010 22:19

not sure????? MillyR

MillyMollyMoo · 14/02/2010 22:23

They can be used for cows milk but it's £2.50 worth of cows milk v's £6 worth of formula which would last the week so I guess it seemed she was getting more for her money, the fruit and veg vouchers are a relatively new thing I believe and like getting blood from a stone, I'm actually entitled to them but have been waiting 8 weeks so far.

sparklycheerymummy · 14/02/2010 22:33

mmmmm thats not good. my friend had them for her ds who was born in 2008!!!

BexJ78 · 14/02/2010 22:43

Just going back to the 'be a star' campaign, it is actually aimed at young mothers who actively choose not to feed and to my knowlege has only be launched in areas where breastfeeding rates are low (i went to the launch of the campaign in our area last week...) Whilst the campaign perhaps might be a little might be clumsy and simplistic in its approach, it is trying to make the point that you can breastfeed without being a frumpy, new-age/hippy type mum and is particularly, as far as our are is concerned, trying to appeal to young mums in the area who do not even consider breastfeeding as an option because of either body image issues, or the fact that their boyfriends etc do not want them to breastfeed.
to be honest, my view on bf'ing was that i would give it a good go, because i do honestly believe that it is better for my baby and also because it is cheap and convenient. in my area the midwives did not 'shove it down your throat' but were supportive when i said i wanted to bf and also there is a fair bit of support in terms of bf'ing peer support and counslling etc. i guess we must just be lucky. Most of my friends bf, but similarly, there are a couple who have chosen not to and as far as i am concerned, it is their choice. i am always surprised when people choose not to, just because of the sheer convenience of bf'ing, but i guess it is up to them...

sparklycheerymummy · 14/02/2010 22:48

it is very convenient i agree..... we went out for day to friends and decided to stay over as i had all that baby needed there with me!!

I heard a story at baby group of a boyfriend who told girlfriend not to breast feed cos he did want her 'getting her tits out in public..... wasnt having any fella staring at his birds tits' etc etc etc..... so so sad!!!!

MillyMollyMoo · 14/02/2010 23:01

I think Paul st MacCartney said something along those lines so it's not just the younger generation

crazycat34 · 15/02/2010 05:02

Well given that it's true... it wouldn't have annoyed me too much.

However, when I had my DS, no one even mentioned it to me. My DS was taken to SCBU and given aptamil which he didn't tolerate and kept bringing back up. I was quite ill after he was born so it took a couple of days for me to address it myself.

When I did, I told them that I'd intended to breastfeed (not because I'd thought about it, but because it's just what you do) and they looked at me like I was an idiot and said "you do realise that you'll have to come down to SCBU in the middle of the night, don't you?!" - like i hadn't realised feeding wasn't going to be a 9-5 job!

l39 · 15/02/2010 08:31

The directgov website here says that the vouchers for fruit and vegetables are worth the same as the formula milk ones, but maybe they've changed it since your friend got them, MillyMooMoo. I'm glad this didn't apply in 1992 when we were on benefits and I had DD1. I wouldn't have bottlefed her, I was quite determined to breastfeed and had no problems at all. But £3.50 counts when you're that poor and it would have really made me angry to think doing the right thing for my baby would have made me worse off even by a tiny amount.

StealthPolarBear · 15/02/2010 08:37

ISNT you are right about the un-naturalness (??) of our lives and how this has affected bf.
darkandstormy is a troll - no-one writes like that!!
crazycat, sorry your DS had a stressful start Lol at them thinking your first priority would be a good night's sleep! Did bf go well after that?

ImSoNotTelling · 15/02/2010 08:51

Morning all!

Have been mulling this all night and just going to bung my questions down as they come out. Some interesting things came to mind as I digested what was said yesterday.

The point about refusing medical care to people who don't BF - would that be the mother or the child? Would it be for things that were deemed to be linked to not BF, or how would it work?

Given that there is a socio-economic factor in whether women choose to BF, wouldn't this simply penalise women who have the misfortune of being born into an anvironment where BF is just not done?

The point about women having children later and the cost to the NHS - demographically it would be interesting to see how much tax the women who strart their families later have paid into the system, compared to how much tax they would have paid in if they had had their families earlier IYSWIM. I suspect that many of the women who delay their families are in fairly highly paid/professional roles, and while it is possible to forge ahead in those after you have had your children, it is certainly harder than doing it the old fashioned way ie uni - job - promotion etc.

I am also interested from a personal point of view to find out how you can BF and wear a normal bra - especially if you are outside in winter. And on the same sort of topic, how cosleeping means you don't have to wear a bra in bed. I would kill for either of these tips, but suspect that the women who were talking about them were talking about their own experience, even if they didn't phrase it quite like that.

ImSoNotTelling · 15/02/2010 09:08

SPB I think there may well be more than one troll on here TBH...

StealthPolarBear · 15/02/2010 09:11
Smile
zippyzapper · 15/02/2010 09:16

I wear a normalish bra - it is a maternity bra but it is just like a normal bra and i pull down the cup. I don't have front fastenings to deal with.

Also i don't wear a bra in bed - i kind of don't wear one at home either - what do others do?

I do find my personal appearance to be pretty shoddy as I am so tired from breastfeeding.

Babieseverywhere · 15/02/2010 09:17

Troll hunting is a pointless activity and to be honest I have never read a troll post so extreme which does not reflect at least one real person opinion.

Even if trolls are posting in order to wind people up, who cares it moves the debate along and as long as accurate facts are laid down. So anyone reading the thread now or later will still get the benefit of good advice.

Even when I am very about an particular poster, I made an decision to post as if they were genuine just in case they are or a lurker in the same situation is reading.

Babieseverywhere · 15/02/2010 09:21

crazycat34, Sorry to hear about the difficult start you and your DS experienced.

I am highly surprised that the SCBU nurses did not request you express your milk or at least suggest it as option, surely they know how much better the babies in SCBU do on human milk.

And as for putting you off when you suggested it, that is so far from being supportive

duchesse · 15/02/2010 09:23

Have to say I do feel a bit of freak for still exclusively breastfeeding dd3 at 5.5 months. I have yet to meet another mum around here who is doing so. It's so unlike my previous experiences in the NCT group of another town, where exclusive bfing until 6 months even 12 or 15 years ago was the norm.

I have been genuinely taken aback at how few people do it here. I have been laughed at in the street by a bunch of young mums for breastfeeding my daughter while carrying her around town in her sling. I was doing it discreetly, but the sling attracts attention, and if people looked at her face and then followed it down to where she was feeding, they got all overcome with embarrassment. I've no doubt the group of young women who screamed in disgust were only covering their embarrassment, but it's been a real eye-opener to discover that bfing can not be the norm.