Is breastfeeding seen as a middle class thing?

[Thandeka]

Am genuinely curious. Just heard a local children's centre in a deprived area refused to have a breastfeeding support group in it because only the middle class mums would go.

eh?
And I have heard elsewhere that breastfeeding levels are much higher in the middle classes,
Could it linked with education levels?

I have a feeling in other countries people of all classes breastfeed so why not in this country?

Am not posting this to be controversial or anything and apologies if it has been done to death already- I couldn't find anything before but I just wondered if mumsnetters thought it was a middle class thing? and know any reasons why this is?

Bloody hell.

I have just taken some time to read back to earlier posts.

Is that really how working class women are seen by MNs members

We dont care enough about the benefits.
Our OH's dont like condoms (do MC men like them) - there is such a thing as the mini pill.

We are not really clever enough to take it all in.

Bloody hell.

I am beginning to feel like a different species.

Well, when I said in hospital after DD was born that I intended to BF, the doctor asked me what I did for a living. He seemed to be checking that I was sufficiently educated to manage it

Pink elephant are you for real?

thefirstmrs not all mn's . Also i think some of the comments you mention were anecdotes rather than peoples assumptions. It's been flying in all directions here today.

Read pinkelephants post ..her opinion on the wc is obvious .thank fuck I know no one like her in RL

tbh she seems to be echoing ryoko's views from earlier, and ryoko seems to think herself some sort of wc spokesperson.

No! Thats ME! I thought I was the token wc on MN

Some of the mad things on this thread seem to be based on research (however dodgy) rather than out and out bigotry.

But some of it is just out and out bigotry.

We love our babies and want whats best for them. They mean more to us than child benefit and the chance to buy teeny Addidas

I studied Sociology at A'Level, degree level and I have taught it in college,(i'm a lecturer) so i'm well up on the different ways that Sociologists class class. And i'm mightily confused as to what class I am!!!!! :O
Based on education- mc Post graduate)
based on house-wc (terraced)
Area of house-mc (Village)
Parents-wc (machinist and fabricator)
DP's background-wc (window fitter and cleaner)
DP's job- mc (officer in navy)
??????
If someone was to ask me for my personal opinion though i would say working- it's what i feel i am.
10 years ago when i was pregnant with dd, i knew NOTHING about babies. (like rachel in friends) I spent the whole 9 months reading everything about pregnancy and babies from the local library. This is how I came to breast feed. I have no idea what i would have chosed if i had not read that it was best for baby. I read though that i should be introducing a bottle at 6 weeks so that my baby would be able to suck from a bottle in future and this had the negative effect of reducing my breast milk, so that i had to introduce another bottle and the cycle continued until at 4 months i pretty much could onlt bf 1st thing in the morning. However i also read that MW did not advocate dummies but i got one for my baby anyway. I believed (and still do) that dummies are like alcohol and chocolate for adults. They may not be nutritionally beneficial but they make us happy. Fast forward 10 years later and i am on my 2nd pregnancy (thought i'd have a break!) :O and i am again reading (it's been so long i've forgotten everything) and low and behold it says that dummies are now excepted because they have shown the reduce the risk of cot death. Wonder how many mothers who are against dummies (for teeth and growth reasons know that) I think it is receiving and not receiving information that is the issue- not necessarily class.

sorry about typos, bad grammar-it's late and i'm tired. I meant accepted!!!

I agree with this. I think it's about education, time and support. I myself - wc/mc hybrid - breastfed until i had to start going for interviews. The process was stressful and long winded, (was there the whole day) and the pain immense. After the first time, (6 weeks after my son's birth), I couldn't get back to the right level of milk production and there were engorged breasts and blocked ducts a plenty. Not pleasant. So, basically, forced to stop, had to go back to work, while my partner dropped his days to 3, (including weekends) and I work ft week days.

at thefirstmrs!

Sassy i'm like you!
Wc family, income and area (though work barely comes in to it since the pit shut)
But then uni educated, work in the arts and read the guardian. These all being regarded as mc, though this idea disregards the tradition of the radical and self educated wc (mechanics institutes etc)

organic veg box and fresh coffee but no boden or hols abroad.

Oh no, hang on, i bf so must be mc...?

I exclusively breastfed both of my children for 13/14 months. I am MC but to be honest I did it because I found it convenient and you can save a shedload of cash on formula too ! My Mum formula fed as she said breastfeeding hurt too much. Luckily I didn't have any problems.

Out of all my friends I am def the one who has breastfed the longest bar one.

I am preg with number 3 and plan to do the same. Unfortunately my fun bags have definitely suffered thanks to breastfeeding. Load of crap when my MW for my first said it wouldn't afect them ! (But that's another story).

fio are you having a laugh? That seems a very good sample size to me. How many women give birth a year in the uk? Anyone know? Would google but on phone so pita. We could do with a statistition to explaine about sample size etc.

BF about 10 or 15 years ago was certainly something that MC mums took on as a 'cause'. Now it's much more universal. This is the way things tend to run because of the 'pushy', competitive, aspirational nature of the MC mum - largely time-rich, educated, well-off. The WC mum is usually too busy trying to keep the wheels from falling off to campaign for change.

Who decided we should have careers and not be tied to the kitchen sink?.... the pushy MC mum. And now who are writing articles about 'the myth of having it all' and 'the beauty of being a SAHM'?.... a new set of pushy MC mums.

Sometimes they use their powers for good and sometimes for evil. The BF campaign was one of their better campaigns, admittedly, but just wait and see what's next down the pipe. When the MC mother decides we need to change our ways... god help us if we disagree!

pink elephant: really? I've fed dd in the cafe at Costco and nobody cared.

For the record, I am middle class. Wear Boden, foreign holidays, postgrad degree, dh is company director.

You'd never know it though. I'm stealth middle class. A middle class ninja.

So I was always statistically more likely to bf. The fact that I did is therefore not surprising.

If you've scrolled to the bottom to post, pls look at tiktok's replies before you do: in this as in everything, she makes the most sense.

Sorry girls, just having a larf.

Its a totally false dichotomy "working class" v "middle class", in this day and age of social mobility and where a tube driver for example can and frequently does earn more than a college lecturer.

Sociologists have argued the toss for decades about how to categorise social groups and it still makes no sense.

Interestingly, in a survey of how people see themselves, the only occupational group that would admit to being middle class were university academics.

However there are a number of people (like that ghastly Mother and Baby woman) and others I have met, who do think that breastfeeding is weird and that breasts are sex objects, not for feeding babies. I think this does correlate with lack of education/pig ignorance and therefore class if you want to put it crudely.

Answering the OP : I think its not to do with education levels or class per se. Rather more to do with the mother's knowledge of breastfeeding benefits, her willingness to bear with any discomforts it might bring (especially in the first weeks), the mother's support network of family and friends will also influence how long she breastfeeds even if she's willing to give it a shot in the first place - negative attitudes towards breastfeeding expressed by those who matter to her closely can have an effect on how long she'll continue doing it for, and lastly - this is related to personal experience - I think many midwives and health visitors are just not amply trained in breastfeeding (I remember one health visitor once told me to stop bf-ing dd2 and start ff-ing because he thought she wasn't gaining enough weight!). Breastfeeding counsellors are best because they sit with you and observe how you do it and then recommend the best way that works for you. Some people just start bf-ing for the first time and get it right straight away, others need more help. For me, the poor lack of support and knowledge I got from my midwives and health visitors meant that I gave up bf-ing DD1 really soon (after a week) because the technique was just wrong and caused a lot of bleeding and scabbing and soreness (granted I also had a very painful episiotomy to deal with)... When I had DD2, the midwives and health visitor I got didn't help either, and I suffered for about a week before deciding to actually pay out of pocket for a breastfeeding counsellor who works for Medela that I Googled... And I got it straightaway, after she spent an hour sitting with me at home observing me and my baby, trying out different positions in order to get my DD2 to obtain a good latch.

" they didn't invent something new just because in the event of feminism they decided to get jobs themselves. "

That's precisely what they did. The MCs leading the way, as usual.

Working is how poor people keep body and soul together - a necessity rather than a choice. The 1960's/70's MC feminist take on work was that it was far more liberating and self-actualising than old-fashioned child-rearing and house-keeping.... so the bandwagon went that way for a while, many opted for careers, looking down their noses at SAHMs at the same time. 'Housewife' became a dirty word. 'Having it all' was the ideal. More recently the circle has turned and now the SAHM is back in fashion, supported by MC ideals that childhood must be thoroughly stage-managed from start to finish or we risk damaged children. Beginning with BF and organic home-made baby food and working out from there. So - if you read enough articles - the working mum is now subtly painted as being rather neglectful and second-best

WC women all this time have just continued to work as normal and have been in and out of fashion accordingly. They don't have the choice to do otherwise - never did.

Going back 10 years to when I lived in a deprived city area, the MW/HVs had very little expectation that I would BF.

The community midwife was shocked I had not bought any bottles, I was like "what for?" as bottle feeding was not in the plan!

The same midwife reassured me that I was doing well as a mother as my baby did not have fag ash on its head, and my sofa was clean enough for her to sit down on safely!

I don't think it particularly helped promote breastfeeding that there was a prominent display in our local GP surgery reception area where they sold formula milk during baby clinics. I never got to the bottom of that but believe it was a service provided for people on benefits receiving milk tokens etc.

I come from a very working class background and I live in a deprived area in a deprived city. I did grow up in an afluent middle class village but as we were dirt poor at the time I don't feel that has influenced me more then wanting to do well in life.

I have bf all 3 of my children, 1 till 22 months, 1 till 8 months and the 3rd for 1 month. Had undiagnosed PND and struggled so switched to formula.

I know full well the benefits of bf so will bf no 4 for as long as I can.
Maybe being wc makes me stingy and I refuse to pay for formula as I can produce my own milk.

we have breastfeeding counsellors in the area and I al training to be one next year as I feel it is right to be able to offer support for any mother wc, mc or uc who wants or needs it.