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?

Eh? Lack of education prevents good decision making of all sorts - child rearing and child feeding are no exception.

????

But Mindy - given that there are powerful correlations between infant feeding and education, and class, is it not permissable for a debate to explore why this might be the case?

'Good child rearing decisions ' = breastfeeding? Maybe...but now who's being smug?

"but rather how they feel that their experience in one limited area makes them superior to others"

I think you're reading attitudes into people's comments that are not there.

Tiktok
I dont think you understood my post. I do not think that bf-ing is necessarily a good child rearing decision. I actually think its as valid a way to feed your child as formula.
In terms of studies behind education and feeding - its trendy for mc women to bf. Thats why they bf, buy boden and push bugaboos (i have done all 3 before anyone kills me) There is little evidence to support the health benefits.
I think we are all probably quite immersed in the Mumsnet world and there is a lack of tolerance of anything 'off message'

I breastfeed in public and vary from a bit embarassesed to a little teeny tiny bit smug I think I am allowed to be as its bloody hard work to establish and I certainly wont be doing it for long, and probably our last child.

I find that being discrete people dont even notice.

Mindy you just said the same thing that you are criticising the thread for.

I don't see any superiority in the quote you give. Why do you perceive it as so? Do you suggest the porter move to a wc area, and then maybe a stately home before pie is in a position to share her experience? If so i think we'd all better start packing.

Morloth - how, please explain how??????

I dont think bfing is necesssarily a great decision so I dont see why mc women should pat themselves on the back for it and at the same time denegrate wc women because their 'lack of education' precludes them from making the correct decision.

What else do I need to say. DO YOU UNDERSTAND NOW

FioFio

Well said !

I'm pretty sure that most religions predate the invention of formula by many hundreds of years. If there was a religion opposed to breastfeeding I can only suppose it hs died out by now. Probably because the mothers weren't allowed to breastfeed

You said that MC women breastfeed because it is trendy, the thread is asking whether breastfeeding is seen as a MC pursuit. Which is it?

I think it is seen as a MC activity but that that isn't necessarily the case, as supported by previous posts suggesting that perhaps not as many WC women sit around and talk about it.

I don't BF because its trendy or because of the benefits, I BF because it is the obvious thing to do.

Another vote for Royce nursing bras here.

Everyone I know has at least tried to BF, and I would describe the majority of my friends as 'middle-class'. Interestingly the ones who have given up the soonest are the ones where their partner has been less able to support BFing. Long working hours largely to blame, especially where there is an older child to look after as well, school runs, pre-school drop off etc etc.

Pamelat you are right that people barely notice. There is more on show from women wearing low-cut tops than there is from BFing a baby, so why a 'leering man' would look at me feeding instead of someone who is putting it all out there I don't know.

Applauds FioFio

Us wc 'uneducated' parents do actually care about our children ..

mindy! Do you believe in the tooth fairy? or santa? Or that men leer at bfing women? Or is the ff as gone for baby as cd the only made up shit you adhere to?

mindy! Do you believe in the tooth fairy? or santa? Or that men leer at bfing women? Or is the ff as home for baby as bf the only made up shit you adhere to?

Ryoko - attitudes like yours are so depressing. as far as i have seen, no one has criticised your choice to ff, but you have no problem in implying that those of us who bf in public are somehow inviting men to leer at them and are insensitive to the sensibilities of others.

i am discreet when feeding (i wear bf vests which cover 90% of my boob) because i feel i have to be incase people like you feel offended so i am not insensitive. i worry about anyone who is so uptight that they are offended by seeing the back of my dd head and about as much of my boob as you would see in a low cut top.

and as for you implying that nappy changing is on a par with bf, adults go to the toilet to do their business as toilet habits are private. so it is logical that i take my dd to the toilet to change her dirty nappy. toilets are for piss and shit to put it bluntly.

starbucks is not, it is for eating. eating is not a private thing.

why should i hide my DD away in the ladies to eat, if an adult ate in the toilet it would be considered vile. she is simply drinking/eating as are most of the other people in starbucks.

would you feed your child in the ladies out of interest?

OP - i had problems with bf in my first week, and had to visit a bf specialist from an nhs 24hr bf support service in the neighbouring PCT as there were no such specialists in my PCT.

When me and DP were chatting to specialist, we asked why there was no specialist in our area. She said that there is no 24hr dedicated bf support in my area because i live in a mc area and it is considered that mc mums don't need encouragement or support to bf as they do it anyway.

she said that it is considered that wc mums need more encouragement to feed, and so there is more funding for bf in wc areas. i was genuinely shocked by this as surely all mums should have access to ecouragement and support. but it seems to be the nhs's assumption that bf is seen as a mc thing.

good sorry

Mindy, I give up with you.

This thread discusses if, and why, middle class mothers are more likely to breastfeed than working class mothers.

The stats show, quite dispassionately, that breastfeeding is more likely to be initiated, and sustained by middle class mothers. Of course this is in the same territory as education - middle class mothers are more likely to have been educated beyond the age of 16.

Why this can't be discussed without assumptions of smuggery I don't know.

The raw data does not say 'middle class mothers have stayed in education longer and this is why they breastfeed' (which is unlikely to be true) or 'middle class mothers are better than working class mothers'(which is daft) or 'working class mothers don't care about their children'(which is preposterously untrue).

If your contribution to the discussion is that breastfeeding = boden = trendiness = middle class, then that's worth debating, but not if it's offered with such a sourpuss 'I hate you all' sort of tone

Oh I dont think Boden is at all trendy - just to clarify that.
Its only trendy on Mumsnet - he he he over and out before Morloth, MoonfaceMama and Tiktok explode

Never a surprise that these threads get hijacked by ffers with a chip on their shoulder.

It's fine, you know.

Are you on drugs, Mindy?