Breast is best. Or is it?

[RubyBuckleberry]

video g by Dr Karleen Gribble exploring the damaging impact of the language we use when talking about how breast is 'best'.

TruthSweet - thanks for clarifying about the iron. The way you explain it that does indeed sound like a risk of formula. That remains the only inherent risk mentioned on the thread, distinct from the many risks of it not being breastmilk.
I don't agree that food poisoning is an inherent risk unless we are saying that the bacteria present may not be killed by water at 70 degrees. Are we?

Ivette, I agree - I respect peoples choice to formula feed, but I cannot always understand it - and I am not talking about when women cannot feed.

However as other have highlighted, support to breastfeed is often lacking...major understatement, I know. Plus, the formula feeding culture is so embedded that its just the norm...thats why I say I don't judge mums who choose to ff.

Lenak...you say...

"IMO, the best way to 'promote' breastfeeding, rather than pitting it against formula and confusing people with health benefits and risk factors, is to promote the things that breastfeeding has that formula feeding doesn't:

It's free(people always respond to cost savings)
It's less hassle as unless you are expressing there are no bottles to sterilise.
It's always at the right temperature (no trying to find bottle warmers or begging restaurants to let you have a bowl of hot water)
It's on tap

By promoting these things, you are appealing to people in a way that makes more sense to their day to day lives, in a way that is solid an tangible, and not to some possible health risk that may or may not happen no matter how the baby is fed."

But, by skirting the health benefits and possible risks associated with formula or bottle feeding, exectant mums will not have all the information. The health benefits to breastfeeding are the main reason why I chose to feed my baby - the other reasons were secondary for me. I wanted to know the health benefits. This informed my decision. A "possible" risk is a real risk...it may never happen but it might and that was enough to sway my decision to at least give breastfeeding a go. I was very open minded, but wanted to give it a go due to the health benefits...plus it just felt so natural to me TBH.

Riven, I disagree that any campaign will go in one ear and out the other. Despite its flaws, I was influenced by the Breast is Best capaign. It raised awareness in me before I was even pregnant.

I think that one of the biggest risks associated with formual feeding and the formula market is that breastfeeding as the norm has been lost and continues to be lost despite the recent increase in breastfeeding.

the majority of my friends who have had babies have exclusively bf and have very much seen this as the norm. I had every intention of bf my 1st baby but it didn't work out for multiple physiological reasons, largely due to a traumatic birth experience. I believe that most women do see bf as the preferred method of feeding but it's worrying and upsetting for ff mums to be told you're placing your baby at danger. That only serves to pass judgement on the mother.

I genuinely don't understand why women spend so much time and effort discussing how other women choose to feed their babies - as long as we are satisfied with or accept our own method of feeding, surely that's the only thing that we should be concerned about?

maxpower - you say , "as long as we are satisfied with or accept our own method of feeding, surely that's the only thing that we should be concerned about.'

But many women don't want to ff, but end up doing so...9 out of 10 women who stop bf before their babies are aged 6 weeks wished they could have continued. Only one in a hundred women who stop before 6 weeks says she breastfed for as long as she planned to.

The point is that while they mostly accept the fait accompli and may be 'satisfied' with it in the end, that's a lot of disappointed mothers. And that's what means some people (like me, a breastfeeding counsellor) are concerned with what other people do.

Manpower its brilliant to hear that in your circle of friends breastfeeding is the norm. I think this is an unusual situation though. I have no friends or family members who breastfed with the exception of one family member who breastfed her first child for 6 weeks. Sadly, this is the norm. Of course on an individual level it is up to each women how they feed their baby. But as tiktok points out so many women want to feed their baby beyond the 6 weeks but give up because they don't get the help, or even information, that they need. They don't get told about growth spurts, cluster feeding etc by health case professionals so they think they don't have sufficient milk to feed their "hungry baby". This is, therefore a societal issue that needs be be addressed. Its not about targeting individual mothers its about making changes to our systems and support networks so that women realise that exclusive breastfeeding is possible. The very fact that every day there are hundreds of queries about feeding on the forum show that women want help and want to feed their babies.

harverina - all my mum friends and i ebf for at least a year. there are 6 of us plus about another 6 in the extended group all ebf to a year. one stopped at 10 months but only to try for another baby.

I can fully accept the point that a proportion of women stop bf before they want to or are ready to for all sorts of reasons. But that's not what this dicussion was originally about - it's about how bf and ff are presented. I was just trying to say that IME bf is considered preferable but that it's not helpful to portray ff mums as placing their babies in danger. Sorry if I wasn't very clear...

maxpower, yes, you were clear, but in addition to the points you made about presentation, you said that you could not understand why anyone would be concerned about what other people were doing....I tried to explain why some of us are concerned :)

Oh, ok, so if I understand correctly tiktok, it's not really that you are concerned about the method of feeding, rather your concern lies in that if a mother chooses to ff rather than bf (assuming there is no reason why they are physically unable to bf) that it's not through lak of help/advice or support with bf

You got it, maxpower :)