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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

Breastfeeding myths overheard in hospital

412 replies

hunkermunker · 23/01/2006 15:23

Woman in the bed next to me was bottlefeeding because she "couldn't be arsed to breastfeed, and they're more settled on a bottle, innit". Er, yours wasn't, love - he cried, you snored through it. And as for the method of getting your newborn baby to take a bottle that your partner had discovered... Heard her telling her mum and dad as if it was hilarious that her DP had said "Finish the fucking bottle, then" and he'd drunk it

Woman in bed opposite me was told to "put the baby to the breast and leave him there as long as it took. It might be two hours. Just let him suck". Well, OK, but might've been nice to actually show her what to do, as she had no idea. Baby had a bottle in his mouth the next morning

Woman who was in the bed after woman opposite left said, "My milk isn't in yet, so I've been giving him bottles until it is". Instead of being told, "Just let him feed, you have colostrum, which is all he needs, your milk will be in soon, I'll help you if you need it" she was asked which formula she wanted

And today I've been told to only offer one breast at each feed and since I had DS2, they've asked me how often he's feeding - am I trying to get him to go three-hourly? Er, no, he's had low blood sugar. Nobody has mentioned feeding on demand to establish supply.

Am and and

OP posts:
RedZuleika · 26/01/2006 14:52

Is it any wonder that breastfeeders often get evangelical about it?? (Did I hear the term 'Breastapo' once...??) When you've worked your way through pain, bleeding and public nudity, you want to shout about it.

Which reminds me: I've just sent a terse email to the Chief Executive of the Vegetarian Society to draw attention to the fact that their weaning advice does not support exclusive breastfeeding until six months.

nanneh · 26/01/2006 15:06

Red - I am a member of the Ranting About Breasts Are Best Non Bloody Stop Party

harpsichordcarrier · 26/01/2006 15:12

nanneh - may I join pls?? sounds like my kinda party

AngryMonster · 26/01/2006 15:32

harpsi - reading the beautiful things you write here - you are a member already

nanneh · 26/01/2006 15:36

I think most of you lot are members already...ranting mad you are !

harpsichordenvy · 26/01/2006 15:37

Angry Monster do I know you? cos I am not sure if you are taking the p*88

AngryMonster · 26/01/2006 15:42

No not taking p* honest ! Just been reading this thread and some others and like what you and a few others had to say about it all.

harpsichordenvy · 26/01/2006 15:51

in which case sorry for being ungracious and thankyou

motherinferior · 26/01/2006 15:57

Presumably you would call yourselves a Popular Front?

kit990 · 26/01/2006 16:40

As a second time mum I felt that everyone assumes you know what you're doing and they leave you be. Unfortunately, bf is not necessarily like riding a bike and you DO forget. In recovery I had a few postitive comments but on the ward over night no one was really interested in whether I was doing ok. The girl opposite me was 'caught' pinching the used teats from the bottles she was given to feed her baby when the mf picked up her bag to move it and they all fell out. Did make me chuckle behind my curtain ( which they seemed to think I needed closed the whole time as I was bfing!!)
I am not a great fan of hv generally but one did bother to take the time and arranged a home visit to chat through some ideas and tips for keeping me motivated with bfing when the going was getting a bit tough - evern showing how to hand express! Not one offered me anything like as much advice the first time round. No wonder so many don't even bother.

Dinosaur · 26/01/2006 16:51

Very good, mi, very good.

(I had a huge crush on Robert Lindsay, in days gone by...)

edwardsmum · 26/01/2006 17:12

It must have been the post-pregnancy hormones turning me nuts, but I was persuaded by my midwife to demonstrate breastfeeding to an antenatal class full of mums-to-be and their partners when my DS was about 2 weeks old! When I told my mates they thought I was absolutely bonkers but for me it was a pretty liberating experience. The best bit was seeing the realisation on some of the blokes' faces that you don't actually wap out your whole boob, and that with practice it can be done ever so discreetly!

mrspitt · 26/01/2006 17:46

Haven't read the entire thread but i can only praise the hospital where i've had my 3 kids. It is a huge supporter of bf ing even to the point where a mw designed a special little cup for babies who were having difficulty latching etc but mothers wanted to bf. Can't remember the name of it but its used and has been patented.

All mw's were excellent esp in their care for my wishes and when i wasn't sure how to latch ds on i only had buzz and i would get help.

I didn't realsise so many women had such bad experiences. Maybe it just comes down to luck but i'm so glad i'm fortunate enough to have had such positive birth experiences.
I do believe you need support esp from you dh/dp. Mine has always been fascinated when i've been feeding and always says he thinks its magic.
My hospital also promoted feeding on demand which i would probably do anyway .
I think if i had read this while pg with no.1 though i would be terrified!

woopster · 26/01/2006 21:06

Lazycow, just wondering - from the way you describe your son bf, he may have had reflux?
Was that never checked?

Reading these posts, it would seem that I was lucky. I had a c-sec with both pgs. I was encouraged all the way to bf DS1, and the mw I had when I came home showed me AND DH how to get the positioning correct.
I bf him for 17 months - he gave up himself when I got pg the 2nd time.

Sadly, 2nd pg didn't go so well. I went into premature labour 12 weeks early and although my milk came in more or less straight away, I obviously couldn't bf straight away. I did pump 5x day for 9 weeks and also tried bf-ing once the babies came out of special care into the nursery. It wasn't very succesful. Babies were too small, plus having a toddler in tow didn't help much.
The nursing staff at Medway, Kent were brilliant. Nothing was too much trouble for them.
I'm bottle feeding twins and I hate it.
I was also told by in-laws that I wouldn't have been able to bf them anyway - I couldn't have coped , that really ticked me off.
When I have my next set of twins I will bf just to show them!!

puk · 26/01/2006 22:21

I felt sooooooo sad when I read how so many mothers are struggeling to bf. I am new to the uk and would just love to help mothers bf. I bf my three children for 2and a half years each. I contacted the "La leche League" when I had a small problem with my first baby and after that it was plain sailing. Is there not a league in the uk? To latch baby put your nipple on his/her cheek and when they turn their head towards you and they open their mouth pop the nipple in.Support your baby on a pillow on your lap,and remember always demand feed. BF is healthy,cheep and convenient.Enjoy your baby it doesn't last long. They grow up sooooo quickly.

ShaysMummy · 26/01/2006 22:39

I agree with MrsPitt. I think it comes down to luck and who is on shift when you are in. With ds1 I got a right old battleaxe slamming the poor little mite into my boob at every opportunity. He could never latch as his body was always too busy demonstrating it's moro reflex! Eventually he developed a fear of my boob as he was always being smothered and would scream at just the sight of my bra. My health visitor told me loads of babies develop this fear and I should not feel guilty, but I still do and he is 6 months. With the next, due in Aug, I will stand up for myself and not accept any rough handling but at the time I had no idea what to do or how to do it.

tiktok · 27/01/2006 09:02

woopster - it may not be too late to resurrect at least some bf for your twins. How old are they??

kitegirl · 27/01/2006 09:12

It really makes me and to read about the awful, horrible experiences some of you have had in the hands of cruel (that's the only word that can be used in these cases) midwives. There is NO excuse for treating women like that who are tired, emotional, hormonal, overwhelmed and needing support and encouragement. Unfortunately, in that state very few are capable of standing up for themselves and demanding that they are treated, at minimum, with respect. How come these women have chosen a caring profession when their attitude is like that? Unbelievable.

I was lucky to have a supportive midwive who helped me get started with bf, but I still had to call in a bf councellor because of sore and cracked nipples, it transpired that ds was tongue tied which was causing the pain - something which the midwives do not routinely check.

nanneh · 27/01/2006 10:47

puk - LLL is very active in the UK. Unfortunatley not all mothers know how or where to get support in the first few days after birth.

I recently heard about a mother who had a hospital cleaner help her with BF

The clearner had breastfed her own children and was from a country where BF is very popular and indeed the norm. She begged the new mother struggling to BF not to tell any of the hospital staff that she had helped as she could have been sacked for giving medical advice instead of getting on with her cleaning !!

I now wish there were more hospital cleaners like that around. In fact why don't we get the NHS to pay hospital cleaners who can help with BF

MissChief · 27/01/2006 10:53

there's a real need for a designated, f/t breast-feeding support worker in hospital isn't there? NCT/LLL volunteers and snatched help from mws is so clearly not enough.

prettybird · 27/01/2006 11:01

My hosptial had two BF counsellor midwives- plus the rest of the midwives were very supportive too. One in particualr, Rosemary, always seemed to be around and was brilliant for support - so down to earth but caring too.

There was even an expressing room on one of the wards, with nice comfy seat and tow heavy duty expressing machines. It was really for the mums who had kids in special care (my hopsital was also a tertiary centre) but apparanetly it was also used a lot by staff who were still breastfeeding. They supplied bottles to express in to and sorted out the strilisation of the kit for you.

I used the room when I was re-admitted about 2 weeks post natally with a nasty infection, as I had just started a regime of supplementation with EBM to help with ds' slwo weight gain (we eventuully realsied it wasn't poor weight gain, just slow weight gain as he was thriving even though he wasn't gaining weight at the "prescribed" rate.)

RedZuleika · 27/01/2006 11:05

There is. But that doesn't tackle the issue of the women who have made up their minds in advance though and have no intention of even trying. HOW does one achieve the sea-change necessary for breast not bottle to be the norm??

I've just been looking at the weaning bumpf handed out recently in a post-natal group. The stuff provided by the NHS trust doesn't once mention exclusive breastfeeding until six months being the recommendation. It only mentions it in terms of encouraging for infants with (probably) hereditary allergies. That is, the unusual and uncommon infant. It looks like they haven't updated their bumpf since the DoH policy changed.

prettybird · 27/01/2006 11:22

Have to say at my hospital they do suffer from that osrt of culture. it si perhaps why they have such good support - in order to support the small perecentage that does want to breastfeed to do so successfully.

In the West of Scotland breast feeding (or not) is highly psot code dependent. They are trying to address this by going out in to the schools and trying to change the culture earleir. The rest of it is the dripping water effect - the more mums that they can encourage to breast feed successfully - and to do so for more than 6 weeks, the more people will start to see that it is, at the very least, an option.

woopster · 27/01/2006 11:50

TikTok - They are now just over 6 months.
I did try when we got home, but like I say, with a 2.5 yo toddler wanting my attention every time I sat down, it wasn't gonna happen. Shame...

woopster · 27/01/2006 11:51

TikTok - They are now just over 6 months.
I did try when we got home, but like I say, with a 2.5 yo toddler wanting my attention every time I sat down, it wasn't gonna happen. Shame...