BF in other countries - what is normal?

[Pruni]

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Germany:
Culture-wise, somewhat more of a bf culture than in the UK. Have never had a problem bf in public, but have not seen a lot of other mothers doing it.
Info-wise, pretty similar to UK. Received bad advice in hospital and was cajoled into giving formula, leading to a 4-week struggle to get ds off mixed feeding and onto ecxl bf. (That said, when he was in SCBU they were very good at facilitating bf and expressing). The hospital was also obsessed with test weighing before and after feeds. Pernicious propagation of weaning at 4 months.

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Canada is a bit more pro-bf, I think, but that may be the bias of my friends and family. I see fewer people bf in public there, I think. Breastfeeding tops are much easier to buy.

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I am fine. Much better than I'd expect. Slightly forgetful, not eating great, and a bit spacy, but coping.

I am pissed off about having to go to Mexico, but I guess mom finally worked out how to get me to go.

Thanks for asking.

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kama, could you post a link to a Norwegian site? I can read Norwegian a bit and I'm interested to see what they say.

I'm in NZ and there seems to be a much more supportive attitude to breastfeeding here - which is unexpected because culturally it's very similar to the UK in other ways.

Have never had any trouble breastfeeding in public and in the mum-and-baby group I belong to, the majority breastfed and quite a few were still going at a year. I'm still breastfeeding at 17 months and have had only positive comments from health professionals if I mention this.

Most women in NZ seem to start to bfeed in hospital and the amount of baby friendly hospitals prove that.

Figures from our Plunket Nurse show that at least where I live around half are still feeding when she takes over from midwife at 6 weeks.

I have noticed that a lot of women use 6 months as their cut off point and start muttering about iron. (Not coincidentally the weaning video is sponsored by a baby food manufacturer.)

Watching this thread with interest - we're off to the Algarve in a fortnight, I wondered what the attitude over there was. At home I'll feed (discretely) where I need to and would argue the toss with anyone who complained, but I wouldn't like to go to another country and completely offend people - does anyone have any experience?

Thanks kama! Gosh, it all looks so well sorted over there.

But do they have mumsnet???

I've been in Spain for two years and I can honestly say that I have only seen 2 women breast feeding. You see lots of small babies being bottle fed. To be honest I dont know any stats from Spain but i'm guessing it's not very good.

ive just googled weaning in Spain and the majority was about weaning pigs before slaughter. Typical, always thinking about food.

Apparently in some places in Canada (specifically Winnipeg) they're not being very supportive in the hospitals and are in fact pushing the bottles more because the nurses are too busy to help bfing moms.
I would have bf anyway, but I'm really glad I had my baby here and got that support at the hospital. (Never had so many strangers touch my breasts before!!)

kama - "fast foede"??? Don't have time to look it up myself though!

In Denmark virtually every mother breast feeds, bottle feeding is not supported at all unless circumstances are dire. This goes on for at least 6 months and often much longer. I saw a child of about 3 being breast fed in the shopping centre. Women b/f anywhere and every where, no problems what-so-ever unless you can't physically b/f (like me) then you are made to feel like an alien. I had to resort to lying to my health visitor because I reluctantly resorted to bottle feeding. That said, although b/f is supported I was never given any advice on what to do despite asking, was just told to get on with it - probably why I failed.