Upset and angry about the negative way in which Gabrielle Palmer (politics of Breastfeeding) writes about expressing and breast pumps

[pigletmania]

Well that's it really. She views pumps as a money making machine, when really they are so useful and lifesaving. I may as well give up then and put ds on formula. Pumping has allowed my ds to have BM when before we had to resort to formula, due to difficulties in the initial stage. It's like she sees those who express BM for their babies as inferior than those who feed from the breast. For example she questions where the baby is while the mum is pumping when he should be getting bm from the breast not a mechanical pump. Errr asleep, or just amusing himself with noisy toys. I don't neglect him fgs!

I do put ds on the breast regularly but he does not suckle. I am happy that I am able to express my own milk for him, he is still getting human milk from me. She also goes on to say that milk from the pump is different from getting it from the breast, then at the end it says that there is no hard research to prove this. She then goes on to say that components of the pump can harbour bacteria and those babies who have expressed milk are more likely to become ill, we'll no different to ff then. I wash and sterilise the components of the pump that are able to

Instead of praising those who pump, she is very negative, I have been expressing for 3 months and I am p,eased that ds has had 3 months worth of BM. Thank god for my pump. There rant over
E

You might need to take a chill pill if you are getting this riled up about a book.

Parenting is usually a long, hard series of challenges. You need to preserve your strength for the serious battles.

In your situation, the pump was clearly a godsend.

But for many (or even most) people, pumping and sterilising etc are a big faff, not really necessary, and possibly even more liable to make people give up bf. I wish someone had told me that there's no really need for a baby to take a bottle and for you to express etc, you can just feed them when they are hungry, and by 6 months, the amount of time you can leave them for has little relation to whether you've expressed or not.

And sadly, the main reason why we're indoctrinated into believing that breastpumps etc are necessary is so that companies can make money out of something that's free.

Look - The Politics of Breastfeeding is very interesting in many ways, but even someone as pro-BF as me can see she edges towards polemic on occasion. I loved my pump. It gave me a feed "off" every night at 1am so I could sleep. Love yours. It's the SAME STUFF going in.

"For example she questions where the baby is while the mum is pumping when he should be getting bm from the breast not a mechanical pump"

Mine was always on the other book feeding at the same time i thought a lot of people expressed like that.

I guess there are still a lot of mysteries about why b/feeding is so beneficial - is she talking about appetite control etc? Which is apparently more natural when a baby feeds from the breast than from a bottle? And isn't there a suggestion that this might explain the link between bottle feeding and obesity?

I happily mixed fed both of my children with no regrets so you wouldn't catch me reading a book like that. Pop it down and read something a bit more fun maybe? Life's too short to read patronising drivel about breastfeeding.

Please ignore the breastapo OP, and well done you for giving your child three months of breast milk! As long as there have been human beings, women have experience problems with feeding - before formula, they had to look at alternatives, such as goat's milk or wet nurses. Women are their own worst enemies. There is NOTHING wrong with what you are doing, carry on doing whatever you want to do. Good luck!

the other boob!

It's only breastfeeding.

Not read the book but, as with everything in life, it has become one long marketing campaign - I particularly disliked the smuggety smug adverts at the antenatal clinics of dads feeding their babies, mum having expressed previously, as if that was a bf ideal. Sod that. Great if you want to, but why we all had to sit in front of tv's blasting out these adverts for up to an hour at a time beats me - oh hang on - I expect the hospital was paid to show them.

Well the alternative for me is formula feeding so I would still need to sterilise etc. my dd has sn I find it more flexible tbh, others can feed ds whilst I tak her out on my own. Yes would love to have fed him from source but I did not wrk out like that. I just found it so negative and discouraging. The milk that is coming out of my breast with the pump is still the same as if he got it from my breast.

Thanks pinklaydee need some of that after reading that part

Women can be so harsh on one another and I would not encourage any woman struggling to bf to read that book. I go to a bf support group and I felt a bit [ hmm] to go at first because I am not properly bf really, but was welcomed with open arms, everyone was so lovely and supportive. I would have liked ds to go on the boob but h cries and thrashes each time I try, and I think at 12 weeks it's gotten to the point of no return now

Well done for getting to 3 months. Like you, pumping was a godsend, I had a rocky start, sore shredded nipples, bad latch, thrush in the internal breast tissue all the way to my armpits - the memory of it still makes me shiver. Without expressing I'd have ended up a nervous wreck - just one or two pain free feeds each day gave my nipples a chance to heal, and me a chance to stay sane enough to find better support.

Of course it is better if baby can take directly from the boob for all sorts of reasons, but if baby can't, then expressed milk is far better than other options.

I was a wee bit grumpy reading it too, but overall i think her problem is with the manufacturers who make people think they have to express as a necessity and that it is exactly the same as direct feeding all the time. also the maternity leave in the USA is often measured in weeks rather than months so the market is pretty huge!

there are posts on here all the time asking what type of pump to get when the OP isn't really that keen to pump but maybe family expect it etc. also bottle manufacturers selling a pump/bottles/steriliser as a bfing starter set!

i expressed a wee bit when DS was born as he struggled to stay latched on with a tongue tie. also for a few months when i went back to work to keep bfing going. we couldn't have afforded to have me as a SAHM but i don't think DS felt too neglected having ebm at home with dad.

so in summary, i think she gets a bit ott with comments but it's mainly aimed at the people making money out of selling people lots of stuff they might not need and poor mat leave.

I think GP is looking at it from the point of view of some women who see expressing as an integral part of bfing or indeed an equally valid choice when their baby will latch on (or hasn't been given the chance to try to see if they can bf directly). I don't think she is having a go at women who are working really hard to provide BM when their babies can't feed directly - I have EPed (sort of a - a heck of a lot of formula was also used) and it is blinking hard work so hat's off to you for getting this far and for carrying on.

In the US especially pumping is seen as what you do when bfing - so you can go out WITH baby, so dad/grandma/friend/sibling can feed the baby, so you can go out without baby - even SAHM mums pump daily just in case they get hit by a bus.

I heard of a US SAHM mum having 500oz (IIRC) in a freezer that was mis-appropriated by a family friend (was to be given some of the milk but took it all) and she was worried in case something happened to her before she was able to replace it and very few people asked her why the heck she needed so much milk seeing as she and baby were together all the time . That is what GP is railing against not EPing mums - the expectation of pumping daily (perhaps multiple times) for no reason - this makes life more onerous for bfing mothers not easier and can lead to problems like oversupply, plugged ducts, stress over lack of milk pumped (not all mums can pump and some give up bfing as they have 'no' milk as a result), lack of freezer space .....

I see what you mean truth I would love ds to feed from source and do regularly shove introduce him to my breast but to no avail. I would have thought he would prefer it to the bottle but no. It's nice to known he is getting my BM thoughmy sil expressed exclusively for 9 months and others o. Here have done a year so you never know. It has gotten easier though and I have a spectra pump which is excellent

i took so bloody long to write that that truth said it lots better!

PoB is an academic and fully referenced work, not a parenting guide. It's looking at the big picture and asking difficult questions about our society and corporate culture but not, as I can see, criticising individual mothers.

As others have said, while breast pumps can indeed be lifesavers (had a 32 weeker last year, tubefed for 3 weeks - hats off to you for 3 months! Expressing truly should be regarded as an Olympic sport!)too many manufacturers see direct breastfeeding as a moneymaking opportunity. Because of the shocking mat leave in the US and lack of opportunities to return to work part-time, the 'pumping' culture is accepted and mothers are expected to express even just for occasional feeds.

This means 'supportive' breastpump manufacturers can market not just the pumps but bags, bottles, teats, cold storage options, etc. Medela is a well-known pump manufacturer who openly flouts the WHO code surrounding their marketing.

As with any other aspect of parenting, if you tried your very best as you have to do the very best for your child but it wasn't completely possible due to other issues (e.g. your case) then you shouldn't feel guilty or angry.

I have expressed exclusively for my DS for 10 months, so I know how hard it it. Well done OP!!
I too have read the book, and I didn't really take it to mean a mother who was pumping because her baby won't latch on. I think it was more about routinely pumping, even when baby can latch on, just introducing a bottle for the sake of it, under family pressure maybe.

Just to address the issue of expressed milk lacking the immune-benefits from whatever bugs are doing the rounds at the time - I always fed my baby milk expressed within a few hours, so I'm pretty sure that milk contained the immune benefits as if he were to have it from the source. But if I was using frozen milk (and some people do this, they rotate the stash, so the milk built up wouldn't expire) I guess the benefits would be less.

I agree with FirstLastEverything. Pumping/expressing is far from ideal and should be a last resort only.

Well ofcourse it is a last resort. Why would anybody willingly attach themselves to a pump rather than their baby every 3 hours and do all the washing up and sterilising, i.e worst of both worlds, if you can do without?!

Pumping is what made it possible for me to get bfing established with DD1.

She couldn't latch on/I couldn't get her latched on for days and if I hadn't been able to express milk, she would have had to go on to formula.

I love my pump - I love that it made it easy for DH to do one feed a day that he loved so I could sleep. I love that I could go back to work and still have my DDs fed exclusively on breastmilk.

I did most of my feeding from the breast, but the flexibility pumping offered was really useful and part of why I fed both DDs for over a year despite working full time.

I have a friend who did exclusive pumping for 4 months because her baby couldn't latch for medical reasons. She worked so hard to give her DS the best start in life.

Not everyone can afford to take a year off maternity leave, or even 6 months. A pump is a godsend if you want to continue giving them BM. Isn't that a good thing?

Luckily my DD who is 19 months, was a dream to breastfeed and still is, so never had to pump for her and I was lucky to have a whole year off, so no need for a bottle either. But not every mother has similar circumstances.

Agree with Truth.

Another thing that would help is if HCP showed women how to hand express, or even told them it was possible. I bought a pump when I was expecting DD1 because I thought I would need it, I didn't know you could just do it by hand. I used that pump twice. I learnt to hand express but I don't even do that very often.