What does the Daily Fail have against BF, seriously?

[LAF77]

www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2177002/Why-mothers-ignore-tyranny-breast-best.html

I got so mad reading this "article" people talk about this Breast Is Best tyranny, but I have to say, I never see it.

I know what you mean, but the only way to counter the BS is just to do what you do and answer questions or point people to resources so that the minority who are tyrannical (some people are arseholes whether they bf or not) look like the minority they are.

I don't see the 'tyranny' in real life either LAF. But many mums feel themselves to be under huge pressure about their feeding choices, from HCPs, friends, family etc - and it works both ways whether you're BF or FF. The guilt, the perceived pressure - these are peoples' real feelings, can't argue with them.

But seems to me that Daily Mail's entire purpose in life is to reinforce a sense of victimhood in its readers, so stories like this fit the bill nicely. Personally I think they should balance things up a bit with stories by women who felt they were robbed of their chance to BF by poor advice and unsupportive HCPs.

I can't even get to the end of the article without fuming! I'm hardly any distance through the article and I have already seen that (apparently!!!!) the WHO recommend BF for 6 months and that breastmilk onlyu keeps for one day in the fridge....

I don't get it either. I did not encounter any tyranny. My MW gave me a leaflet at booking in but didn't spend much time discussing bf. I attended an optional antenatal class on BF. In delivery the MW delivering the baby asked me how I intended to feed him (presumably so she knew to help me latch him on). Hardly what you would call bullying me into it or tyranny. Support on postnatal ward was pants but that is a different story.
I don't understand why the DM has so many articles about breastfeeding - it is the normal way for human babies to receive nutrition. Perhaps they are sponsored by cow&gate or something?

The tyranny seems to be absent in my neck of the woods too.

I was given a booklet + dvd about breastfeeding amongst a whole pile of other leaflets about pregnancy and parenthood.

During one antenatal appointment a midwife went down through a checklist of benefits of breastfeeding. There was no pressure to do it, it was clearly a list they went through with everyone.

I think at one point I was asked if I'd thought about how I wanted to feed my baby. I answered that I wanted to breastfeed and I was given a little information and advised to have a look at the biological nurturing website. (Maybe if I'd answered bottle feeding I'd have become subject to the Tyranny? but I doubt it because of below)

There was an antenatal feeding class. At the beginning we were asked if we'd decided how we'd like to feed our babies. One said formula, several said they'd try breastfeeding but switch if it didn't suit them so they wanted to know about both, others (inc me) said breastfeeding. The class covered both feeding methods with no judgement (the bf counsellor did say that she had personally done both with her own children), just gave us the information about how to feed and what support was available in hospital and later in the community.

I think a lot of the pressure comes from ourselves to be honest. I know that being able to breastfeed is important to me because I really don't want the faff of bottles, sterilising, heating, cooling etc because I want baby to have any health benefits that bfing might provide.

Plus I hate how the formula companies undermine women's confidence to feed their babies normally just so they can cash in and would resent every penny I'd have to spend on substitute milks

No idea why the DM are so anti-breastfeeding, I guess they reckon it sells papers, perhaps to a generation of women who were convinced they didn't have enough/good enough milk because their babies didn't thrive on the schedules recommended in those days and their supply got messed up, and now want to feel better about what they missed out on?

To be fair its not just breastfeeding, they are also obsessed with stuff that could possibly cause cancer.

I'm not reading it. it will just make me cross.

I do want to say that I'm sick of having formula feeding rammed down my throat. I'm sick of being made to feel guilty for a) breastfeeding my child, b)breastfeeding my child past 6 months, c) not giving my child formula, d) not giving my child growing up milk.

Why isn't breastfeeding allowed to be a positive choice for those that make it.

Oh sorry I'm feeling feed up a bit about this sort shit today.

what a pile of crap.

Basically, one woman's experience is touted as the reason why no one should BF.

I am lucky enough not to have many mums as friends, mainly for the reason that I feel like I have to defend my right to BF, or to keep BFing after 6 months.
I actually feel embarrassed feeding DD (even when she's proper mithering and sometimes very upset wanting a feed) in front of people in case they are judging me silently- funnily, I didn't feel like that before she was 6 months; rather I felt proud of myself for doing it.
In fact, I only feel unembarrassed when I'm around people I know well, or when someone has mentioned BFing in the conversation.

It's even worse when I know she wants a feed, but people are talking to me (I can't exactly get away from people, because I'm on the shop floor), and I feel embarrassed getting ready to feed a child who "should be on solids by now".

In fact, I hesitate to tell people how old she is in case I get a SIOB.

That article woman's reasons are strange.
She felt she couldn't feed her baby (mainly because of her stressful situation at the time), but she didn't know she had a problem until the MW threatened hospitalization for jaundice? Surely she would have noticed something wasn't quite right? and even if not, surely an HCP would have?
and the comment that FF DPs can feed the baby while she has a rest? I bet that doesn't happen most of the time - I bet the woman still has to do the night feeds because the DP has to get up for work in the morning - I know I wouldn't have expected DH to get up in the night to feed her as he has to get up at 5 for work, and it's a physically demanding job.
DH wouldn't even trust himself to do that job - he panics enough about expressed milk (which DD hasn't bothered with anyway - she just refused it until I came home and then guzzled the good stuff), so I can't imagine him coping with formula.

I think the DM just want women to feel shit about themselves no matter what they do. And they have very low standards of journalism which is why they didn't bother hiring someone that could research properly.

It is important for mothers to make an informed choice based on facts (not shitty journalism) about how they feed their baby BUT it is also very important that their decision is supported.

This kind of crappy article is neither informative nor supportive, so the DM can fuck the fuck off.

A long time ago I vowed never to read a DM article about BF, especially online ones as some of the drivel on the comments section made me so irrationally angry.

The Daily Fail hates it because its practically public nudity which means sex and we all know we Brits don't that we just lie back and think of England. It it of course utterly irrelevant that pretty much any young woman walking down the street in this weather is probably flashing more skin than any BF'ing woman ever did.

i feel dirty because there was a daily mail in my house the other day, MIL was round. :(

she'll be reading all this crap and it will be undoing all my efforts to show them how normal bf is and get them to have confidence in it.

I've even been brave and fed in front of them this time. they've questioned things a lot less, partly because they've seen the size of 3mo DS2's thighs.

seriously though, you wonder if there's someone high up with serious issues or maybe a lot of shares in formula manufacturers...

It's possible that they're worried about advertising revenue but I think anti-BF stories really do sell :(

Good to hear things are going well with your DS2, you can't beat BF baby thighs

I'm currently pregnant and was at a knit and knatter I've been to a few times - happened to be making a nursing shawl - mentioned I hopes it might help me be dicreet. Ooops, got a rant about these women who just whip them out in a group of people and don't take themselves off somewhere quiet - had hoped to be abel to BF baby in that circal of women once I'd got the hang of it and maybe use my shawl to make me feel more confident about the whole thing - now I feel like I've been undermined before I've even started and I don't know who I'm more pissed off at, ranty lady or me for even being bothered.

So even if it is tyranny - it's often breast is best... in the corner... in that little room over there.... not where I might catch a glimpse of nipple

i don't cover up while i'm doing it.

i hate the getting ready and putting away part, but i wear teeshirts generally, so try to put dd under it while i latch her on (or just hope noone's in the shop!)
once she's latched, she's fine.

thanks Eau, DS1's thighs were almost as impressive really. i just didn't have the confidence to answer their silly questions and comments last time round.
i had to plan in advance how to calmly answer them and claim back my own living room by not hiding to feed for dc2.

Gosh if anything there was tyranny NOT to breastfeed...especially in the hospital when he was born. I fed him as soon as he was born; then later I had a reaction to some drugs and so when he woke to be fed a few hours after, I was unable to pick him up and he fell asleep unfed NO ONE came to help.

Then later he was still asleep and they said, no, you cannot put him next to you in the bed, and if he does not feed by bed time we will give him a bottle.
I ignored them and put him beside me. They didn't bother much, they couldn't be arsed. He fed eventually and carried on for 16 months.

There was no support and no one wanted me to do it, they looked at me like I was a freak and got very angry with me.

Bloody idiots. Tyranny, yes, but not to breastfeed.

I haven't even read the article, but the Daily Fail is deeply misogynistic in almost all areas, so I can guess it isn't positive and empowering to women's choices on this issue either.

Think about their attitude to appearance - oooh, she is so skinny. ooh,she is so fat. Urgh, she didn't shave her armpits. Urgh, she has cellulite, how dare she set foot on the beach in shorts.

I am pro breastfeeding, but unfortunately suffered from problems with my DD which meant my milk did not come in. According to the doctor, my body did not do what it was meant to do during childbirth or after and 50 years ago my baby and I would have both died! I reluctantly have had to use formula. I have encountered some very nasty comments at a playgroup when I took a bottle out to feed my daughter. One woman told me that as she had breastfed twins I had no excuse not to breastfeed. Another told me that there is no such thing as 'low milk supply'. The medical professionals that dealt with me were lovely, when it all went wrong they helped me to come to terms with having to use formula, but I feel like I have to constantly explain to people what happened so that they do not think I am a bad mother for using formula. I applaud every single one of you for breastfeeding your babies until the age that you and they decide is best. I hope that I will have better luck next time and be able to do the same!

PS, Please do not click on the daily mail article, every time you do it lines their pockets with more cash from advertisers. It is a poor excuse for a newspaper and needs to go away.

CBA to read it it will annoy me!

But you should all know by now baby's should be bf discreetly (preferably at home and not in front of hubby) until 6 months then switched to a bottle before it "gets weird". And spoon fed homemade purée (not blw or jar fed ).

Oh and ensuring from your six week check baby sleeps at least a three hour bulk once in the daytime (to clean) once at evening (to cook) and once at night (to be available for sex, baby should be in its own room).

Then and only then shall you be deemed an acceptable DM approved mother.

I did receive a lot of pressure to BF - but perservered because I thought it would help me PND. Turns out, it's not helping my PND, but it's not making it any worse either, and we've finally got the hang of it. It was mostly my HV that piled the pressure on, as well as the senior midwife at the large hospital.

I was never given any information about formula, how to make up bottles, health and safety, or even the best way to do combined feeding. I was never asked about how I intended to feed the baby until I was in the birthing pool.

Some women do feel very pressured - the same way other women feel pressured to have their baby in hospital, or to have/not have pain relief etc.