What to use instead of best or normal?

[hazchem]

I had a meeting today and a midwife said "breast is best" and I said well no "breastfeeding is normal". One of the other attendees said that she was uncomfortable with the use of "normal" as it can make people feel abnormal if they can't breastfeed and would make them feel bad.

I've tended towards breast is normal because it think it takes some pressure off and suggest that it just something that humans do. I hadn't thought about it making women feel worse.

Has any else come across this? Is there a move towards another term. Natural?

*start crawling

I need to proof read before hitting 'post'

"Breast is best" is OK as a slogan, but to me it's so old that it sort of trips off the tongue too easily and people don't really think about what they're saying anymore. I think any new slogan would at least focus people's attention back to the message.

"Breast is natural" is nice, not sure if it sounds a bit hippyish though? (I think locally the perception is only mad hippies BF).

Also yy to pp saying the initial discomfort is brushed over by HCP so most ladies end up being disappointed with their initial experience. Better to really prepare mums by saying "it's a skill you and the baby have to learn, and there might be a bit of discomfort while your sensitive nipples get used to it too." The problem is the ff fans/family who ff will say "why bother with that discomfort when you can just avoid it". Interestingly, any discomfort around eg pregnancy is just assumed and accepted by the same people...so it's about making BFing the same default choice, and ff only if you do need a substitute. Sort of like: yes, we have crutches and wheelchairs, but you wouldn't use them if you could walk, would you? That would just be weird.

Eletheomel - no, it's not 1 per cent breastfeeding!!

It's one per cent who are exclusively breastfeeding at 6 mths.

In fact it's probably a bit more than that exclusively bf at 6 mths - this result is an artefact of the survey questioning.

The proportion of babies getting breastmilk alongside other stuff at 6 mths is far higher than that - off top of head can't remember but it's something like 20-25 per cent.

tiktok thanks for clarifying that and apologies for misreading earlier stats, although I still think 1% ebf at six months is pretty poor.

The 'babies love boobs' slogan reminds me of a postcard my sister picked up at a cafe in iceland (the country not the frozen food shop) it read "go ahead and breastfeed, we like both babies and boobs"

And "exclusively breastfed" means not so much as a single spoonful of mashed carrot at 25w6d. It doesn't distinguish between not-really-early weaning on to solids, and giving formula.