Another article about how awful breastfeeding is, this time in a feminist publication

[Caligula]

I thought some of you would like to read this.

This misinformation bugged me:

"Times change though, and the formulas on the market are hopefully as close to what comes out of your boob, as they will ever be".

Wonder what the rest of you think

the new breastfeeding taboo

It's more of a series of blogs than a publication though. she's not a journalist. And she is really misinformed. She also needs to realise that midwives are not breastfeeding experts, that her tainted milk thing is nonsense, that you dont' have to watch what you eat when you breastfeed, and (most bizarre bit IMO) there is no such thing as 'the colostrum milk' that 'gushes' and that you 'have to wait for the hind milk to come in' before you can express. Sounds like she had no proper help, but that's not really a good enough reason to try to put other people off IMO.

shona = im still happily bf my 6month, did try a fomula feed but it turns out he has a milk allergy. anyway, when i told them at work i was still bf, i got the oh poor you reaction, !!and was made to fee; weird/strange for still bf and actually enjoying it. AND i work for the NHS, you would think they would be pleased i still bf. my hv is over the moon im still bf and im sure more wome would bf if they had more support and knowledge (and the truth that yes it does hurt fora while to start with, but your nipples have to toughen up, like when you start wearing new shoes) my friend has just had twins and her hv said they were slow to put on weight as her milk didnt have enough nutrition!!! i supported her as much as i could by trying to get her to mix feed, but her hv talked her out of it. i was fuming!!

I think it's a good article.
She doesn't claim to be doing anything other than giving a personal viewpoint. She is open about the fact that she is speculating about other people's experience, not making a claim about it

(" this is a totally personal account, and a totally personal opinion on the subject.".... " I just wonder if there are all these women out there who are trying to breastfeed simply because they think they should and that there?s no other way that is acceptable to society? How many women actually breastfeed because they like it? ")

Now, personally I think she's way off the mark with the suspicion that most people don't like it, but she's entitled to voice the question, surely?

She also clearly doesn't know as much about breastfeeding as many people here - her explanations of why certain things were happening may well be way off the mark, but the description of how it felt to her is worth reading.

I just hope that when people from here post comments on her article they will do so constructively and not in a way that demonises her for daring to express these doubts.

How on earth would lactulose make her milk taste funny? WTF?

And as for her HV forgetting her name because she was bottlefeeding?

I'm afraid it's the usual collection of myths and rubbish.

I suspect a lot of the "funny looks" people get for bottlefeeding (and breastfeeding, for that matter) are ... um ... not entirely real. I'm sure some of them are real, but I do think people project the disapproval or discomfort they feel onto others, some of the time.

Sounds to me like she's trying too hard to be contraversial. I know she had a hard time and that's awful, but where's the balance if she's already discounted BF next time? She'll be wiser next time - I know I was.

I think its not just a question of support, but a combination of support AND circumstances AND your own determination.

at what the author went through. I think the article highlights how prevalent the 'Breast is Best' message is once we are pregnant and attending ante-natal classes (too late IMO), yet as soon as we give birth there is often virtually no support to back up that message. And the 'support' we do get frequently consists of misinformation.

But unfortunately the author hasn't used the article to express this; rather she has used it to express her opinion that "bf doesn't really matter anyway...no-one really likes it anyway...and people who do it only do it because they feel they have too..."

The underlying tone I get is one of "Why on earth would you want to bf and put yourself through all of that?"
I think it probably stems from wishing bf had worked out for her. But instead of aiming this negativity at the 'health professionals' who failed her, she is aiming it at the 'holier-than-thou' mothers who do bf, which is a bit of a shame.

What a shame so many mums get so little help in hospital! I had pretty bad time with severe pre-eclampsia, emergency c/section, loads of drugs (the milk didn't sour!!!)and no help until I went to BFN support group.

If the NHS really wanted to help women to bf they should train bf counsellors in the hospital to get you started right. It took us nearly 3 months to do it painlessly & unlearn it. I was bloodyminded. Just as well, dd has a cow's milk allergy - ff would've been a disaster.

bf gets its fair share of criticism too. We're still at it 13 mths down the line. Lots of comments about "when are you going to stop" & "but she's got teeth". If you can't bf for whatever reason, then fine. But it is the best option if you can.

"bf doesn't really matter anyway...no-one really likes it anyway...and people who do it only do it because they feel they have too..."

She doesn't actually say any of that, though, does she? And the author doesn't talk about holier than thou mothers at all - the only reference to a holier than thou attitude (which might refer to health professionals as much as mothers) is in the editorial gloss at the beginning.

She clearly has enormous issues about this which is why the article is so one-sided, rather than a balanced account of pros and cons, but surely that's the whole point - she is criticising the system for turning her bf experience into such a nightmare that she ends up with those issues.

I thought it was a terribley sad article. Personally I never had bf sold to me as 'easy' or 'natural', tbh I was terrified, thought it would be hard work and had no real belief that I could do it. As it turned out dd and I found it a breeze we both loved it and she was bf til she was 13mo. I'm now absolutely determined that dd2 will also be bf.

I would never criticise anyone's choices in feeding their baby but I hate the way she implies everyone who bf secretly hates it.

Is it bobbins about the tainted milk then? I'd never heard of it before I read this article.

I've skim-read it and her experience is surprisingly similar to my own experience with dd1.

It's quite a good 'personal experience' article.

um but

its scarcely a national publication is it?

its a webzine or whatever its called

Kathy, you're right that wasn't clear. That was my overall impression of what she said, rather than her exact words. It was how I read the article, the feeling I got from it. Of course it raises the issue of misinformation from health professionals at all stages, I just didn't feel that the aim of the article was to voice that. I came away from the article thinking, "you don't need to put yourself through all the hassle of bf". Especially as she is not using her bad experience to make sure she gets proper help with bf next time. But yes I realise that this is how she feels, these are the issues the author now has as a result of her experience.

Tatties, I have emailed the author to say that babies aren't all like hers, honest! As you suggest, it's a pity she's not using her bad experience to make sure she gets proper help next time - v sad she's decided not to even try. Hopefully some helpful MNer will suggest some sources of support to her (I can't email her again or I'll look like a stalker!)

I think my objection to it is just sheer misinformation. Her conclusions do seem to be "hey, if you have problems breastfeeding, don't phone la leche, don't get in touch with the NCT, don't join a breastfeeding support group, don't go on to mumsnet where you'll get well-informed support, just give up and move on to formula, and then go round telling everyone how unnecessary breastfeeding is and how actually it's just a conspiracy to make mothers feel guilty."

I can understand why she feels that, even sympathise with it, but I do feel it needs to be challenged. Am just at a loss at where to start really, there are so many things in there to unpick.

I might wait for Hunker to come along to de-construct!

And yes I know she doesn't say that literally.

But really, there is such a lack of positive, constructive stuff in there. Which is fine on one level (it's a personal account) but if she puts off even one mother from seeking positive support for bf, then she has done that woman and her child a huge disservice. I do think it needs to be balanced by some real info.

That's a good idea Kathy. I had to find out about the helplines by myself. I've no idea why they don't hand the numbers out at ante-natal classes/appts. (Well maybe they do in some areas, but I certainly wasn't made aware of the fact that I could get a bfc to help if I was having problems - just kept getting advice from my HV )

Does anyone know of any statistics say for the babies born in a cetain year, what percentage of them were BF and what percentage FF?

Personally my experience was that people thought I was weird for wanting to BF, in my circle of friends etc myself and my siblings are the only ones I know of who were BF babies and all of the of the other mothers of my age group I know (say 20/30 ladies between 22 & 36) have chosen to FF, not because they can't BF but because they are not interested, think it is weird or even 'gross' I heard one girl say! I was pretty shocked as I always thought BF was the norm???

Stats would be interesting though, Tiktok, Lulu or Hunker do you know?

Caligula is spot on - if that article puts one woman off bf, then that's bad news imo. I feel sorry for this mother and her unhappy experience of bf, course I do, but it's quite a dangerous little piece seen like that. And as others have said, it's v poorly informed, sadly. Unbalanced, but potentially persuasive (?), I'd expect better from a feminist website...

I think the main problem about info on helplines isn't that you don't have the phone numbers etc, it's that it wouldn't occur to many people that the advice they were getting from medical professionals on bf was not in fact very good (especially if the practice has bf friendly status or whatever, and there are posters of breasts all over the hospital) so they would not realise that actually there may be loads of stuff they are not being told that might help. Hence they don't even think of ringing the helpline because they assume they have already been told all they need to know.

uhhh, didn't realise that would look so huge, sorry. PLus I might need to get it deleted, as I'm prob breaching copyright....
It's a proper article on bf though.

I had loads of antibiotics and lactulose after I had ds. Does it really make your milk taste odd? Ds didn't seem to complain. I was told one of them might give him loose stools,but really, with a bf baby, who can tell? It seemed to just ooze out of him anyway.

bbs, I wouldn't be surprised if antibiotics made breastmilk taste funny. I know my urine smells really weird if I'm on ABs (TMI, I know, but I have a good sense of smell, what can I say?).

But if you're on ABs when you start breastfeeding, surely milk with ABs would just taste normal to the baby.

I think in our NHS authority we must be incredibly lucky. I had a fantastic experience BF dd for 15 months with a 6 day stay in hospital with unlimited help to get feeding right before going home. Midwives/hv fantastic and a great bf support group. With ds, now 13 weeks and bfing well, had a really difficult time with weight loss etc but had, again unlimited help from midwives (who really did know what they were talking about) drs, hv, breast feeding support group, plus 2 bfc employed by the authority. There seem to be a lot of complaints about people's nhs support but Dorset, in my opinion, is fantastic.

Kathy I agree. One of the truly shocking revelations for me, was to find that apart from my HV who was also a trained BF counsellor, the health professionals I came across knew less about breastfeeding than I did - and I'd only read a couple of books about it (mind you, they were good ones!)

But anyone who hadn't read any books about it, would not be aware of how little the health professionals knew, so may well have thought that there was no point in phoning helplines. I do remember one of the best midwives I ever met saying to me "Mrs Caligula, I'm only a midwife, I can't support you to breastfeed, you really need a proper breastfeeding councillor, don't hang about here in the hospital, go home and phone the BF counsellor immediately."

What a wonderful woman. Instead of disseminating misinformation, she signposted me in the right direction. And how utterly appalling that I should consider that wonderful rather than normal.