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

This woman is purporting to be a reasonably intelligent adult, why the need to have lessons in sterilising. It is really not difficult. And the steriliser comes with instructions.

LOL

Yes sterilising isn't something you need an NVQ in, is it.

don;t like the article at all. her discovery that all her friends and everyone she knows found it difficult is rubbish. very few people, when asked by a friend who's had a miserable time b-feeding, possibly racked with guilt at having stopped, is going to say "I thought it was great" - whatever they say is going to be strongly influenced by their desire to make this woman feel better. hardly a scientific survey.

lots of her experience was the same as mine - I too was annoyed by the "if you're latched on properly it won;t hurt" line. what on earth is wrong with "it might hurt at first but if you're latched on it'll get better" I had several exhausting days of agony, cracked and bleeding nipples, screaming dd punching my boob. and a dh who stormed out of the house and came back with a tin of formula which I threw back at him. imho you either need bloody good info and support to get you through this ( as well as being prepared that it may well be like this) or your own reservoir of single-mindedness. I do think it's a shame that she didn;t have either of these. in the long term I loved breast-feeding. I did get that relaxing nurturing thing, with dd breaking off and smiling at me etc. but no way did I get it in the first weeks or so. I think it's sad and ill-judged if people are led to expect this at first. and I think perhaps the professionals need to reconsider their messaging. at the moment they're so concerned to persuade people to give it a go that they're afraid to mention the downsides. the result might be an increase in numbers of people trying, but I wouldn;t be suprised if an unrealistic message is responsible for people giving up.

yes - I did laugh about the sterilising thing! not exactly rocket science

Just to bump did anyone see this article about the return of wet nurses?

www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1983285,00.html

Ooh, can we have a "crap Catholics" club?

Here's that wetnursing link wetnursing link

Greeny - I'll set one up!

couldn't agree more, hatwoman. someone, somewhere needs to look at the advantages of colostrum and a few weeks more milk beyond that vs long term bfing.
then the public health message needs to come from there.
i went to an nct bfing class, the woman was pretty useless tbh and just trotted out the old business of 'everyone can bf'. i asked her about the drugs i was on, like i asked all medical types at the time and her answer was tht she didn't think it would make a difference. likewise PCOS, she said wouldn't make a difference, whereas i later found out on kellymom that it can do.
had i been armed with a bit more 'plan b' type information i would have sought help faster, sought domperidone and all the other old wifey's remedies faster and that would undoubtedly have helped me. i hardly need add that had i come here and asked the Blessed Tiktok of the Breast, she would have been able to answer ALL my questions... now there's someone i found out about too late.

Some people though CANNOT BF at all

La Leche (I know some people find them a little extreme but I thought they were quite impressive) seem to have a lot of research about the benefits of bf.

Anyone want to discuss the benefits of being a lapsed catholic? I can think of a few. My mother prays enough to get me out of hell I hope, if it exists.....

of course some people can't do it at all, for various reasons, but the public health message has to be pro-bfing, mustn't it, while the professionals should acknowledge the possibility that some people can't do it at all. there needs to be more research into drug side effects etc but how can that be done ethically?

I have seen pics of a glass bottle from the nineteenth century that apparently killed a lot of babies as its shape meant it was impossible to clean properly.

In the York Castle Museum they have a teaspoon that was used by a mother in the mid-20th c to feed her baby weak tea and mushed up rich tea biscuits because he was allergic to milk. He did fine and is still alive today!

kamikayzed, the guardian article below implies that in the past in any social group there would almost always be someone who could bf a baby.

That wetnursing article has me in tears! Got to the bit about the group of women sharing nursing the baby of an injured woman and just crumpled. Straight after my CS when I was lying on a side room of the mat ward with various drips/drugs making me near comatose and my DD was in SCBU, I would have given everything I had for someone else to BF her rather than her be given the formula they were giving her. I think it's wonderful.

BBWBabelisa I found the article really moving too. I think there is a lot of secret breastfeeding going on because of public ill ease (see Little Britain). I bf my ds longer than most people knew at night etc I really didn't like the pursed lips of people looking at you like you're some kind of perv to want to bf a bit longer than 6 months!
There are some milk banks for babies who can't take formula - a friend in my NCT group (who organised the breast pumps) used to contribute to the bank which had frozen milk. I have no idea how widespread those banks are but apparently it can be the difference between life and death for some. There used to be appeals and they were always running low but I was totally crap at expressing so could never be that noble. Wonderful that people do it.

I was advised to contact LLL or NCT BFing counsellors, but TBH I didn't because I was scared and hadn't a clue what I would say when they answered the phone. Because of this I emailed the LLL instead, but they gave me the phone number of the local contact, which put me back to square one - being scared of picking up the phone to some stranger at a time when I was so low (I know the LLL women are volunteers and I just had this image in my head of me phoning them at a really inconvenient time and being a nuisance - this was probably a lot to do with how low my confidence/self-esteem was at my perceived failure). I did go to the BF clinic at my hospital (found seeing someone face to face who I knew was there specifically for that reason a lot easier than phoning someone) but DD slept thru the whole thing despite all attempts to rouse her and the counsellor had to let me go at the end with a lactina on loan and a note about domperidone to take to my GP.
Next time around I plan to make contact with LLL and meet the local counsellor during my pregnancy so I don't feel so awkward approaching them when I'm at my lowest.

BBabeLisa, I think it makes loads of sense to be prepared - but no wonder you found it hard, I understood that some of the physiological mechanics of milk production are actively triggered by labour - is that the case? Couldn't doctors somehow safely prompt lactation for CS mothers? Maybe they do I don't know - or maybe it isn't deemed a medical priority - wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't.

With DD1 I tried to BF her at first but she was jaundiced and so sleepy that she just wouldn't latch. I expressed for her and fed her that for the first few days, the support in the hospital was appalling, every time a different MW or support staff shoving my sore boob in sleepy DD1's mouth. It was only my sheer determination and everyone else saying "oh put her on the bottle" that made me persevere. I fed her for 12 months before she self weaned.

With DD2 I had a homebirth when the usual are you going to BF questions came up I said "yes" and was told to buy in formula just in case! I actually put DD2 to my breast as soon as she was born turned out she was an utter boob fiend and still is at nearly one. It still hurt a bit with her though and her latch was fine. I do beleive that some discomfort even pain is par for the course IMO.

I do feel like a freak being the only BFing mum at many groups I go to. Every other mum feels they have to come and tell me why BFing failed for then the most common being "I didn't produce enough milk" I don't know if they feel a failure or they are trying to say their baby was super hungry but I couldn't care less about how they fed their babies. For me human babies deserve human milk not milk from some big hulking beast in a field thats been processed to hell to make it resemble breast milk. What a brilliant idea the formula companies had in the 60s and 70s - make a product that women produce naturally that doesn't even come close to the original, tell women their milk is inferior and they should buy their formula instead making them a fortune in the process. I'm not saying formula is evil though, some women can't BF some want to mix feed and it's their choice after all. Antenatal classes should contain balanced info abour both methods of feeding babies.

I was told by a MW to feed to 6 months because that was enough as after that it was only for the mother's benefit WTF? This woman is advising young mums?

Socci - I felt that you implied that women like myself and many others who have huge difficulties, and for whom exclusive b/f is impossible, see formula as the easy option and so give up trying. Whereas as Aitch rightly pointed out, in the developing world it's perfectly possible that our babies may have died, or at least been seriously malnourished. I'm not too pleased about having to give my baby formula, but it's certainly better than the alternative. I'm sure you were just generalising, and I do agree that the availability of formula is a factor in some women choosing not to b/f or giving up early, but it is certainly not always the case. As I later added, this issue is still rather sensitive for me - perhaps I shouldn't read these threads!

I don't know if theres anything they can do specifically for CS mothers, but I have done some reading on pre-natal expressing of colostrum for Diabetic mothers like myself, whose babies nearly always suffer from low-blood sugar. I don't think this is something that's done at my local hospital but I will be pressing for them to give me the help I need to do it next time. Apparently theres tiny little sterile storage tubes they can freeze the colostrum in thats expressed in the week or two before birth, that can then be used to top up low blood sugar babies. My only concern with that is whether it might interrupt the natural supply/demand, but I'm hoping such tiny amounts wouldn't.

There are many many feminists and women I would categorise as feminists, i.e Gabriel Palmer (The Politics of Breastfeeding) who regard bf as the ultimate feminist issue.

Others have and do reject it as been "enslaved" to a child. A lot depends on your point of view re. the female body IMO.

Of course if she HATED bf, then that should have said enough. No need to write an article about with so many holes in it (in terms of her knowledge of bf) it doesn't stand up to logic.

I'm with you TwinkleMegan, V touchy subject with me, still capable of reducing me to tears quicker than anything else. Anyway, I must stop loitering here! Got mother arriving from Glasgow in about an hour for DD's birthday tomorrow and my house looks like a sty.