is it right to provide formula on maternity wards?

[nappyaddict]

take a look

i personally think, this is wrong. yes we want to encourage people to breastfeed, but if a was admitted to the children's ward say at 6 or even 12 months old, we would expect them to provide food for that baby. they would not turn around and say you can't have any he/she should be having bm. so why should it be any different in a maternity ward?

if i go to hopsital i expect to be fed, i expect the same for any new born baby.

what do you think?

Oh right so that superior attitude is just like the gestapo.

no, when I said child murdering sick twisted forumal feeders I didnt mean all of them just those who show a bit of a superiour attitude.

how about all the implications that we dont want our children? we dont care as much about our children as bf mums? we dont want our child to have the best poss start in life?

i apologise once again. i honestly didnt mean to cause offence. brain in gear etc so i am genuinely sorry. i was just angry that ff mums should be penalised for a decision that is often out of their hands

do you have any idea of what the gestapo did to people?

yes i do. im 1/2 jewish. i have apologised for making a stupid insensitive comment on the spur of the moment. but now i think you may be taking this a little too far.

Hercules, I think you've made your point and Lizzielou has apologised

Hercules1, lissielou has said sorry, twice! It seems it was a slip of the tounge, she didn't mean offence. We all get het up in with these type of threads & use words that are ill thought out & wrong.

This was rolling along as a debate, don't turn it into a personal fight!

I did think it was important to point out how offensive it was and what the gestapo were. My god, if I'd said the same about people who formula feed you'd have reacted the same.

I guess we'll have to beg to differ.

no actually i wouldnt i would have accepted your apology and put it down as what it was

Really? Even if I'd have said those sick twisted child abusing formual feeders? Oops sorry, slip of the tongue?

I dont want to argue but it does make my blood boil.

But you did point it out & she apologised straight away! That to me says that she realised what she had done & I don't think it need have got further than that.

I think we all know what the Gestapo did & don't really need that on a debate about formula feeding.

Yes, you are right, if someone had said that about FF, I would have pointed it out, but had the grace to accept the immediate apology that followed.

saved me saying it sandcastles....

i think that this is a really worthwhile and interesting thread, lets not get sidetracked.....

She has apologised.

I don't think anyone could possibly doubt that you feel strongly about the term and Lissie has apologised.

You have a choice now to get back to the specific debate of this thread or turn it into a debate that has been had endlessly on MN - and we all know exactly how that debate will go!

Oi, I've said I'll stop!

Am shocked that they wouldn't be providing it where there is a NEED to bottle feed. I wonder what would have happened to dd. She was born in the middle of the night, 3 weeks early with IUGR weighing 4 lbs 9 oz so had to be fed immediately. We tried with me not having slept for 4 nights and pumped full of drugs to bf for an hour whereupon she was given formula.

I had been admitted in an emergency so my bag wasn't ready so wouldn't have bought formula by then even if I'd known I had to provide it. Yes DH could have gone out and bought it the next day but she needed feeding straightaway or she would have ended up in SCBU.

I assume SCBU units will still have it though so guess it could come from here in emergencies?

Agree with SP that this could actually end in more people bottle feeding as they will buy it just in case and have it more to hand. SUrely if you're in hospital and ask for formula that would be an opportunity for bf-ing help to be provided if required rather than an exhausted mother reaching for her own bag in the middle of the night and formula feeding. Just a thought.

I can see both sides. NHS is strapped for cash but I think nappyaddict makes a good point when she says all patients in hospital are fed so why not a baby?

I was lucky in the 70's hospitals provided everything baby gowns, nappies, sanitary towels, soothing Savlon stuff for your bath and formula of course.

ah the good old days!

I do think it complicates things unnecessarily at a time when many women are stressed enough anyway. But (correct me if I am wrong), most women's milk does not come in for the first couple of days anyway. What you feed babies in hospital is a little bit of colostrum and their constant suckling is really them trying to bring the milk in, not a sign of constant hunger.
This surely means that if a woman wants to breastfeed, but then finds it too difficult and decides to formula feed, in the case of most women she will make this decision after she has been sent home (since the NHS keeps most women for about 24 hours) or there would be time to send her DP or whoever to Boots for some ready made formula if she needed to.

I do think there is too much inconsistency though. The NHS provides free formula for smaller babies who need extra calories for as long as they need it. If a baby was fomula fed and hungry on the wards and the mother had not been able to arrange to get formula brought in yet, surely the NHS would pick up the slack? When I ran out of nappies in the middle of the night, they did give me a couple more (albeit grudgingly), but I do think though that they need to be consistent across trusts - my sister gets free nappies and a vest at her hospital. I got nothing in mine.

Lulu makes a good point about stealth taxes too.

Hi lulu...

I'm not usualyy the voice of reason....I usually run away!

hi sandcastles

permission granted for an extra red book dance in that case !

I'm not reading the whole thread but my gut feeling is that if you plan to bottle feed then yes, you should bring it in yourself but it should be available for MothersIn Need IYSWIM.

On the other hand, I do see thepoint of view that they'd feed your chld if they were in hospital for another reason.... Or would they? Do they plan to only provide "proper" food which is presumable cheaper to provide than formula milk?

Stupid policy - I fail to see how having a go at new mothers is going to encourage them to breastfeed. What hospitals should provide are midwives or counsellors who can actually teach you how to do it. I'm damn sure they haven't bothered to train any staff in b/f support.

Actually, I bet this is about cost cutting. West Herts NHS is stuffed financially and using every trick in the book to cut services - had some idiot prescribing adviser telling pharmacists to switch your prescription to cheaper generic drugs without telling you, much less checking with your GP. The medicine I depend on cannot be substituted without causing a serious risk to your health. The pharmacist didn't have a clue. I had to spend all day on the phone to my consultant and GP, in tears. GP surgery apologised and said they would never have switched the prescription themselves.

They've also shut down my local community hospital, so elderly people who need to recuperate or people who are dying won't be able to stay near friends and relatives. Contrary to stated government policy. Bastards.

If they provide free formula because they'd feed your child if admitted at other times, should they therefore provide nappies and maternity towels etc because they'd provide dressings etc at other times? It's not a black and white issue.

It's not really a stealth tax either - if you're planning to bottle feed you know you have to pay for formula and you know tht if you have to formula feed you have to pay for it. Again, shades of grey.