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?

A list of ingredients would be more informative than "SMA Gold" though wouldn't it.

Yes, it would but I wouldnt understand it iykwim. I guess we are so used to thinking of forumal in terms of brand rather than what is in it.

Still undecided on issue as a whole.

I fully intended to BF DD and after c section fed her myself. I had loads of trouble with latching on etc.... and ended up a sobbing mess on the bed because we both couldn't manage it. DH arrived to find me like this and asked a MW for help. He was told they would send someone to see me. No-one came and I struggled on myself. I realeatdly asked for help until eventually a MW came along, grabbed my boob and dd's face put us both together and said 'you do it like this'. DD started screaming and I was so upset I called DH to come to the hospital.

So when DS was born by c section aswell, I just didn't want to try BF again, the whole incident with DD had made me so depressed and feeling like a failure for not being able to provide for my DD myself I decided to FF DS from birth. The MW's made it very hard for me and, as I have mentioned on here before, said 'if you want your child to be obese then go right ahead!'.

I had to get out bed and get the formula from the beginning, even though my legs were still slightly numb from the epidural and I fell over, they couldn't have made it harder for me if they had tried.

I felt like a complete failure and beat myself up about for a long time, I now know that I am stronger and have the courage to stand by my decisions.

Sorry for the long post, BF is fantastic for those who can do it, but for those who can't why shouldn't there be the option of formula available!!!

FB x

I can see that part of the problem is that the staff in hospitals would too quickly resort to doling it out rather than give support to women who want to breastfeed.

Flumpybumpy - your experience was unacceptable on all accounts. I hope you complained.

Slightly OT, but when my baby was admitted to hospital last year he was exclusively breastfed, yet they wouldn't provide me with food. Had he been bottlefed he would have been provided with free formula - seems a little unfair to me.

i meant unbranded as in not labelled cow and gate or sma etc

still have a list of ingredients on it to see what u are giving your child.

lol i remember a thread of mien where i type out this suggestion turned vile.

i do think hspitals should help people wioth preparing bottles for formula feeding. i remember when dd1 went onto formula i didnt have a clue on what to do. but she only went onto formula due to lack of breastfeeding support. but that was 6 weeks old.

dd3 was provided with formula in hospital as she had v low sugar levels and dispite frequent b/feeding and even expressing inbetween her levels wouldnt pick up. But she was tube fed.

Think you're right Hercules, but what seems to be happening is they're NOT doling out formula and still not providing the support to bf! Screaming, hungry babes and understandably upset mothers does not make for a happy maternity ward....and perhaps the problem is not whether or not formula is provided

Haven't read all the thread, but I am from the school of thought that formula should be provided by NHS, but then I guess that opens a whole can of worms about who provides it, mums might find out what bran it is then use it themselves purely because it was given in hospital.....

Anyway, if anyone is in hospital for whatever reason, food is provided, free of charge. That should go for a newborn baby too. My husband is a specail diet chef at our local hospital and he has to provide puree meals for the patients who are unable to chew, ceoliac meals, gluten free etc. Should we say they have to provide their own too as it is outside of the norm? I think not.

I suppose it makes sense that if the NHS pays for your food, it should also pay for your baby's food. However, I can also see a positive side to this. FF mums do need a demonstrations I think, you'd think making up ff is easy, but I've encountered women doing it wrong, so asking women to bring in tins of formula would be a good idea. I think it would also take away that temptation (which shouldn't be there, but as we all know, it does happen) of midwives to ff babies because mums are tired,... If the formula is there ready available it is only too tempting for some to reach for the bottle, while if that temptation wasn't there they might just persevere...

Have read some of the thread.
I do think it should be supplied, yes.
I ff ds from birth, I had an emergency c section (and yes, I still had to get up and get my own formula bottles, so don't see how formula is easier) and I wasn't given any advice or help on breast or formula feeding.
Dh fed ds for the first time, I was far too weak and high on drugs to feed him, tbh I don't recall his first feed.

The streribottles you can buy are no use to newborn babies. If they made the hospital type available for mothers to buy, whatver, that's fine, but currently you cannot buy them in the shop. So mothers will have to sterilise their own on the ward. Fine, but someone (ie a midwife of health care assistant) will have to sterilise those of the mothers who can't (eg the ones who are in bed for 34 hours post c-section). I can think of better wayys their time could be employed.

34? should be 24. That policy varies from hospital to hispital btw. With my first 2 I was in bed for 12 hours + post section, with ds3 I was told I had to be lying down for 24 hours- and they had some pumping thing on my legs.

How much does it cost to provide formula for a newborn in hospital?

Haven't read the thread but I think the hospital should provide powdered milk. This means that there is a fair comparison between difficulties of bf and formula feeding - bf IS hard in the first couple of weeks, but is eventually incredibly easy if you are able to stick with it. However, I think getting people to bring in their own forumla is defeatist as it is getting them to 'invest' in formula feeding before they have tried bf, and also ignores the fact that some people do have genuine problems with bf.

Will now read rest of thread and see if my opinion changes.

I completely agree with Plibble. My NCT bf advisor told me that most babies were using the food stores built up before birth for the first three days. I didn't think there was much calorie value in colostrum. DD suckled constantly for about 48 hours after birth but rightly or wrongly it never occured to me that she was hungry/not getting enough milk - I just thought it was normal. I don't know about really big babies (she was 8lb 9 oz), but clearly there is different information being given about babies and hunger.

If they are going to use the money saved for breastfeeding support I think it's a good idea...

How can a hospital say they are supporting breastfeeding if they hand out free formula milk? Makes no sense.

I will be shot down for this but I can't see why the NHS should provide a substance which is potentially harmful to a newborn.

So yes, I think it's fair enough.

Ceolas, at risk of repeating some of the arguments, what should happen for mothers who plan to bf but have problems and can't? What's more harmful, formula or nothing?

course it should be supplied, i was in hospital for 3 weeks before my son was born, it was an emergency c section, i had no time to plan the last minute things as i wasn't at home, i couldn't bf straight away (though wasn't helped to). my son was fed with cups and the hospital had cartons that i had to use. it's not a black and white issue.

I agree with jimjams2 about their time could be better spent.

When i was in having my section with ds (aug 06) there was 4 of us who had just had sections a couple of hours before and 1 70 yes 70 old male midwife between our bay and 2 other normal delivery bays! i had to wait all day to get my pad changed and had to remind him 6 times i really needed my painkillers, also my dh came in and noticed my catheter bag was completely full......

I seriously cannot imagine how much worse it would have been if he had to keep legging it off to sterilise/make up bottles for women FF-ing.

seems fair why should tax payers money be used to pay for formula

• will they be encouraging breastmilk banks?

Also they literally throw women out the door as soon as baby is here now a days so i hardly think the amount spent on formula would break the bank tbh, there are alot of taboo subjects to where the nhs could save money, and compared to others this is a drop in the ocean.

This has to be the most ridiculous thing I've ever read!

FFS!

I do think the NHS should provide the formula. I'm just suprised the manufacturers don't 'donate' it to the hospital - afterall most mums will continue buying the brand which they used in hospital......