Breastfeeding - building the brand - ideas?

[hunkermunker]

The media shorthand for "breastfeeding" seems to be "hairy legs, weirdy sandals, dubious personal hygiene inc. unshaven armpits and a laissez-faire attitude to discipline of children".

What would you like to see in the media to promote bf? More women bf in soaps? Celebs talking more about their experience of bf? Ordinary women who work and bf talking about how they do it (so many times I read women say "there was no point bf, I was going back to work full time when LO was 4/5/6/7mo")?

So much of the bf info out there is kinda clinical - which is fair enough because it's written by the Department of Health. But should there be more from an emotional pov, more written by "women like me" - not the hairy-legged hippies that it's so often written by (NOT slating HLH btw - some of my finest friends could be described thus ).

Just musing, really. Formula manufacturers have HUGE budgets to build their brand awareness and BF relies on volunteers - I know there are marketing people on MN and I wondered if they wouldn't mind giving a bit of input into this?

"hairy legs, weirdy sandals, dubious personal hygiene inc. unshaven armpits and a laissez-faire attitude to discipline of children"

oh god, sounds just like a LLL meeting I used to go to

soap dodgers, the lot of them !

Change the average British male's attitude to tits. Working class, middle class and no doubt even Prince Charles, despite his organic lentil growing credentials. That will solve at least 50% of the problem.

Perhaps they could learn a thing or too from Scandenavian men who don't think it is perverted to feed your baby on a bus.

Agree about society's expectations about a newborn's sleeping/feeding aptterns. How many times do you hear of women convinced that they "haven't got enough milk" simply because they are so unprepared for the amount and frequency of feeds, particularly in the first few weeks?

No expert in marketing by any stretch of imagination, but isn't it good to personalise things for the consumer? When we say "Breast is best", it is a bit theoretical, a bit abstract. If the message is expanded to "Breast is best for your baby" this appeals more directly to mothers and is harder to brush aside. (Notwithstanding all my reservations about the use of this particular slogan in general).

If the Govt were truly bothered by low breast feeding rates, maybe they could consider initiating some sort of "breast feeding allowance"? I know that some people may find it unnecessary, but it would help draw attention to breast feeding benefits (as the sayint goes "money Talks!")

Interesting idea. I think that some women get milk tokens to pay for formula and I think you can get a pint of cows' milk per day instead, if you are breastfeeding. But there is some controversy about this, in part because the milk tokens (i.e. formula tokens) are of higher monetary value than the cows' milk.

im a 25 yr old hairdresser and im waxed to within an inch of my life i have hair extentions false nails and bigger boobs than jordan im currently on my 8th month of bfing my first child and to be honest no i dont sleep 8 hrs a night but i make sure i look fab for work

i,ve only just gone back to work and my boss who also bf has been incredibly supportive and i get to express in a lovely therapy room with soothing music a drink and a mag lol

but the girls who i work with 17-27 have nevrer none any one else bf for as long as i have no else bf such an old baby they dont understand why i waited til she was 6 months and why i do blw

and why i bother to express and only get 4 oz 's off

but i do it because its the healthiest thing to do for my baby she is thriving on it

me and my friends are all from the same backgrounds working class council estates low income families but i chose to do it because i knew from being on here it was the right thing to do and i did everything to prepare for bf that i could and after i gave birth i kept coming on here for advice

but even tho im waxed and groomed and i go out in my heels til i fall over drunk leaving madam with daddy and ebm

they still think im a hippy

so go figure but anything i can do to help i will

i also think at sure start centres they should set up a mentor system with bf moms and pg women maybe show how much easier it is no bottles no sterilising no formula

Too many threads to read but I heard an interview with Rod Stewart's misses sometime ago and she mentioned that she'd bf her lo. She ain't hippy and she ain't hairy. Maybe some kind of article commisioned from her or one of the other model mums (Ele McPhearson etc etc) for a parenting mag could get national media coverage if the PR was good and backed with some kind of interesting research stats. Depends who / what you're trying to target. If it's the tabloids surely a pair of breasts would be enough to get them interested

Great post boobylicious, and good for you for carrying on bfing.
You really hit the nail on the head when you said you do it because it the best start for your baby. I bet if all women knew the real benefits of bfing they would be eagar to give it a go.

Bambi - I was very cautious about linking to that article and I would never ever advocate forcing that kind of information down women's throats. IMO and IME that would be bordering on cruel because some of use truly have no choice in the matter and we really don't need to be told such things at such an emotional time. And apart from that, the research quoted in there would have to be completely watertight to head of the law suits that would surely follow.

Just seen a beautiful picture of a mummy breastfeeding her baby on the Vegan society website, next to an equally beautiful picture of a baby cow feeding from her mummy. Both babies look so content suckling with their mummies! here

I do apologise for the typos in there.

i think it must start at home, whilst sitting in bed feeding my ds2, ds1 (8 years)came through to chat with me, hes never seemed at all bothered that i bf in fron of him, and when i asked him if he minded at all, he replied that "no, its a naturall thing isn't it?" i was so pleased and pround of him. hopefully he will support his future mrs in bf. he calls formula fake milk too.

i've never been brave enough to feed in general public but if there wasnt such a dirty/weird thinking towards approach to bf i would be braver i like to think.

Celebs, celebs, celebs....can anyone point me to any campaign on anything invoving a socially-mediated behaviour where a celeb endorsement has made any difference at all?

Band-Aid, maybe....and did it mean an eradication of hunger due to a change in political priorities? Er, no, it didn't.

Celebs sell hair dye; they sell breakfast cereal; they sell cars; they sell M&S fashions.

I don't think they change behaviours.

Anyway, celebs often breastfeed, and often make a big thing about how great it is. I don't think it makes one jot of difference to whether other mothers do.

But prove me wrong, someone, why don't you?!

What would you do then Tiktok? I fully take on board your point about support, but how would you make breastfeeding socially acceptable again?

I think tiktok has already made the point that lots of people initiate breastfeeding, and maybe the emphasis should shift from "selling" breastfeeding as a lovely idea to giving people strategies for how to keep it going when sitting on your own in the middle of the night with bleeding nipples.

From reading many threads on mumsnet, the impression I get is that it when comes to a crisis like that, lots of people just don't have the support.

And underlying all of that is a lack of trust in breastfeeding, that it can work out even if difficult and that many apparent problems aren't problems at all (eg babies needing frequent feeds).

"And underlying all of that is a lack of trust in breastfeeding, that it can work out even if difficult and that many apparent problems aren't problems at all (eg babies needing frequent feeds)."

EXACTLY!!. If i had a pound for the number of moms i know (or who have started threads on MN) who have started solids, given a formula topup or just given up BF altogether because their baby isn't sleeping through at four months or whatever.
FOUR MONTHS.
FOUR MONTHS.

FFS. when did women suddenly start believing that having a baby was easy and that you got a full nights sleep every flippin night.

It's not BF that's hard work. it's taking care of a baby that's hard work! but it's so worth it!!

purple - that is a very good point. it is so called modern life (god, let's not talk about modern parenting techniques again, please !!) that has given women the opportunity to wean at 3 - 4 months, give up at the drop of a hat because you can buy an alternative in your local 24 hour Tesco. it isn't very PC saying this, but it is a fact.

100 years ago, when formula was not so readily available nor that cheap, you either fed your baby through gritted teeth (pain, blood, lack of unbroken sleep for a whole year) or your baby died. we are told by a load of nonesense baby gurus that if you put baby on some schedule or a different sort of milk, they sleep better if you had told previous generations the same thing they would have laughed.

i agree with the celebrity thing. celebs. are self-promting in everything they do. it is very few things they do out of the kindness of their hearts, if they bf in public and do some arty farty 10 foot high photo of them bf a newborn, it is because their manager/publicist has told them it is a good way of getting your name around. so will every working class East End girl start to bf the minute she sees someone doing it on East Enders ? i doubt it.

women need to be supported when things go wrong. that is the best way to promote bf, KNOWLEDGE.

That was my point earlier...there needs to be a shift in societies expectations of a Newborns sleeping and feeding pattern.
But this will be difficult, as even those that are there to help, HV's, Gp's, m/w's often seem to endorse the oldfashioned ideas, i.e. longer time between feeding, Baby should sleep through at xyz age...
I remember going for my 6 week check up with ms, and the GP asked if he was sleeping through, to which I replied, no, but then , i wasn't expecting him, too anyway, as I was bf it was easy enough, etc....
his reply: Well, put the child on Formula then, your dh could help you with feeding...blablabla....
I was shocked, and just said somehting along the lines, I am sure that Babyfreindly inititative would not be happy about this kind of "support"

The thing about celebs is that they sell the idea to the MEDIA. OK so it might not sell the idea to Joanna Bloggs but it raises the profile of breastfeeding and gets people thinking / talking about it.

When I say media, I mean that the media will generally cover a topic (that they wouldn't normally) if it was backed by some celeb. Celebs sell papers / magazines, the topic is incidental.

I think MoosMa hits the nail on the head. when she writes:

'...we agreed that it's "sold" as being easy when it's not. "It won't hurt, it's so natural, you won't get mastitis (the lady I was speaking to has had it 5 times!), it's best for you and your baby". Perhaps if it was put across more realistically (sp?) then people wouldn't feel so bad when they have difficulties and wouldn't drop at the first problem thinking that they're unusual for finding it hard.'

That is precisely it. I couldn't have put it better. The health visitors etc should be honest about it then women would be prepared and stick with it. They should say that boht mum and baby have to learn it, that it can hurt, that does have advantages but also disadvantages (e.g. you will have to do all the feeding yourself unless you express and thus you will not get a full nights sleep until the baby is weaned (or doesn't need a night feed anymore).

Also, if they didn't put it across so 'all or nothing', e.g. mixed feeding is possible, feeding for two months is better then not at all, then more women might try it. It's this yoiu have to feed on demand until the baby is at least one, that just puts women off.

I think realistic expectations and good support would both be key.

And while I realise that telling women that they can opt for bottle feeding if breast feeding turns pear shaped can be unhelpful, there are times when this advice could be helpful. When I had dd in the mists of time 10 years ago the part of scotland where I was living had an 8% uptake on BF on leaving hospital!

If some of the remaining 92% could have been encotaged to give it a go, it would have been so helpful. And in those cases I think that telling people 'Look, breast is best, but if you try it an don't get on with it you can still bottle feed later' might tip the balance with some mothers. And even if they only feed for a week or two, the babies would still get some benefit.

Found these:

If breastmilk were advertised

and

If breastfeeding is so great, why are rates so low?

Not sure if all the info in the second link is relevant to the UK mums Lucyjo. Mothers in theUK are not given free samples of formula on leaving hospital for example.

All the midwives that I saw advocated breast feeding etc.