You know how we are always bemoaning the fact that there is such a lack of proper support for women who want to breastfeed? Well,it looks as if we can finally do something about it.....

[moondog]

There now exists a Breastfeeding Coalition, an unprecedented alliance of not-for-profit organisations committed to the health of the nation who want Government to take action over this critical issue.

Read the breastfeeding manifesto here

One of the tragic facts to come out of this is that of the women who have given up breastfeeding by 6 weeks,9 out of 10 wished they had breastfed for longer.

Fantastic - bring it on.

Fishie,using statistics menad you don't have to ask every breastfeeding woman individually.

I think my HV told me that no stats kept on b/feeding nationally after 6 mths...Is that so Tiktok?

red book [spits] has tick boxes at various stages. mine says ff at leaving hospital and nobody ever updated or monitored subsequently. can't think i'm alone and that must be the basis for stats.

Stats are based on the five yearly infant feeding survey, which goes up to (I think) nine months.

No, it doesn't ask every women in the UK!!

It has a large sample though - several thousand from all over the UK, and chosen to get a good mix of mothers' ages and other socio-economic stuff.

It's a very good, robust, solid survey. Electronic copies at the department of health website - they are about to publish the 2005 stats, of which preliminary figures are out only at the moment.

Pruni - I still don't see the '2 per cent exclusive breastfeeding' as misleading - how else would you say 'babies receiving breastmilk and no other foods or drinks' unless you actually spelled it out like that?

The survey asks women loads of questions about their breastfeeding experience, too.

It's a postal survey, backed up with a whole bunch of face to face interviews. Details of it at the DH website.
Fishie, it has nothing at all to do with info in the red book, though some PCTs use this data for their local stats.

Message withdrawn

I haven't read it all. Is this a UK-wide thing? Just wondering because the postcards I received were to send to MPs in London. I'm in Scotland.

Surely to your local MP?

I've sent mine to my MP.
I know he'll sign up.
He lives next door to me and have breastfed in his kitchen many times.

There are some Scottish MPs on the list of those supporting but they don't seem to have bothered with MSPs. Have contacted my MP but I'm not holding my breath as he hasn't replied when I've contacted him about similar campaigns (and can whistle for my vote next time )

I'm one of the 9/10 without a doubt. DS is 3 now and I still feel bitter that I gave up BF when he was 6 weeks old on my HV's advice.

Whats teh best thing to do, send the link to my local MP?

Yes Mama.
You may be able to stop other women having same bad experince.

(Why did she advise you to give up?)

I think this is great.

The workplace thing is a real issue. I believe Scotland are better then England - with regards to protected time for expressing etc.

I'm sure there are many in my boat who stopped expressing at work because I just wasn't being supported enough and had to make up the time lost doing it etc.

He failed to thrive apparently, his weight gain was very slow and even though I'd successfully BF my first baby, she basically told me my milk wasn't enough and made me feel like I was depriving him of goodness if I didn't "top him up" with formula

My milk supply dried up pretty quickly, I rang her for advice and she just said "just give him a bottle" and I got into a vicious circle, made to feel like a bad mother for trying to feed him. Ridiculous now, looking back, but pg hormones going haywire, no MN (!) and no friends with babies to support me had me giving up and sobbing into a tiny babygro as I put the washing away. I'll never forget that moment.

He didn't gain weight any effing faster on the formula in the end anyway and I was robbed of the experience.

God, sorry, I do go on about it, I've got tears in my eyes as I type! I need to get over it

But yes, I will definitely email the link to my local MP. Thanks for posting it.

Yes a few MSPs there. Neither my MP nor MSP appears so I'll contact both of them anyway.

What a traumatic experience.

Oh God,I remember you posting about crying over the babyfro before.I had a lump in my throat then an have one now.

(sorry moondog! I'll have another baby and wave my norks about proudly)

Message withdrawn

yeah pruni, I'm thinking about 80% hormones in my case

MamaG ... when my dd was 1 month I had exactly the same experience. DD never lost but gained consistently ... i was told she wasn't thriving and was at risk of SIDS.

I kid you not -- those were her words.

I know exactly how you felt.

I started top ups, milk dried a little then I thought sod this and called a bf counsellor who halped and I went on a milking marathon to kick-start again

I bf with 2 bottles till she lost interest naturally at nearly 7 months ... but i still really resent the pants advice i was given and that i felt trapped into supplementing from the scaremongering.

I will be sending this to my mp.

ooh, i have just had a lovely letter from my mp, she has signed the manifesto and says she is delighted to do so.

hooray for lyn brown

Donny,words fail me.
Wicked old bitch.

sparkymummy, I just called them to find out where to check if a particular MP has signed up, but they have an answering machine on. I'll email and let you know what they say.

I was one of the 9/10 women too with ds .
I was stressed and getting depressed. He wanted to be on my breast all the time, feeding. I couldn't hold him without him feeding. I felt like a cow. I also leaked so much that I filled a mug on the side that he wasn;'t feeding from , most times.
I guessed he liked to suck for comfort but my hv told me not to give him a dummy. Because of nipple confusion. Eventually after guilt tripping over it I stopped bf. I felt much better as dh could help in night etc but then so terribly guilty for stopping. I felt guilty for 2.5 years till I had dd and could feed her. (I still am and she's 20m).

Of course once he was on ff he wanted to suck inbetween feeds so had a dummy, and loved it. If only he'd taken a dummy while I was bf then I may have been able to carry on. Actually I tried a few times but felt like I was tricking him as he would suck it and think it was milk then realise it wasn't and spit it out .

And then we had HUGE problems with feeds. He hated the bottles and would cry at every feed (after I thought it was too long to go back to bf, maybe it wasn't I didn't know, didn't have MN). We saw an osteopath which helped a bit. He hated the flow of the milk and the swallowing hurt him.

I wish I'd carried on bf. He drank so lttle formula milk ( once only 9oz in 24hours) that he had solids at 4 months. This worries me too. HV adviced me as he was getting nothing.

He has asthma and I always feel like its my fault. Both my children get ill alot though. Even dd who's still bf.
It must be me making them ill.

Any way , sorry for going on. This just made me sad moondog. Its great though. I hope it helps.

Sorry thinks didn't pan out as you planned Mel.