WHAT CAN BE DONE TO INCREASE BREAST FEEDING RATES IN THE UK.

[lissie]

we all know that postnatal care is a huge factor, but what else can be done?


i speak as a failed bf-er who will try again with every baby i have, but supports the mothers right to choose.

[cazee]

I think you only get 6 months paid, I have had to take the second 6 months unpaid

[missis]

It is true that smp lasts for 9 months but maternity pay from an employer often finishes well before that.

With current house prices I personally could not pay my morgage with a little over £100 a week.

[ruddynorah]

the australian soaps show bf as the norm, just not the UK ones sadly.

i think a big thing for me is talking to my friends who are yet to have babies, also my younger sister. i'd never seen anyone bf, and neither have/had they until i had dd and bf for 8 months.

i found bf very easy. i had decent midwife support both antenatal and postnatal. my community midwife gave me a booklist to read through and referred me to kellymom.com. i also found mumsnet very useful, especially tiktok. what i would say though, is that i was very very determined to bf so i made sure i got decent support and educated myself.

[mummypigoink]

Maternity Pay ~ nine months paid subject to how long you've been working. if you are sick, you are on sick leave until weeks before due date. can have up to a year off.

Breastfeeding ~ aaarrrggghh don't get me started. A girl in my work said it was 'unnatural' to bf!!!! so I asked her if she had any idea how stupid that made her sound.

I find it really interesting that bf rates in this country are so low, but there are so many people who don't get thier kids vaccinated due to concerns, don't do this, don't do that, but don't bf which is allegedly so beneficial.

[mummypigoink]

oh yeah, smp stands for statutory maternity poverty in my book

[clare1307rabbits]

Hi there

This is my first time on mumsnet so "hello". Just saw your chat on bf. I have two sons and breastfed both of them. DS No 1 is now two and a half and DS No 2 has just turned one.

I remember when I was breastfeeding DS1 and called some of the breastfeeding helplines and as it was over christmas, there was absolutely no-one to help me at all.

Then, when I was breastfeeding DS2. He was about 6 weeks old at the time and I was bf outside a cafe (I had brought a coffee and a cake!) and was told by the cafe owner that "that sort of thing wasn't approved of here" like I was sitting there naked or something. I was always very discreet if I was breastfeeding out and about and would use a muslin to cover up as much as I could. I has post-natal depression as well which didn't help and ended up walking off in tears.

More needs to be done to help women who are breastfeeding and it should be illegal for a cafe/restaurant etc to now allow you to feed your baby.

[GColdtimer]

Haven't had chance to read the whole thread as cooking dinner at the same time but I wonder about better ante-natal support.

I know as a new mum I was completely and utterly focussed on the birth but some real idea about what bf would entail would have been helpful.

Just to say things like "bf can take 6 weeks to get established" meant nothing to me before birth or indeed in the few weeks after birth. What does that mean fgs? I just wish I was just a bit more prepared. If someone had said to me that I could well be sitting on the sofa with cushions, foot stools, and every other prop necessary with boob in hand (not the serene, calm, cradle hold I had imagined), feeding constantly for about 20 hours out of every 24 often with tears running down my face, just worrying how I was going to get through that feed and then as soon as that had finished wondering how I was going to get through the next one that started about 10 minutes later, and then pumping to boost my poor supply in between then I may have been a bit less shocked at the actuality of bf (and I know that it isn't like that for everyone so you don't want to scare people off but in my book, forewarned is forearmed).

Also,



if I had known I didn't have to be an NCT member to go to the babycafe and phone the bf counselor I may have got help a bit earlier and saved a practically detached nipple, my sanity and ultimately my bf.

Great thread lissie, I second your disclaimer.

[missis]

add to this crowds of in laws camped out in your house who had ff all of their kids and two step sons running around, so all pumping and feeding was done in the bedroom. I would

I had just about managed to bf for the first four weeks and convince my dp who was very resistant to the idea because his first wife had ff from birth and 'the other two are alright', when the easter hols came along and my 6yr old dss2 climbed down a drain whilst I was feeding in the bedroom.

I was also aware I was due to return to work after 3 months so reluctantly changed to ff.

It is symptomatic of our modern lifestyle that we dont breastfeed.

[Reesie]

clairerabbits - I am shocked, shocked . I could quite happily go down to that cafe and rip that blokes eyes out for you. How dare he, how DARE he - aaaaaarrrrrrgggghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

[lissie]

some awful stories on here!

[Mossy]

Increase statutory maternity pay and increase the length of paid maternity leave

Make sure Doctors, HV's, MW's etc. are aware of local breastfeeding clinics and recommend women with problems to go to them (so they don't have to stumble on them by chance, like I did; was so close to giving up!)

Encourage partners to help around the house in the early days while breastfeeding gets "established" by increasing paternity leave and SPP

Train MW's, HV's and Drs so they don't give out erroneous information like "drink milk to make milk" and "put him on for 15 minutes each side" etc.

Agree with MNer who said pubs / cafes etc should have signs like "breastfeeding welcome here" to encourage women who might feel embarrassed (I find it difficult to be discreet with huge norks) not to feel that way

Nice bfing bras for those with larger than a G cup!

[amidaiwish]

i bf 2 DDs (til about 4-6 months) and would happily give my pg / new mum friends advice on bf.
however, even though i was successful, i wouldn't actually know where to start advising someone else, my DDs just kind of "did it".

i would love to go on a short training session, say one day, which would then, combined with my experience, make me useful! maybe later in life when i have more free time i could then build on that and do voluntary work too to help new mums bf.

what i'm trying to say is there is a lot of untapped knowledge and experience out there which needs to be captured/nurtured/built on and then encouraged to share.

[tiktok]

clare - it's a real shame you didn't get help from the helplines There are four helplines, and all are operated by volunteers, and the calls go to their own homes...but round Xmas time they are all open, they really are....you would have been able to leave a message, and even if the message tape was full, it would always be worth trying again at another time. I know it's not a perfect system and it can struggle at times, though.

twofalls - a shame for you that you thought you needed to be an NCT member to use the services. I don't know what we can do about that (I am a breastfeeding counsellor with NCT)as we have never said this and work hard to counter-act it, but the myth still remains. Am open to ideas!

amida - there may be peer support schemes in your area, and if there are, they would love to have you, I'm sure. You train over a period of 10-12 weeks, one session a week, and learn to offer social support, friendship and an informed listening ear to bf mothers in your area. Ask your HV or baby clinic what there is.

[FioFioJane]

tiktok, dont you have to pay for workshops through the nct though? and have the nct tried to get funding off the nhs (stupid question i know)

I thought you had to pay for breastfeeding counselling support too

[choosyfloosy]

Seeing bf on the soaps is my holy grail tbh. Not 'wow, X is bfing' but some major marital going on and, somewhere under one of the tops, somebody is snuffling away at the breast.

Come on Phil Redmond, recapture the brave old days on Brookie, every day an issue, surely a few of the lasses on Hollyoaks can step up to the plate!

[lissie]

lol

[tiktok]

Fio - nct antenatal classes you pay for, yes, at least you normally do (I think there are discounts for some people). We don't do breastfeeding workshops - bf workshops are sometimes held in maternity units and clinics and run by midwives, and they are free to mothers.

NCT breastfeeding services are all free to mothers.

We get a small amount of money from the Department of Health, but the bulk of the money to support breastfeeding counselling services (the training, the supervision, the materials, the admin) comes from the charity's money. The breastfeeding line is supported by Persil.

Where did you hear you have to pay for NCT breastfeeding counselling??? I'd hate people to think this, and then be worried about asking for it.

Some private lactation consultants charge, and I know there are some people who call themselves breastfeeding counsellors and who charge, too, but they are not NCT breastfeeding counsellors. We are very proud to say we are free

[abracadabra]

Agree with practically everything that's been said here! A few people have mentioned that shops, cafes etc should provide bfing rooms though, and while I can see where they're coming from I do wonder whether this would play into the hands of the don't bf in public brigade - ie."you can't do that out here,there is a special room for it over there!"

[FioFioJane]

I dont know where I heard it maybe its one of those common misconceptions or an old wives tale.

I am expecting my third ina few weeks time. My midwife said dont book into the breastfeeding workshop until 32 weeks (it also says this on the form) I have rang up at 32 weeks on the dot and they are full. I really wanted to be prepared as possible this time and now I feel a bit 'lost'. So any books you could recommend or dvds? ()

[Nbg]

I agree thatmore advice should be given ante-nataly however there was only so much that I "grasped" about it without having a baby to actually do it IYSWIM.

Postnataly there needs to be far more support IMO.
Alot of women are pressured into having a longer hospital stay so that BF can be established when all they want to do is get home.
Dont get me wrong I think this is good that they are at least helping them but not in the right fashion.

There needs to be more BF counsellors who can go out into the community like the MW's after women have had their babies and go to their homes and help with the feeding.
Thats the key imo.

[tiktok]

choosy - you need to make your mind up Do you want it as an 'issue' or do you want as a 'Wow! X is bf!' - you can't have it both ways.

People who have bf in UK soaps:

Judy and her twins in Corrie - bf happily and expressed so she could work in the Rovers and then worried about leaking patches on her shirt

Natalie in E. Enders, but Barry was more or less forcing her too, and she stopped.

The other one in E. Enders whose name I have forgotten who had a baby a little beore Natalie - she bf very happily.

All these are a few years ago, and I can't remember any more recently than that. Claire in Corrie was presumably not bf, but we never saw him have a bottle, and it just wasn't discussed. Obv when she went into hospital and was separated from him he can't have been.

Personally, I think the whole soaps thing is a red herring. We will have people bf happily and comfortably in soaps when this becomes the norm in the real world. Bf in Home and Away and Neighbours is never a big deal. There is far more bf in Oz than here. There was one story line a few years ago in Neighbours, when bf in public was seen by Alf as being 'rude' and the rest of the community told him he was unreasinable and he was made to look stupid.

[tiktok]

I mean not as a 'Wow' thing.

[FioFioJane]

nbg, I think support needs to be given antenataly too. There seems so much focus on the birth and nothing else (from my experience)

[lissie]

tbh (just veering a bit here) i found the way they dealt with clares PND in corrie shocking! soaps need to deal with parenthood and all of the important choices responsibly and without sensational scenes,
PND: why does the mother have to be sectioned.
childbirth: why is it in a car naturally with no G&A.
feeding: why do we never see weaning at 6m? bf?

[lissie]

not that pnd/cb is a choice



ill get my coat now!