India Knight "Stop breast-beating, sisters" - comment on charities' complaints re OK! article

[SueW]

In today's Times

Why can't they understand it's about underhand advertising?

[Pruners]

Message withdrawn

[hunkermunker]

Are you saying she's a bit...thick, Pruners?

[moondog]

What struck me over a lunchtime swim is that this isa woman who is so concerned about her own calorific and nutritional input and the effect it has on her body that she has written a bloody diet book about it.

Yet the concern of others over what goes into the mouths of innocent newborns (and which time and again,has been scientifically proven to have many worrying long term implications) is dismissed out of hand.

A more searing indictment of the selfish and vacous behaviour of Modern Woman there never was.

[Pruners]

Message withdrawn

[JeremyVile]

I am someone who thinks alot about "calorific and nutritional input and the effect it has on her body"

And having very happily FFed my son, the following could apply to me too
"Yet the concern of others over what goes into the mouths of innocent newborns (and which time and again,has been scientifically proven to have many worrying long term implications) is dismissed out of hand".

Therefore, i'm assuming the following could also apply to me:
"A more searing indictment of the selfish and vacous behaviour of Modern Woman there never was".

Still, i dont mind. Its not true.

[JeremyVile]

...but please, do tell me if i have the wrong end of the stick?

[Judy1234]

I think for a lot of women who find it "disgusting" that goes back to their childhood and how they regard the human body. I always thought breastfeeding was beautiful, fun and I enjoyed it a lot. I was reading about it with enthusiasm as a teenager and like most things I enjoy I'd like others to enjoy it too. IK I think had a fairly fractured childhood, a broken home etc so that may have given her hangups about it.

People have always found breastfeeding a wonderful thing. Just go to any art gallery and you'll see the usual view of it.

[newy]

I FF my baby but don't want to attack bf and thought the bit about it being a class issue was bizarre. After all, I'm quite posh and ff I was rather worried to read the bit about SIDS and ff. Can I ask where the evidence came from? Apparently, flying in the first year of a baby's life (obviously in an aeroplane) can also increase SIDS but I don't have the statistics for this I'm afraid as was told this by a senior paediatric nurse.

[Cammelia]

Please don't worry Newy, those things are not that simplistic and for anyone to suggest they are is scaremongering

[newy]

Also didn't realise that bf was in the minority as an 'exclusively' ff I am in a minority of one amongst friends/ groups. MN is educational it seems.

[NadineBaggott]

haven't read the thread - I daren't

read the article and want to say 'Hurrah!'

[hunkermunker]

That's a shame, Nad.

[Boco]

I hate these articles. I'd agree that a happy mother is best, yes choice is great, do what you need to do, whatever that is, but there are so many anti- bf articles - usually in the Times - i got as far as the breastfeeding is bovine bit and was too irritated to go on.

I haven't read an article stereotyping ffers - and quite rightly - why is it ok to real off this shit about bfers all being hairy bovine militant bullying harridans? Why is that ok?

I thought it was a shitty, lazy, snide and ignorant piece of writing from a self absorbed shallow woman.

[canadianmum]

Another bit that pissed me off was about mastitis and blood in the milk, the implication being that breastfeeding is often fraught with complications. Obviously some women suffer terrible problems and are forced to give up, they are certainly not failures in my book. Most of my mum-mates had no problems with breastfeeding and just got on with it.

Its women who can't be bothered to even try that piss me off. And men who are totally unsupportive deserve a slap.

[Tinker]

Agree boco

[amidaiwish]

"Its women who can't be bothered to even try that piss me off" -

why? it's not your child. it's none of your business.

if it's because you feel there's no point because they believe formula is as good (due to misleading advertising) or that bf is too hard (due to lack of information/support) then go ahead and be pissed off, but not at these women.

tbh it's attitudes like that that cause the split/resentment in the first place.

[Tamum]

I think if I had a baby with an immune deficiency I would be doing my utmost to overcome my "queasiness", not boasting about it. Interesting point about the dieting, too.

[hunkermunker]

I started a thread about media stereotypes of breastfeeding women.

I think I used the words hairy and hippy.

I will see if I can find it.

It's lazy in the extreme, definitely.

[hunkermunker]

Here you go

[pagwatch]

I find it funny that bf is now middle class. Being the youngest of a large, very poor family we were all brought up to regard breastfeeding as the thing to do as it cost nothing. ( 4 sisters that is - not the 4 boys although as far as I know they were welcome to try).
If anyone had suggested buying formula to my mother she would have thought it extraordinary. I personally was also too bloomin lazy.

[canadianmum]

amidaiwish - you are right, I am not pissed off with women who are misled by formula manufacturers or who do not have the information/support to help them make a decision. And I know that another woman's breasts shouldn't be my business, but I can honestly say that if a woman chooses not to even try to breastfeed when she knows it is best for her baby, THAT pisses me off.

[hunkermunker]

Pagwatch, yes, when formula was first invented (I mean in recent times as the infant formula we all know), wasn't it seen as the way to give your baby the best - a status symbol that you could afford it - not like that stupid free breastmilk that only poor people needed to use and let's all pity them?

I think that a lot of the older generation still feel like that, really, hence seeing the lack of support from many mothers and mothers-in-law.

[pagwatch]

Yep, I remember the status symbol bit. In truth I am getting on a bit and remember the 70's ( ah people having cheese and wine parties, getting pissed and driving home, demis freakin russos and really wide trousers ). Back then etting your baps out was seriously working class. All the posh people I babysat for left bottles of formula and the only time I was left a bottle of expressed milk it was left by mum Pippa next to the chick peas and in its macrame holder. If bf is now middle class what will next cultural shift be. Wet nurse anyone?

[constancereader]

I think that is so true boco - a happy mum equals a happy baby. For me, a happy mum meant being able to bf my baby, even though I ended up mix feeding. It was mumsnet that gave me the info I needed to keep going.

I found this article depressing in the extreme. Hunker has already articulated my feelings better than I can.

I also don't know where this 'pressure' to bf is supposed to come from. All I know is that I was given the information about breastfeeding and formula feeding and, as an adult, came up with my own decision to bf based on that info. Any pressure I felt came from my own sense of what was best for my baby.

[PrincessGoodLife]

attention seeking article, that's all, and only written and published now because everyone is fighting over BF vs FF. Sells papers.