"Bringing up Baby" didn't do much for breast feeding, did it?

[bohemianbint]

Everyone looked to be bottle feeding, the one woman who did do it looked to be having a crappy time of it and more airspace is given to the views of those who "don't want to see boobs in public"! Yet more slanting to make breastfeeding look like martyrdom for loony hippies. Not to mention the 4 hour routine that would be guaranteed to scupper anyone trying to establish breastfeeding in the early days.

What are the odds on them redeeming themselves next week, do you think?

oh, the SIDs study mentioned below did not also take into account whether the babies who died were bf or ff and formula feeding mothers observed in sleep labs do not have the same protective instincts as bf mums.

Blimey that's really interesting. I used to deliberately breathe slowly next to my girl to get her to sleep, and it worked!

I think the statistics were that around 50% of cotdeath incindences were co sleepers and around 50% not in parents room (ish,) and of those 90% of cosleeping deaths involved smoking/drinking/drugs/duvets or sofa sleep, I'm not sure where I read that, may have been claire scott's talk yesterday, but it is a high amount.

So cosleeping under the guidelines is not as dangerous as has been said. Cosleeping becomes dangerous when guidelines are not followed.

here is more information for anyone interested, and the research by Dr Mckenna mentioned by kiskidee

Re:Kiskidee's last post - As a formula feeding mother, can I just say WHAT!!!

Don't panic HJ - what it means is that formula feeding mothers don't seem to have as many of the protective unconcious reflexes that BF mothers do while they are sleeping- If you think about it,it makes sense in a way, because of the differing hormone levels in BF mums which might be what control the differences in sleep pattern - Don't think that research has been done yet, but it is known that oxytocin has an effect on sleep
So what the study says is that in a group matched for all other variables FF mums don't appear to have the same sleep pattern as BF mums and they don't really know why.
Lisa X

I co-sleep with my daughter sometimes - usually after her first feed of the morning when we both fancy a bit of a lie in, and even though she's on formula I'd say there's always a part of me, even when I'm properly asleep, that is aware she's next to me. I sleep more lightly and wake more often to check she's OK.

Jamila you did say that beautyfully

I must admit, ever since my ys I have been wondering what otehr influences are very important in our sleeppatter...because one of the things they found was, that bf mothers tend to sleep facing their child, which made rolling over less likely, etc...however with ys, I know I slept with my back to him most times, I even went to sleep that way....but I also know, that his Birth affected me very much, my emotions towards him and everything...so, I wonder if that was why I went agaisnt the usual instinctive sleeping pattern, dispite bf etc...

Sorry ladies, I guess I get a bit defensive about the whole formula thing.It does feel as though I'm super aware when our baby is in bed with us.
I do wonder how the theories of the Continuum lady would work if there was an older child. For that matter I would like to have seen Claire Verity trying to prise my 14month old away from my youngest when she was born (I thought it was so sad when the older sister was desperate to give the baby a cuddle, and wasn't allowed to).

I did like the look of the continuum concept in theory, except for one thing, which is: what happens if you have to go back to work after 6 months? wouldn't that be a horrible wrench for both mother and baby? I guess the ideal would be for the childcare to be shared equally somehow between two parents, or a parent and another close family member, but that's not always possible. Seems to me that it would only work if one of you could stay home for the first year at least.

I know this isn't really a breast&bottle issue but was just wondering really.

The idea of CC is that it isn't attachment parenting - you carry the baby because it's easier to meet a young baby's needs like that , doesn't have to be mum carrying all the time - and at 6 months most babies are curious enough to want to be out of there and doing things, so after that carrying is more of a solution to transport issues than anything else - Co sleeping is a neat solution to the problem of having to wake up and get junior out of the basket/cot to feed them so you get more sleep (tis true, I've done both, one of mine hated cosleeping, he's the clingy one now lol!)
So all in all CC is a bit of a lazy git's charter - fine by me
Lisa X

oh right - I'm sure I'd read that the continuum concept was one of the foundations of attachment parenting (along with Bowlby et al) but maybe I was wrong.

Hazeyjane asked how cc would work if there was an older child - I found it much easier with DS at 5yo when baby came. I could carry her in sling and feed while eg walking him to school, playing etc. Didn't have to keep going to check on her etc. They are now very close - he is 13 and she is 7.

probably so, emma! but AP is much more extreme, in that it does require you to be pretty much spending your whole time looking for cues from your baby as to what they want(with the consequent sense of failure,if you can't work it out).I'm not a fan, having spent a fair bit of time on groups where AP devotees are every bit as competitive as any other group of mums working to a formula.
CC isn't a method, more a philosophy based on an anthropologists observations, and like any philosophy, there aren't rules as such, just an expectation that carrying young babies,breastfeeding,cosleeping and BLW are parts of the whole, but saying, you will do this for x number of months or you're a bit crap isn't - I've had 2 that loved slings, one that hated them until he was quite big and could go on my back, 1 who would still cosleep at 8 if there was room, one who gave up at about 8 months and one who didn't want to cosleep at all, they all B/F for different times and weaned at different times, but there's room for that in CC, it's about the baby finding a place in the tribe,not about the baby having the tribe dancing round them waiting for something to happen IYKWIM.
Lisa X

I can see that it might not be too difficult if there was a bigger age gap. I only have 14 months between mine, so my eldest wasn't walking when I had my second, I did find a sling really helpful, but did have to carry on picking up dd1, so dd2 did have to be put down, quite a lot! I guess in the tribe that inspired the theories behind CC other members of the tribe would have held the other baby, unfortunately my tribe was my husband, who was at work for most of the day!

thanks jamila - that's all really interesting.