NON personal discussion about breastfeeding rates <no mud slinging allowed>

[JingleyJen]

Instead of personal stories and family circumstances I am really interested in the potential reasons why in this country are breastfeeding rates so much lower than in other countries?

Surely in other countries boobs are sexual things as well so it can't just be that.

Is it that ever downward spiral that as fewer women breastfeed that it is hidden and therefore fewer women feel comfortable with the whole thing?

I don't think it is the availability of formula

Have there been studies done on this? (sure there have but don't know where to find them)

Is the success rate of mothers who have chosen to breastfeed truly dependent on the support network around them - or are there really an increasing number of women whose milk doesn't come in - and why could that be the case?

This is NOT a thread for the wrongs and rights of breastfeeding vs formula it is more a question of how things have got to this stage.

Anyone?

gegs, read all the posts. A lot of what you suggest has been discussed already and some of it refuted, sorry!

I thought gegs post was perfectly sensible. She didn't claim to have all the answers - just making suggestions.

Thanks margoandjerry, I did say I only read the original post then skim read the rest there are 8 pages and I'm trapped inside with two of them today Just suggestions..

gegs, not being critical of you personally, but threads are a conversation, and if everyone only ever read the OP and then commented, then we'd go round in circles....I really meant you to look at the rest of the posts, because we have really done a lot (not all) of what you have talked about to death.

Tip: I set threads to give one continuous page, that way you don't get trapped between pages

Hafta admit - people only ever reading the OP is a pet hate of mine, and I am probably over-sensitive on that, sorry

On re-reading, gegs: you are not trapped between two pages, but trapped inside the house with 2 kids LOL! I thought you meant your computer screen was trapped!

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I am interested, Pruners

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Now that rings a bell, esp the self-published bit, but I can't claim to have read it. I have a feeling that it might be about 10 years old or so?

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Following on from the concept that only poor women breastfeed which I know my grandma said to me once. I feel the peceived value of breastmilk is still very low.

After all if an baby item was one of a kind, made just for your baby and hand crafted, it sounds like a valuable item.

But if I then went on to tell you it was made at home from odd bits of wool by the mum. In general it would be seen as poor less desirable item and looked down on by other mums. Yet a simlar item made by a designer at a high monetary worth would be highly valued and coverted by other mums.

I feel breastmilk currently has a poor, homemade rep, rather than the designer rep it deserves to have. Breastfeeding is not valued and a common comment heard after 6 months of nursing is 'You know you don't have to do that anymore, baby can have formula now'

I feel the worth of milk is also low as even the mothers who realise the value of breastmilk are limited by good manners when discussing feedig with other mothers. As how we feed our babies is such an emotional and guilt filled subject on all sided, it seems near impossible to talk about the positives and negatives of each respective feeding method, without some mothers feeling insulted and upset by the information/opinion of another.

Whilst many mothers still feel that formula is 'ust as good as breastmilk and don't understand that nursing is so much more than milk transfer, the breastfeeding rates are doomed to be low as there is so little worth in their eyes to breastfeeding.

I wish we did what Norway does which is publish the breastmilk produced in UK as a national resource and bump up the worth of breastmilk.

'ust just

Completely agree, BabiesEverywhere. Breastfeeding has huge economic value that isn't widely recognised.

Pruners, I am interested...will look both of them up for my ever expanding library!