Breast not best - new slogan ideas?

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Breastfeeding - every mother's right.

My baby my way.

There isn't a slogan in the world that would make me breast feed if I'd decided to bottle feed. The only thing that would sway me was to read information saying formula would seriously damage my baby's health which lets face it is never going to happen as it's a perfectly decent and safe alternative.

Oh and you should try and breast feed twins yourselves before getting so judgemental.

[sigh] MilaMae. I don't think anyone was judging JLo for formula feeding. Simply judging her comments and using her as a point to highlight that even with all the resources she has, it still all comes down to "it was OK for me so it'll be OK for my babies".

Slogans do work for some women. And promoting breastfeeding in the right way is important to changing the way people think about it.

My baby my way is great. But only if every mother was fully informed on the pros and cons of breast & formula feeding and had exactly the right support to enable them to do what they wanted. Unfortunately, many women pick formula feeding as they don't realise that it isn't as good as breastfeeding. And those that do want to breastfeed are often poorly supported and are bombarded with myths and pressure to formula feed from HPs and relatives. If I had a pound for everyone that said "put her on the bottle" or "your milks making him grumpy" I'd be a rich woman!

i will be judgemental if i want,thanks.as a 'failed' bfer myself i fully support anyones efforts to make bf the norm in our society.i dont like it when i see celebrities promoting ff,i think if they choose to do it from birth then they should keep that decision to themselves,and i dont think they should be photographed ff babies either.

but this discssion has been done wrt jordan ff her baby.

how about bespoke milk, made purely for your baby.

Breast milk - designed by experts!

I still like Pendulum's best - LOOK - FREE BABY FOOD FOR 6 MONTHS!!!!! (In your bra.)

Would be great to get more info in it though - how about

Would you like?
*Lower risk of breast & cervical cancer
*Protection against osteoporosis
*Help with getting your figure back
*Improved immunity for your baby
*Better smelling nappies!
*Fast, free, food for your child?

Then give breastfeeding a go.

"breastfeeding - the natural choice"

If Carlsberg made milk for babies.....it would come out of your breasts

Though I think Aitch's 'Try it, you might like it' is probably the best one.

It's so true, I tried it and loved it, some peopel ahve tried it and hated it, but they can say they made a decision based on how they felt and their experiences not based on some tosh spouted by formula companies.

"Oh and you should try and breast feed twins yourselves before getting so judgemental"

Oh I don't know. If you had teams of the best lactation consultants on hand to help you, a cashmere covered sofa, a 10 foot flat screen tv, 3 nannies to take the babies off you in between feeds so you could grab an hour or so of relaxation in your own private spa, equipped with hot and cold running Thai massage therapists, chefs dancing attendance on you while you feed - tempting you with trays of yummy little snacks.

JLo could sleep all night - her lactation consultants could latch her babies on while she carried on snoozing....

Doesn't sound like a bad life to me!

Maybe we should trip over to the multiples topic and ask the mothers there about bfing twins, I guarantee some of them have done it.

"Try it you might like it" presupposes the mother to be is having doubts. which i suppose many of them do, but when i was pg i had no intention of doing anything but bf, and if i'd seen that slogan i might have been made more conscious of the negative attitudes out there towards bf and even started to have some self doubt?

personally i think the whole thing is a bit pointless, though. the main thing is that something like 9 out of 10 women do try it, they just aren't amply supported. maybe we need to be more upfront about how you need to stick at it and ask for help if you need it (and stamp your feet to get it), you know, preach to the choir a bit more? cos the 10% that don't want to do it... well, they're entitled not to if they don't want to.

how about,
Mummy is Yummy

I agree with Aitch. Given how many mothers do breastfeed at the very beginning, we should be concentrating on helping them to carry on, by providing the best advice, nurturing and assistance right from the start.
More breastfeeding support workers in hospitals. Trained and aware. Could visit every mother breastfeeding to introduce themselves, give advice and support even if all going well, leaving contact details and info about breastfeeding support clinics.
Enlist, for a nominal sum even, breastfeeding mothers to work as peer supporters. Perhaps to visit maternity hospitals with their breastfeeding babies, for friendly advice and to normalise a 6month old, a 10 month old, a 1 or 2 year old being breastfed.
I visited my ante-natal NHS breastfeeding workshop with 8 week old dd, to demonstrate a feed and discuss how things had been. I had been to the workshop before I had dd. I think that post-natal workshops would be helpful, because mothers feeding tiny babies might find it helpful and informative to see older babies being fed.
Of course, this could all be in conjunction with mass advertising of the kind already referred to.

"Int (breast)milk brilliant!" - Paul Whitehouse

probably lost on anyone younger than me, though. Can you believe that campaign was 13 years ago?

No I remember that VLC!

I agree with Aitch as well. It the lack of support that is letting mums who want to bf down.

My take on the subject is - Breastfeeding is normal - formula is the safety net for those who can't/won't bf.

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Why does supporting BF-ing always have to end up in making women feel bad and guilty and that they are depriving their children and are somehow unnatural and unfit mothers???? FFS. This entire forum is like a never-ending cycle of people having a dig about FF-ing and then FF-ing mothers defending their position angrily/tearfully. I agree with whoever said 'give it a fucking rest'.

Yes but if we didn't discuss someone might start up another M&T parking thread

And from the comments I've read it seems that most people are bending over backwards trying to avoid offending anyone with regard to how they feed their little ones.
This topic is always going to come up as there are women getting pg and having babies all the time - so there will always people who will want to ask the questions that lead to this kind of subject being raised. You do have a choice not to read it you know!
There are certain topics I don't feel comfortable discussing because they make me feel bad about choices I have made or factors in my life beyond my control. I just don't read them; that way they can't upset me.

This just goes on and on Of course ideally everyone would breast feed for all the reasons mentioned here and if you can't there is an alternative that is tried tested and safe and that is ok too.It would be much worse if there was no choice and breast feeding wasn't an option as wet nurses aren't exactly abundant nowadays.There are many things that are 'better' for us and our children but we don't all do them.

i dont see anybody on this thread trying to make ff mothers feel guilty.just-quite rightly-trying to find ways to make bf accepted as 'normal'.

I give up on these threads. I don't think ANYONE on this one has said anything to offend or make a ff feel guilty. if they are offended or feeling guilty then that's their problem! Get over it!

I think that the gist of the thread is that more support is needed for mothers who want to breastfeed - as Aitch said, most mothers do try in the early days and many are let down by the HCP who should behelping them.
People on this thread, whether they breastfed or formula fed, are on the side of the mothers who have been let down. It is not an attempt to make people feel bad, but an attempt to work out how to recover the position of breastfeeding being the norm, the baseline.