Make Breastfeeding Normal exhibition and National Breastfeeding Awareness week

[theAfkaUrbanDryad]

Morgan's blog has a fantastic article about National Breastfeeding week and the problem with those awful posters. At the bottom, my account of my experience yesterday at the photocall for the Make Breastfeeding Normal exhibition - and the points that need to be made about that.

It's quite long - but there are things said in there that I could not say as eloquently and i feel this is an issue that needs to be in the public domain as much as possible!

But Gagarin - the issue is not getting young mothers to try bf-ing, it's getting them to carry on past the 6 week mark! I think the uptake on bf-ing is something like 80% and then it's 10% who carry on past 6 weeks. (Tiktok may be along later - i think she knows the proper figures)

I think my main issue with these posters is that they are telling mothers (and these posters are aimed at young mothers as well) that their breasts are not for them. They're for their man, their baby, but not the woman herself, oh no! We should be empowering women and mothers to make their own decisions - not giving "ownership" of their breasts over to a man! The posters say the exact opposite to what we need them to say - so I disagree wholeheartedly with you saying that they're not that bad! Sorry!

They are that bad - and the way that they've unveiled them as a fait accompli with the exhibtion and the National Breastfeeding Awareness week suggests that "they" know how bad they are too...

lizzy - I am not naive when it comes to the media. My dh works in PR and I have been to these types of event before. I think where I went wrong was that I expected this to be an event celebrating women and breastfeeding, not a corporate PR event for code-breakers to peddle their wares.

The poster with the hands would not be so bad if the mother's hand was with the baby's. But she "sides" with the man - making it very clear where her priorities should lie.

The posters are terrible I agree, but nothing compared to the post after about poor Glory and Tracy. Makes me feel disgusted that my own country can act iin such a way

The posters are utterly terrible. One of my biggest problems with bf is that I feel I am just being pawed at- not my own person, that my body is not my own. Then, after DD has spent hours and hours pawing at me (I know that sounds harsh but it is how I feel), DH wants a go too. The first poster in particular really plays up that- everyone have a go on my body, I don't even have a head let alone feelings about that.

I wasn't at all surprised to hear that it was designed by someone who has never bf. Is there any way at all that we can collate these comments and get them to stop rolling out the posters?

And as for urbandryad's experiences... words fail me. Sodding Express- unbelievable.

i had a meeting at my city hospital today with the Matron and Infant Feeding Specialist. They both groaned audibly and rolled eyes and said how ghastly they found those posters. Otoh, our PCT have designed some excellent ones!