was shocked by the amount of bottle-feeders in hospital

[misdee]

found it quite upsetting at times. my bed was by the empties 'bottle bank', so saw how many people on the ward were bottle feeding. in the 4 days i was there, there were 10 women on the ward in total, and only myself and another lady was breastfeeding. The midwives offered help to everyone, but most decided on bottles.

the reason i found it upsetting was because i didnt want dd3 to have formula but that choice was basically taken away from me whilst she was SCBU and was given formula by tube.

Wanda - but you are contradicting yourself ? you say ?almost all formula feeds do now have probiotics in them . Not as good as breastmilk I agree? Well that is exactly the point I am making! Breastmilk is better at combating those diseases and to say otherwise would be to completely disregard how the human bodies deals with any disease - we fight disease by producing antibodies and babies have very few of these, and breastmilk boosts the immune system. Also I was not exaggerating ? I said myself ?Obviously there are other factors to health and for some method of feeding won?t make a huge difference? so please don?t twist my comments. As for scaremongering ? well pick up any leaflet in a health clinic and you will see the same thing written there? all I am doing is stating the facts.

Am also curious as to why no-one would want to try but maybe this doesn't matter - the important ones are the ones who did want to.

Eulalia I am not contradicting myself I was challenging your statement that formula feeds have no protection against illness (they do) and that a breastfed baby will not get as ill as a bottlefed baby (they can and do). The latter statement was the bit I felt was scaremongering. I am pro breasfeeding and did it myself. I just don't like it when people try to make mum's feel bad about their choices and make statements like that!Breasfeeding is best but it simply doesn't fallow that these babies will never be as ill as bottle fed ones! I've re read you thread and I still think your comments were too sweeping. Sorry

Message withdrawn

FM - how right you are!

Of course breast fed babies can get ill. Breast milk offers good immunity though. Your baby basically get your immunity through the milk, but can still get ill.

not had time too read the whole thread but when i had DD i was the only breast feeder in my 4 bed bay and was told by the nursing staff to close the curtains when feeding because it was offending the men visiting the lady oposite!!!!!! i think now i would have told them where to stick it but at the time i just did as i was told!!

I think Oops has put it well. On one level, of course the women who don't want to breast-feed are not the major issue, it's the ones who want to and don't get the support to do so who need the focus of funds etc. from the NHS.

But on another level, we're asking about why we've developed a culture where women don't want to give their babies milk from their own bodies "as nature intended" as they say in that Carry On film about naturists. In many cultures, not wanting to do it simply isn't an option - it would be considered incomprehensible in the same way as not wanting to eat would be. It just wouldn't occur to your average mother not to want to.

And before anyone jumps on me, I'm not saying it's not valid to just not want to in our culture - I don't think bottle feeding is wrong, I did it myself. I'm just saying that how we feel about things cannot be divorced from the culture in which we grow up. It?s never just as simple as ?I don?t want to? imo. And some of us on this thread have been trying to examine that without getting personal and judgemental about other mothers? individual choices or sensitive about perceived criticisms of our own. I know it's very difficult to separate individual experience from the general, but I don?t see why we shouldn?t try!

hmm, Katzguk's experience is a great example of the cultural influences which may put women off breastfeeding!

When was that, Katzguk?

the only time i closed the curtains when feeding dd3 was when i was tube feeding her.

btw the new electric adjustable beds make feeding very confortable.

Take the point Caligula
which cultures were you thinking of where it wouldn't occur to women not to want to?

caligula - DD is now 2 years old so not that long ago, DH was disgusted and was tempted to ask them to close ther curtains because he didn't like to see bottle feeding!!

i do think now that if i get the same request when feeding DB in june in hopsital i will simply say NO they can leave the room why should i hide. It was on a post-natal ward afterall what did the men expect!

Most of the cultures in the world Wanda! The vast majority of mothers all over the globe still breast feed their infants without wondering if they should be doing it differently.

Ha ha ha at your DH Katzguk!

Only 2 years ago??!

I thought you were going to say 20!

yep just 2 years ago

this thread is fascinating
I'm hoping to train as a breastfeeding counsellor this year so I'm going to print this one off

no grabbing boobies suzy.

SNORT!!!!

you want to grab boobies, get a job with Trinny and Suzannah

you may get to squeeze a bottom or 2 as well then!!

As someone who decided before she was born that I was going to bottlefeed dd I think that is vital that health professionals and others understand the reasons why a woman does not want to breastfeed.

By having an understanding of some of these reasons they can perhaps try and address the issues. If someone had takemn the time to talk and actually LISTEN to what I wanted ratherthan just telling me what they thought I should do (which just had the effect of getting my back up and making me even more determined to formula feed.

It may be that a woman has misconcesptions, fears that could be overcome with support from a health professional with whom she feels able to talk. It may be that she is making the choice becasue of what others are advising her or becasue that is what she perceives to be the normal thing.

Of course she may still decide to formula feed, if that is the case and she is happy with the decision she should be supported in her informed choice and advised accordingly. She should be informed about the different types of formula and be shown in hospital or at home how to make up a feed correctly and given the latest up to date info about sterilisation.

Breastfeeding counsellors never grab boobs. They are taught how to be hands off. Occasionally one may ask your permission to touch you slightly so they can see what is going on.

Miaou yes I did manage to express, and I did it very well too used to get about 180-240ml a day when DD1 and DD2 were in SCBU, but then again my breasts went up about 2 cup sizes when my milk came in, and that bl**dly hurt!!

I used to get about a litre a day when I expressed and that got to be barely enough and my DS still didn't put weight on well....very confusing!

Caligula
I find that statistic amazing. Probably made up for by the huge third world numbers where of course they have no choice. Not sure that anyone can say that these people would never give it a thought, what are we the Thought Police?

Wanda, do you really think it's likely that vast numbers of mothers in developing countries are sitting there breastfeeding their babies and wishing they had access to a bottle of formula?

It's possible I suppose, but call me the Thought Police, I personally think it's unlikely.