Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

was shocked by the amount of bottle-feeders in hospital

737 replies

misdee · 27/02/2005 09:35

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.

OP posts:
lockets · 01/03/2005 23:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

HunkerMunker · 01/03/2005 23:45

lilsmum, I'm afraid "I'm sorry, but..." apologies do nothing for me. It's not my fault you've been offended by things on MN - I'm certainly not the one doing the offending - and you had no reason to be unpleasant to me. So stay, go, whatever.

lucykatie · 01/03/2005 23:46

oh come on you guys lets not have another row...lets get back to the topic here.

sparklymieow · 01/03/2005 23:47

OMG it did turn into one of "those" threads anyway, and we all tried so hard for it not too.

HunkerMunker · 01/03/2005 23:48

Well, this is the topic on this thread: "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."

I think that Misdee saw fewer people breastfeeding than the statistics would suggest actually do.

sparklymieow · 01/03/2005 23:50

Isn't it 60% or something??

HunkerMunker · 01/03/2005 23:51

Sweden 98 53
Norway 98 50
Poland 93 10
Canada 80 24
Netherlands 68 25
Britain 63 21
United States 57 20

First number is the % of mothers who start breastfeeding, the second figure is the % who continue for 6 months or longer.

(Source kellymom)

sparklymieow · 01/03/2005 23:53

so in theory 6 of the women in the ward should have been breastfeeding and 4 bottlefeeding?? But it was 8 bottlefeeding and 2 breastfeeding...

lockets · 01/03/2005 23:59

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

marthamoo · 01/03/2005 23:59

Hasn't this gone far enough?

This is not what I come to MN for.

Debate? Yes. Personal insults and irrational aggression? No.

This has already alienated and driven off MNers - some new ones, some, like dejags, who have been here for years.

Now you might say, well...if you can't stand the heat...

But not everyone can. Some people come here for solidarity, support, a chance to let off steam and have a laugh. This thread is everything that is bad about MN. I don't believe any of you are this vociferous to another Mum's face - these pseudonyms are real people, with real feelings. Enough is enough. Jeez, when I am thinking of taking a break from MN (it keeps me sane, FFS) then things have really gone too far

sparklymieow · 02/03/2005 00:01

I'm not being mean, I am debating this

tigermoth · 02/03/2005 06:51

moondog, totally off thread observation, haven't followed this discussion at all, breast and bottle feeding long gone for me.

But your 6.45 post sounds so Judge Flounce -like! I am sure you are not, but it's an amazing (and unintentional I am sure) copy of her style of writing.

Original poster
misdee · 02/03/2005 07:25

feel quite sad now that this turned into slagging match.

OP posts:
lucykatie · 02/03/2005 07:31

hi me too, only wanted to put my point across but moondog and some others have totally ruined this for me......it seems that i am not allowed an opinion anymore.

FairyMum · 02/03/2005 07:47

Oh Luciekatie, I believe you give as good as you get.

lucykatie · 02/03/2005 07:58

yeah i agree with you, but why shouldnt i eh? i made my opinion clear and people didnt like it....look, not starting again. i think we as mothers have enough stress in our lives without all this, maybe we are just venting our frustrations out on here.

FairyMum · 02/03/2005 08:02

Yes and some more than others,)

lucykatie · 02/03/2005 08:04

sorry,,,what do you mean by....some more than others, its far to early for me to think.....even though had a no waking in the night sleep.....hooray.

HappyMumof2 · 02/03/2005 08:54

Message withdrawn

suzywong · 02/03/2005 09:00

you know what tigermoth, you are not the only one to have made that comparison

tigermoth · 02/03/2005 09:08

really sw? I haven't read much of the thread so didn't know it had been discussed.

suzywong · 02/03/2005 09:10

it hasn't been discussed as such, but maybe because JF is so fresh in our minds, that comparisons have been made.

PinkWebby · 02/03/2005 09:30

I Bottle fed and it did not do my children any harm, they are both very well and very healthy.

My circumstances were that it was the best way forward for me.

It is personal to everyone and no one should judge.

mears · 02/03/2005 09:35

Just to go back to the original post of this thread, where I work, breastfeeders are in the minority. No-one is judging but just stating a fact.

In my area, less that 50% of women start breastfeeding and at the moment 29% are breastfeeding at 6 weeks.

Eulalia · 02/03/2005 09:56

Ah I go away for a evening and this has gotten silly as per usual. First of all why does it have to turn into a meta-discussion about how we talk about things? As long as no-one is making a personal remark directed at a specific talker then I don?t see how anyone can take offence. Mumsnet is for freedom of speech and this topic discusses breastfeeding in a general way without any moral overtones stating that everyone should do it. If people want to read it as saying that then that is their business. This just seems to be reserved for breastfeeding threads and always totally gets in the way of any proper discussion. I sometimes read threads on the behaviour section about women worried that their children aren?t talking or walking at a certain age. My ds has special needs and needs speech and language therapy. Do I barge in there and say ? please stop talking about this it is making me feel bad and upset!? No I am grown up about it and realise that life isn?t fair and forget about it.

If you feel bad about not breastfeeding then say why and what you think could have been done differently ? at least that would be some use to some of us ? others could learn about it! Otherwise all you are doing is contributing empty words to the threads and dictating to others what they should talk about. If you didn?t breastfeed and are happy with your decision then you won?t find anything here than causes offence.

Obviously this subject is emotive and its hard to find an analogy because its not something you can change your mind about and restart (although re-lactation is sometimes possible but very hard). Surely because of this it is even more important that it is discussed for those who want to. There are lots of first time mothers on Mumsnet and others having their 2nd and 3rd child who may be interested in breastfeeding and don?t want to trapise through a load of useless comments saying ?stop talking about this?.

Lastly ? I had two completely different experiences ? first baby smalland very hard to feed, 2nd baby bigger and very easy. Breastfeeding success is largely determined by the baby ? they are the ones who do all the work so any ?blame? cannot be put on a mother. I think this is important as some mothers have a bad experience first time round and don?t bother to try again. By finding out what what wrong first time and having a completely different baby they could have success and feel bloody great about it. Instead there seems to be a stick your head in the sand kind of mentality. Is this the Dark Ages or the 21st Century?