I am a militant lactivist - have you got a problem with that?

[chillybangbang]

Couldn't resist the bolshy thread title...

... but actually I would describe myself on having 'militant' beliefs and feelings on the subject of baby feeding. I wanted to post on this issue because I see a lot of ire directed at militant bf advocates - I wanted to see if I could flush out any other people on this board who feel the same.

Should explain, when I say 'militant' what I mean is that I see the fact that the majority of babies in this country are not breastfed as a political issue and one of public concern. I also see it as an ecological and economic scandal - that one of the world's greatest natural resources, one that's produced by women alone, is being squandered, and that there are people who are profiting hugely from this situation being allowed to continue unchecked.

I want to reclaim the phrase 'breastfeeding militant' from people who are currently using it as an insult. I don't think being a bf militant means you are against choice or that you are judgemental of women who don't breastfeed. In fact the more I understand about the barriers to initiating breastfeeding and the challenges breastfeeding mothers face that make them give up, the more militant I become!

So there you go, cards on the table. Are there any others on this board who want to put their hands up and say: "I am a bf militant"?

this thread has moved on a lot since I was last here, but I wanted to mention a couple of things:
chilly - am outraged, appalled and so saddened at your description of your maternity unit - poor, poor women and babies.

maria - teensy point - yes we do talk about artificial foods - sweeteners and flavours, where they are used in place of "natural" sweeteners and flavours.
BUT I agree that it is too emotive a term to be applied to FF generally, so please don't bite me!

And in case anyone has the energy, this is an interesting article on how PND may be reduced by bf'ing (amongst other things) but it does also include the pov that really painful bf'ing is likely to increase stress and may affect PND.

From the same source, this is a very interesting debate article about the media's effect on the feeding debate

LOL I'm sure it will be fine Helen31. How long now?

Snowlight - I'm 38.5 weeks, so anytime now I guess...

Ooooh, good luck!

Hazeyjane - I'm so sorry I really didnt want to make anyone feel like that - I feel like that about my labours - that I didnt try hard enough to have a natural birth and thats why I ended up with 2 e/cs and a stay in the icu with the second. I know what that guilt feels like - so apologies.

Helen31 - the carmen suite is very often closed at St Georges for lack of staff and they are often very keen to move people downstairs. I would stay at home for as long as possible.

If you want to CAT me I can tell you all about it...

Good luck though - how exciting...am quite jealous

Thankyou Giantkatestacks, I think the guilt that kicks in when we become mothers beats Catholic guilt hands down!

Thanks Snowlight and Giantkatestacks (I really must get myself a better name for on here!). Giantkatestacks - I had come to the "try and stay at home as long as possible" conclusion too. Also cheered me up to think that I was going to be doing something somebody somewhere was jealous of - hadn't looked at it that way before!

BTW what's a CAT? We have a cat (furry, four legs, apparently not to be trusted with babies), but I think from the context it must mean something else on here?

I wonder if ewes experience feelings of terrible guilt when their lambs have to be hand reared by the farmer?

Ewes and cows bellow a lot when their young are taken from them.

Don't ewes and cows tend to bleat and moo respectively rather a lot generally?

It's a very different sound.

hi.
This is just in response to chilly's sad stories of postnatal ward (lack of) bf support. Just wanted to say that I did not have this experience - quite the opposite.
I had a very difficult delivery - big baby, back to back ended up having ventouse (which broke) then forceps episiotomy and 2nd degree tear lost a load of blood and had to have a blood transfusion a few days later so the fisrt night on the postnatal ward was a scary prospect.

i hadn't realy thought about what I would do with my wee boy after giving birth - I suppose I expected that someone would show me how to breastfeed or that I would know how to do it naturally. The fact was, sitting on my hospital bed in the dark I hadn't a clue, just felt I ought to be feeding my baby!! was really uncomfortable but struggled up to the mw station and asked the mw for some formula (didn't know what else to do) She asked me if I was intending to bf and I told her I was hoping to. She took me back to my bed and asked me if I wanted to go to the loo/ clean my teeth etc which I did so she sent me off to 'make myself comfortable' while she held my boy. When I came back she asked about the labour and she was so kind and said something like 'you realy have earned this baby'

Anyway basically she explained that nothing bad would happen if I didn't feed him that night. she got me to be strip off my top half and showed me how to lay down with him safely in bed. My first night as a mum was the most special night of my life, we lay there and gazed at each other as he nuzzled up to me. During the night the mw came back to check up on us - she didn't say anything, just patted my hip and smiled.

The next day I was shown how to express colostrum and then how to get ds to latch on. It was hard but I was so well supported.

My ds is now 13 weeks and we had a lot of difficulties bf-ing but we have turned a corner and I love it now. I think gp's should be more clued up - everytime I have gone to seek help they have been suprised that I am still bf-ing and have given me wrong information.

BTW the hospital is Whipps Cross in London.

barbareebaa - so glad you had a better and supportive experience too.

Postnatal care is often referred to as the 'Cinderella' of maternity services- it just isn't as 'glamorous,' or 'exciting' as labour ward and receives little attention compared to other areas of maternity. (Thank you for the positive story btw- was feeling so terribly saddened by the others... )

But it is just so important. Bf is about long-term health for the whole population, yet our services seem unable to tackle it...

"I wonder if ewes experience feelings of terrible guilt when their lambs have to be hand reared by the farmer?"

[puts Farmers Daughter head on]

Lambs are generally only hand reared if thier mother has died or on the rare occaision that a ewe has triplets or more (sheep only have two boobs, not four like cows). Even then most farmers will try to get a singleton mother to adopt any spare lambs rather than hand rear them, as hand reared lambs never do as well as those reared by a ewe () and bottle feeding them is a pain in the arse.

Calves are removed from thier mothers after a day or so because the milk is needed for us hoomans (to make formula etc with). Bull calves are generally slaughtered and females are reared either on powdered cows milk (calf formula!!) or milk from a bucket (cow ebm!). Cows do bellow for thier calves when seperated, often for several days, it can be quite heartbreaking to hear, and ewes do bleat for thier lambs if they die and when they are seperated later on to be taken to market.

But I doubt they feel any guilt....

Barbareebaa- thanks for posting your experience. It was really lovely to read. It really should be that way for all women...

Gunnerbean - what on earth are you on about, that is bizarre!

Barbareebaa - that sounds so lovely, I am glad that you had a positive experience, I wish that attitude could spread a bit. When I had dd1, I had a 3rd degree tear, and an operation with a spinal after the birth. They put dd1 in the crib next to the bed, but I couldn't get out to reach her, because I was numb from the waist down. My buzzer wouldn't work, and eventually a MW came down to my ward, and had a go at me because dd1 was screaming so loudly (I was in tears by this time too), she put dd1 in bed with me, and I cuddled her, and tried to feed her. About an hour later, we had both fallen asleep (the first time I had fallen asleep after nearly 3 days in labour), and another MW woke me up to tell me off for having dd1 in bed with me-not hospital policy, apparantly!

Gunnerbean - saw you were on here and just wanted to say hi as your advice to me in teh past has been great. But word of warning, I know what you're getting at but I've given up on trying to have a two sided discussion on the whole feeding issue. Wish now I'd taken your cheeky approach, it would have been more fun

Gunnerbean (I also "got" your post - ha ha) & ljhooray - I think this thread has been reasonably polite, and none of those who feel strongly about bf-ing have suggested that anyone should feel guilty (quite the reverse), one way or another. Actually, what has emerged is that we would like to see societal change, for everyone's benefit. This isn't a thread about deciding which way to feed a baby & seeking advice, etc: it's about caring a lot about bf-ing, and people are posting accordingly.

People are allowed to feel strongly about certain issues if that's where they want to put their energies: I wouldn't post facetiously on a relationship thread, for instance.

Sorry - I realise that sounded too chippy (I was aiming for chippiness, but not so much...). I too value cheekiness on threads.

I stand by my basic point, however.

Thankyou for those links Thumbwitch - I have read the article on the media and bf it was very interesting!

I guess I just didn't think it was that funny!

I don't see how this has been a 2 sided thread on breast/formula feeding, surely this is something important to everyone.

barbareebaa your experience sounds fantastic.
I alsdo had a good postnatal experience at Durham hospital.