"Please breastfeed"

[hunkermunker]

I saw the slogan "Please give blood" today on one of their vehicles and it set me thinking - we all know "breast is best" is trite and unhelpful - but what would be a good message?

I like "Every breastfeed makes a difference" - but would the give blood phrase work for this?

Is this the one you were thinking of Pooter?

These are just some of the ways that breastfeeding makes a difference to both mothers and babies

First feed Helps to stabilise baby?s blood sugars and
protect baby?s gut
A great opportunity for the first skin to skin
cuddle
1 day The antibodies in your colostrum provide
natural immunity from infection Helps womb to contract towards normal size
2-3 days Sticky black meconium is cleared more readily
from baby?s bowel
Instant relief for hot, swollen breasts when
your milk comes in
1 week Transition to world outside womb is eased
Frequent feeds means time to sit or lie down
and for you and your baby to get to know each
other
2 weeks Food and drink always ready at the right
temperature, adapting to baby?s needs
Hormones help you get back to sleep after
night feeds
4 weeks For premature babies lower risk factors for
heart disease in later life Saves time sterilising and making up bottles
6 weeks Half the risk of chest infections now and up to
seven years old
Breastfeeding likely to be easier and you can
go out and about without bottle feeding
equipment
2 months Lower risk of food allergy at three years old if
breastfed only Reduced risk of ovarian cancer in later life
3 months Five times less likely to get diarrhoea now and
a reduced risk for the whole year Fewer visits to GP as baby less often ill
4 months
Half the risk of ear infections;
Reduced risk of asthma now and protection
continues up to six years
Feeling of empowerment at having been solely
responsible for growing your baby to four
months
5 months Five times lower risk of urinary tract infections A lovely way to reconnect with your baby if you
go to work
6 months Lower risk of eczema now and up to six years
old Less risk of osteoporosis in the long term
1 year
Three times less risk of becoming obese by
age six and a lower risk of heart disease as an
adult
No need to buy formula milk at all, saving at
least £450 this year
2 years Likely to have higher than average scores on
intelligence tests
Expect fewer visits to orthodontist when your
baby is a teenager;
Risk of breast cancer reduced by eight per
cent

How about a poster with a bfeeding mother and standing behind her on either side, looking cheerful, maybe with a hand each on her shoulder or behind her back, an older lady (mother or MIL) and a man (I know not everyone has one in their life but for the sake of argument...) and a slogan like
'Support her choice' or
'Support her decision to breastfeed'

Or one with the woman by herself and
'Give the best of yourself' or
'Give your baby the best start in life'
'Best for you and best for your baby'

...and underneath mention some of the health benefits. I would restrict the mention of health benefits to one or two per poster, maybe one benefit to the mother and one to the child, but make several slightly different posters with different benefits on them.

I originally thought up the 'Give the best of yourself' slogan for a Spanish poster (was just imagining a Spanish campaign, there wasn't actually one unfortunately) and it worked better in Spanish because 'breastfeed' is 'dar el pecho' - which translates as 'give the breast'
So it would say in translation:
'Give the best of yourself, give breast'

I wouldn't think it would be necessary to mention the word 'breastfeed' so long as the images are simple and powerful.
I think we need to see large posters of women breastfeeding on bus-stops and hoardings all over the place, all the time to normalise the image of the breastfeeding mother and counteract the other images of breasts as a purely sexual object for the enjoyment of men, which we are bombarded with.

'Breastfeeding, The Slattern's Choice!'

Only joking

I was lucky that I bfed 3 very easily and I loved the fact that it was always there, always ready, I could feed them whenever they needed it.

I co-slept too so never had to get out of bed in the night to feed.

It is a difficult one isn't it? I have been involved in bfeeding support groups and 'Breast Friends' just makes me cringe!

The other give blood one is "Do something amazing: give blood". That works quite well for bfing too I think.

Oopsacoconut, I like your list of benefits, I think most people wouldn't know half of them and I think everyone should.

I also like the "got milk" slogan, but in the terms of a to do list on a poster in a kind of :

pram / travel system £375.00 tick

cot £200.00 tick

bouncey chair £30.00 tick

etc

Milk : Got Milk

I really like "every breastfeed makes a difference". A vote for that one! I think that may encourage more people to give just one feed at least, adn as otehrs have said it may help people to keep going.

Re the "reasons to be proud" poster - it's great, but I remember when I was really struggling with breastfeeding at about 10 days and looking at that and thinking "oh no, I have to get all the way to 6 weeks now for any more significant health benefits". It seemed an age away; given that most people give up at aaround 10 days (or so I was told by the nct bf line) is there a benefit that could go in there for 2 weeks/3 weeks or 4 weeks for a term baby?

oopsacoconut thanks for that - must have taken you ages to type out.

I think that could be tweaked into a very inspirational poster, and there are lots of increments, so goingnowherefast you would have seen weekly targets that were achievable.

I note that the OP hasn't been back.....

I agree pooter! I think the list of benefits as a poster / leaflet would be really helpful. It also wouldn't (hopefully) upset / offend anyone who only managed to breastfeed for say a week or 2 because it almost congratulates you on every small milestone. The question is did oopsa find / compile it and what would be the best way to get it out to every mum and dad to be?

Its the sort of thing that would have been inspirational to me in the small hours with dd1, so although would be good as a poster would also be good as a take home leaflet/room thermometer/fridge magnet/photo frame? thingy!

would be nice to wave at the person who told me I was disgusting for feeding my 18mnth sick dd2 at home too!

Pooter - our nct bf supporter gave me the poster as a PDF. file to use as needed for my BF group as I am a peer supporter and tryinh to help increase our local area BF numbers amongst young mums. I think is compiled by the NCT and available from them. I think it would be a great thing to be included in the postnatal info you get given post delivery or even ante-natally from the MW.

If anyone wants a copy you can mail me at oopsacoconut @ aol dot com

oopsacoconut, would you mind if i copied it from your post to hand out locally?

kkqx

[OP returns to thread ]

Thank you all - just to be clear, I didn't think "please breastfeed" would necessarily be a goer.

Here are the Reasons To Be Proud - feel free to C&P

I am (don't flame me) a marketing manager and I REALLY like 'give the best of yourself' - I think it is empowering and encouraging and gives confidence.

I started a thread the other day about how I was talking to a HV who works in a neighbouring area to me in the S Wales valleys in which, in a caseload of maybe 300 mothers, NOT ONE breastfeeds

Generally the HCPs around here are very pro-bf, but saying that you are 'giving the best of yourself' to your child would be really encouraging to those of us who feel like they are seen as wierd or odd or hippy-knit-your-own-yoghurt-lentil-weaving nutters who bf

Hunker, when I read the thread title, my first thought was of my MIL, being bossy but in a sickly-sweet passive-aggressive tone. So sorry, but doesn't work for me!

I like DitaVonCheese's one!

The hospital where I had both my babies has lots of posters showing women bfing, some of them are very lovely images etc. But I think that resources should be put into supporting women who already want to breastfeed - the stats for women who want to who manage to continue even mix feeding for long are pretty dismal.

Is there anyone here who was reluctant to bf but was persuaded by something/someone/publicity to give it a try? I'm not sure as someone who wanted to in the first place, quite desperately, and failed first time round, much beter second time, that I know what opsters would work.

angelene - glad you like my slogan - 'Give the best of yourself'.
That's made my day!

I hate the one mentioned by HoochieCoochieMomma - it's nasty. I was desperate to breastfeed, and have succeeded second time round. I failed first time though, and do you think I didn't know that? But also, I'm very doubtful that posters would change anyone's mind about feeding choices per se, but I'm sure that one wouldn't.

I think that posters are completely rubbish as a way of improving breastfeeding rates. They're a quick way of apparently doing something except that, what is putting up a few posters actually doing? Do I sound bitter and twisted? There's such a gulf between what the posters say in the maternity unit where I had my babies, and what happens on the postnatal and paediatrics wards of the same hospital. On the day I was discharged from postnatal, I could actually hear different couples being told things that were a million miles apart, one example of really good practice from a student midwife, and the woman in the next bay being told she had to give her baby some formula by a qualified midwife.

And we were right next to the wall in the ward with all the breastfeeding posters. If the message is going over the heads of the staff, is it really going to reach the women who've just had babies and are struggling?

Do you not think that 'give the best of yourself' will make mums who fail at bf feel like they have also failed to give their child the best?

Feeding is a battleground, no matter what you do. We need to make it so that the norm is breastfeeding, but if you cannot achieve that, it is not failing, it is not anything to be ashamed of, you are not failing your baby, you are not failing yourself.

'Every breastfeed makes a difference' is good.

I really hated the bf posters, so preachy but with nothing useful on them. What would be useful is a check list of problems & solutions - similar to some of the suggestions above. We shouldn't have to rely on a overworked MW remembering to mention that feeding marathons are a good thing, or that nipple cream is a good thing.