Poster of toddler 'breastfeeding' her doll is apparently 'distasteful, inappropriate and crude'

[ChairmumMiaow]

here

WTF?

Does anyone on here think that a picture of a toddler pretending to breastfeed her doll is anything other than cute?

I like the heading of the picture "It's normal". Exactly. I think it's a very supportive message for mothers who choose to bf. So much better than the message "it's okay (if you must) as long as it's done discreetly" message which seems to prevail.

I was wondering that too TikTok. Hopefully she'll be in a bit of bother over this.

Tiktok- a quick google reveals her to be a fairly gobby local councillor who seems to use every opportunity to get in the fact that she's a healthcare assistant and works at the hospital and is a lib dem....(as if all 3 are somehow sublimely connected to the wonder that is Jean Ashworth.)

I've just rattled off a couple of emails asking the hospital, the council and the liberals what their view on hers is.

Bucharest, I googled too

This story has her reporting that 'everyone is up in arms' (what, again??!) about Baby Friendly and the charges for formula milk.

Regarding the 'It's Normal' message. Based on my own experince I'd say people generally do see BF a newborn baby as normal these days.

The problem seems to come after 6 months. People who supported me in the early days, in particular mil, are now questioning whether I should still be bf now that dd is 7mo.

We could do with some 'It's normal' posters showing mums (or childdren!) feeding 18lb, 19lb, 20lb + babies.

Oh ffs here we go again.

And I am due my regular argument with MIL over breast feeding at the weekend.

MIL "I don't agree with this pressure to breastfeed"

Me "what pressure? There is no pressure. If there was more people might do it.

MIL "well I don't agree"

To be honest though, the concept is fine, but it's not very well executed. It looks like someone shoved a doll up her top. If they had done it differently (and a bit more professionally) they might have got a better response.

I agree rolo. I am bfing my 11 mo and some (mainly older, whyever that is) members of my family have told me outright recently that I should stop and he only needs water. Apparently the mysterious spots in ds's nappy are because of me still feeding him

As other posters say, dolls come with baby bottles and if children want to pretend to feed a baby with a bottle that is ok, but to mimic a perfectly natural event is Obscene?

I just can't see the problem, I think in terms of balancing out the images that children see, then this poster does a great job.

Miranda, it was an amateur poster....part of a local competition among children and young people for bf awareness week. There seems to be a display of different entries, and in a kids' competition, you can't expect professional-type execution

it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things anyway as rochdale is closing it's maternity unit.
everything is going to fairfield in the next town over, which is where i had dd and didn't recieve any help with bf her. luckily i didn't have any problems but there were 6 women on the ward and i was the only 1 bf

What?
I always used to pretend to bf my dolls when I was litle.

KingRolo I wish you were right but here in the South Wales Valleys I was very much in a minority when I was bfing DD. Whenever I have told other mothers that I bf there are sideways glances and conversation stops very quickly. I have mentioned before on another thread that I know a HV in a neighbouring area who told me she has a caseload of 300 women, NONE of whom bf. This is why these campaigns are so desperately needed, apart from anything else the overall health outcomes here are very very poor.

I despair when DD (who is now 3.7) thinks that bottle feeding is the only way that babies get fed. She is so far an only, I'm hoping that my sister will provide her with a role model in November but I am seriously considering raising the issue with her now and telling her that bfing is 'normal' - as the poster says.

Is the phrase 'Breast is best' ever used without the telling qualifier 'but' after it?

Wish this phrase would fall out of use, it has become a stick to beat breastfeeding mothers with.

Ummmm...I think someone is confusing breastfeeing with something sexual and that is why they think it is inappropriate. Isn't the idea behind the campaign to start awareness of breastfeeding early like, as the other posters have noted, is done with bottle feeding dolls.

angelene - I'm in a large city so things are perhaps different here. I admire you for continuing with bf when you must have been under a lot of pressure to stop.

KingRolo, angelene: you can see how vastly different bf is over England by downloading the tables here:
www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/Children/Maternity/Maternalandinfantnutrition/Breastfeedinginfantfeeding /DH_073254

These are for initiation - does not mean bf at newborn, but literally initiation. Some areas there will be hardly any babies bf by the time they are aged a couple of weeks.

Yes, I agree, it is more normal than it used to be for babies to be bf, but this does not apply everywhere by any means. I agree that everywhere there are criticial attitudes if bf continues beyond whatever arbitrary age someone thinks is 'normal'.

KingRolo I didn't feel under particular pressure to stop (apart from MIL but that's another story ), mainly because the HCPs are all very pro-bf, also I'm from London, middle class, feminist, aware and went to NCT etc. But most of all because my mum bf me and my sisters and had to fight the medical establishment to do so (early-mid 70s), and my grandmother bf 9 of her 10 DC. It was only once I'd had DD that I built up the mummy networks and then I was so well-established at bf that it didn't bother me.

But culturally, yes, bf is pretty alien round here and the HCPs have a really tough job.

That's really interesting tiktok, thanks for the link.

The 6-8 week data is even more depressing - in some areas, less than 20% of babies are getting any breast milk at all by that point

well i think she has a point

My mum says she had to fight to bf me too back in the 70s. She managed to get me to 4mo before she started with formula top-ups after being told she was damaging me by her doctor. She wasn't, my weight gain was just fine .

SPB: who has what point??

(getting lost now!)

Tiktok - sorry, I didn't realise that (read the article in a hurry), but I still think it is quite an odd picture (not the subject matter, the picure itself) and maybe a bit of thought should have gone on about the choice of pictures being displayed, when the subject is so emotive (as we have seen!)