Anyone Watching Coronation Street?

[ilovemydogandmrobama]

Was it really necessary for Maria to say that she wasn't sure how much the baby was feeding and then for Audrey to say, 'ooh they say breast is best, but look at our Gail....'

Talking of norks and the street - has Rosie has hers enlarged. One minute she was a goth the next she was jiggling them all over the street!

Hey - maybe she could be a wet nurse for Maria! There is certainly potential there.

Is GAIL still on Corrie??

She must be about 73 by now.

To be fair I don't think Tony making the baby a bottle is that much of a problem but the fact he killed the baby's father in cold blood and is now playing happy families with his wife is.

NO! I am more upset about the undermining of breastfeeding than Tony being a murderer! I have my priorities right!

Though do miss lovely Liam though.

The babies are rarely real though are they? You get a brief shot of real baby, then rigid bundle of blankets gets handed around.

I think that's a rubbish excuse if they try that line. DH and I discussed whether they do it to explain why Maria will be in T' Rovers tomorrow night without the baby. Baby can be looked after by Audrey while Maria story-lines continue. But, they could just as easily have her say that she's expressed a bottle, so that doesn't work either.

I like the cynical formula sponsorship theory, but I think it is probably lazy script-writing by people out of touch with modern ways.

True, the babies are rarely real (I saw Jack in EE holding on to a bundle of blankets the other day - so obviously not an 8 month old baby). But when they are real, live bouncy babies they have something stuck in their mouths.

Rindercella, that's exactly what I was thinking, but you saved me the effort of writing it all down. The baby needs to have something in it's mouth to keep it quiet, and a boob probably isn't really an option. Though I'm sure if Maria tried, it would work

Lol

I don't watch Corrie, but in general, soaps are lamentable at portraying the issues surrounding bf.

I think it's a great opportunity missed, really - but it's like all the newspapers and parenting magazines out there that are so often full of articles that work through the author's issues with bf/not bf, all carrying advertising from formula/bottle/teat manufacturers - it's biased, bf isn't seen as important enough to warrant a concerted campaign; formula's "the same" as bmilk, and, of course, you "mustn't make women who can't bf feel guilty".

That last spectacularly misses the point that if more women were empowered and educated better about bf in the first place, there wouldn't be so many feeling guilty. AND anyway, why feel guilty that you were let down by the people who were meant to be supporting you. ANGRY, yes, guilty, no.

On EastEnders, Roxy breastfed Amy - well, she expressed for her in SCBU and much was made of how good bmilk was for Amy, how she was pumping regularly, etc.

And then, some weeks later, after the whole Sean debacle where he kidnapped the baby and she moved to being ffed, Roxy came out with this weird tirade whilst walking across the square, completely unprompted, about how she'd hated bf, how all the middle class yummy mummies made her feel dreadful for not bfing, etc. Because Roxy goes to mother and baby groups All The Time, doesn't she?! Again, a scriptwriter working through some issues...

Breastfeeding promotion is a public health issue. Babies who are bfed are healthier than had they been ffed. It would be nice if that weren't true, perhaps, for those who can't bf, or who weren't supported well enough to bf - but short of rewriting biology, it won't ever be true that ff is better for the health of the vast majority of babies (and their mothers).

Soap operas step up when there are other issues - they've done e.g. a domestic violence campaign - EastEnders, Casualty, etc all involved. And they've done some other v sensitive storylines around public health issues - e.g. AIDS. But bf is up there for ridicule - it was dippy Honey who bf, not capable (yet actually close on insane - burying Max fgs?!) Tanya.

It does seem as though they consult experts for everything else with this sort of storyline, yet they just go "Ah, I had a shit time, I'll have a rant about yummy mummies" re bf. Weird. And lazy.

If I was in charge, things would be different

Hunkermunker, I read on a thread yesterday that the message about how good breastfeeding is, is loud and clear. But the knowledge behind it and the help available is less known and so some people can't make informed choices as the informatin isn't there and they don't have help when it all goes wrong.

Agree it's someone's issues.

Maria was out of hospital a few hours before she said she was concerned about not knowing how much her baby was consuming. Yes, this is a totally natural reaction. New mother, quite aside from the story line of murdered husband/sleeping with enemy, and she seems to have a lack of friends?

Why did b/fing need to be ridiculed with Audrey's snide comment? This was sooo unnecessary.

But in a weird way, Maria typifies what a lot of b/fing mums go through. Initially quite keen, looses confidence, has questions, other strong characters bullying new mum to formula, makes it easy and starts telling new mum what to do.

Yep, "breast is best" is an unhelpful and unkind statement. It sets a standard, then curls its lip at you, daring you to "fail" to reach it.

"Every breastfeed makes a difference" is a softer, easier to attain "slogan", though nothing beats individual attention from someone who knows their breastfeeding onions.

Wasn't it Menzies Campbell's wife who did a PhD on Corrie?

Wonder what she would make of it all?

well we should probably wait and see, but certainly corrie has done this before, weirdy mad little speeches about how freakish bfing is. i know that the corrie writers room is run by a few really queeny men, they make it difficult for new people to pitch ideas, hence same old same old.

i very much doubt that lady c bf her son. she's brilliant, absolutely wonderful. packed her son off to boarding school, married ming and moved to edinburgh to hold parties. fab.

Yes, agree, wait and see (although I'll have to rely on your keen reports of it, because I'm not watching Corrie, even for The Cause ).

But I don't expect anything other than the usual peculiar misogynistic, misinformed unpleasantnesses, really.

I had high hopes of Roxy though

When the Andrey conversation started I hopingly thought it was a way of airing some silly views about breastfeeding that would later be countered. It's disappointing to hear that's prob not the case with Tony making a bottle. I do think it's probably so the character can have more interesting storylines than 'breastfed every couple of hours and changed nappies and was vomited on in between' for the next few months.
I'm not such a fan at the mo tho!

they can just let feeding slide, though, there is no need to slag off bfing. we don't see little amy eating every meal. it's a nasty attitude, and we really should do something about it.

I think making a note of every time it happens is useful, just to document the way it changes (hopefully for the better!) over time.

Little Mo bfed without fuss - she was on trial for murder(!) and talking about expressing, iirc.

If we must see Tony rescuing Maria at every (ill conceived) opportunity to atone for past sins... blah blah blah, then why couldn't he have helped by saying "why don't we give the midwife a quick call just to check everything's ok" or "I'll look on the internet to see if there's some advice/someone we can call?"

Why the slagging of bf?

I am still BF my 4 month old, I am enjoying it but its not without a lot of effort and I almost gave into the temptation of the convenience of bottle feeding a few times. Pressure and lack of support from a generation of bottle feeders makes it much harder. The case scenario of breastfeeding and its realities could have been a really popular story line: Maria with cracked nipples walking about with her lansinoh in her pocket, off to her breastfeeding support group, getting used to feeding in front of others, feeding on demand etc, expressing milk, ignoring the 'just give him a bottle' comments, and then if she has problems then Tony could 'make up a bottle'!! A storyline like this would be more respectful for those of us who have experienced this and especially those of us who bottlefeed after exhausting all means of being able to breastfeed.

I registered to post this comment!! I feel better now!

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I watched this properly when it was repeated on ITV2 last night. I am actually bloody angry now as they could have really done so much good stuff with this story line.

Maria has new baby & wants to breastfeed. She is finding it difficult. People are making daft comments, such as Kirk, "eww, don't feed him in front of me". "Eww, I don't know where to look when women do it on the bus", and Audrey, "well, I bottle fed mine & she's as strong as an ox".

Now all of this rings bells with when DD was first born. It can be difficult. You worry about how much milk your baby is getting. These are daft, silly comments made by people every day. BUT...what they could/should have done was to follow that up with Maria getting the help & support that is so readily available to new Mums.

Tony is obviously a conttrol freak, and so maybe "making up a bottle" and taking that contril away from Maria could be part of the story line. But I bet it ain't.

Hello Ileach! A very good first post.

I'm very disappointed with Corrie but as Aitch said, the script writers are a bunch of queeny men and are hardly likely to be interested in issues like promoting breastfeeding, sadly.

Yes, welcome Ileach!

Btw, I can spell control, honest.