Am I that 2%?

[HoppityBunny]

I have exclusively bf all my babies for 6 mths. Is it really as low as 2% for those that do?

sorry, does that make sense, not do that make sense

I think it has something to do with that cultural thing in britain of bodies being always thought of as sexual/"naughty"/disgusting, that victorian mixture of primness and weirdly desperate hysteria about bodies that you can still see in places like the DM today.

I've talked to people who wouldn't breastfeed because it was just "not right" and "disgusting" - their idea of breasts is so fixatedly sexual that they think they would be thought weird and disgusting to let them have anything to do with a baby.

One woman I met really regretted it too - she saw me bf and said "aww it's really nice isn't it, he loves it - I'm sorry now i didn't do it - I just couldn't imagine it".

I wonder if the pro-bf campaign and posters etc. focus a bit too much on health and being "natural" - after all a lot of people don't really give a stuff about health, they smoke, they feed their kids shite, etc. Maybe they should focus more on what will make your baby happy, and that's it's cheaper and easier.

I think, reading your posts that I had only made it ebf for 6 mths with my 3 babies is cos they were late -ish developers, it helps! Not being able to sit up and grab a sandwich etc.

It's a strange thing though I never told any of my friends or family that I ebf for 6 mths. Cos I sense it's unusual and I do feel very isolated, so I just keep it quiet. And everybody assume that I must have given my 3 babies FF or other foods/water at some time. I also feel I keep quiet, in case some women could feel hurt and jealous that I managed it. Norway sounds good, maybe I ought to go and live over there!

...but it is a little silly to 'count people out' based on one bottle of formula, or a stolen sandwich! I don't see how exclusively breastfeeding for six months is any better than the same, but with the occassional top-up, for instance.

It's not a competetion!

I would say ebf includes the odd bottle of formula etc - I'm not in a "smug club" here I don't think, just a group of interested people wondering about the stats.

My take on breastfeeding is that so many women think that they will just be able to put their baby to the breast and do it straightaway. IMHO breast-feeding is a skill, that like any other skill, needs to be learned over the course of 6 - 8 weeks until you feel like you know what you are doing (I know there are exceptions to this where everything clicks straighaway).

The problem is when you've got a newborn who's hungry you feel like you need to know everything all at once and you don't have time to learn what to do. So new mums do need a lot of perseverance to get breastfeeing really established. I know I did.

The "nanny state" approach of this country doesn't help either - so much of the information seems to talk to women in a really patronising way, like we all have a max quota of 2 brain cells each.

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox now. :-)

all mine were bf for well over 6 months but were weaned onto solids earlier;

dd at 18 weeks in a desperate bid to ease her reflux... not that it worked

ds1 stole food off my plate at 21 weeks so i started blw

ds2 was 24 weeks, closest to 6 months i've gotton but he was very ready for food at that point

DS1 was ebf for 6 months except for the time I gave him one bottle of formula as I was ill. He also sucked on a piece of apple at around 25 weeks, but never really ate it properly. I don't think I count in those stats either?

My friend says she exbfs her babies until they are 6 months, she tells everyone that. But she gives one bottle a week at 4 months to give herself a break and has given all of them baby rice before 5 months.