Is breastfeeding just a middle class thing? Radio 4 Women's Hour

[Witchycat]

Interesting feature on Women's Hour today. Suggests women from lower socio-economic backgrounds don't usually even attempt b/f and interviews a number of women about why they didn't want to and what is being done to provide better information to encourage women to make an informed choice.

Think this will take you to the Listen Again page - go to the bottom & click Women's Hour on the Top 5 box (assuming your pc has speakers and you are not at work!)

I have just searched my text on Islam and not found ny reference to colustrum or baby hair as not acceptable within Islam. (I did find this quote which I thought was lovely- 'Children are gifts from God and joys of life. Islam it the responsibility of the parents to look after the children and give them a good chance in ife').

Also:

'some Muslim parents have their daughters circumcised before puberty to avoid the problems which puberty might present. This practice, though supported by some Muslim authoroties, is not Islamic. It si not found in the Qur'an, and Mohammed did not authorise it, so it is not any part of the sunna'. sunna = way, usually the Way of Mohammed.

Well, the hair thing was said to me as being "part of their religion" which is why I assumed it was...part of their religion.

It's getting a bit like a convo using Venn diagrams - lol! Not all Muslims believe x, not all Bengalis believe x but some of each do.

There may very well be non-Muslims who believe that shaving a baby's head is good for some reason or another, just as there may be non-Muslims who believe that colostrum is unclean - but the people I have experience of saying it (backed up by the paltry bit of research I've done online) have been Muslim. But that doesn't mean that I think that all Muslims do this or believe this, just as I don't believe that everyone who has read this post has stayed awake until the end

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lol at you hunker.I'm reading!
Very good Venn diagram simile too.

Rickman,it is evident that you are an exceptional woman in very many ways.

I'm really wondering just how female circumcision may 'avoid the problems which puberty may present' and indeed what those 'problems' are.

Hmmmmm...have a bloody good idea though...

ooooh - been out all day spending my middle-class pennies. sorry to have offended, expat. i did not make any prejudiced generalisations, just remarked on some facts which i and others have observed. just because it's noticeable that certain socio-economic groups are more likely to bf, buy value ranges, have satellite dishes or 4x4s, read the guardian or whatever does not mean the all do. as i said before there are always exceptions to general trends.

if it is offensive ever to remark on a social trend, or to talk about working-class people when you are not one, well i think things are getting a bit daft.

after all i believe working-class people are permitted to talk about middle-class people and their ways?

i would also add in an entirely racist manner that unless you are british it is probably quite hard to grasp the incredible complexity and subtlety of the british class system, which is far more culturally than financially driven.

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MD, did you ever hear Eddie Izzard do his Venn diagram piece? I reproduce it here thusly:

Who was Venn and his diagrams? Was he the most boring child ever? (upper middle class accent) "Father, I have my foot in your bedroom and also in the hallway. As you can see from my diagram I am not only in the bedroom, I am also in the hallway." "Venn, fuck off out of this house!" "All right, father. But I am outside of the house but my hand is in the window and my foot is in a grapefruit. As you can see from my diagram? (mime of patricide) Father, me and Socrates?both died."

love eddie izzard

yes it is poor people can't be arse with all this nancy fancy sh*t

my inlaws are bengali, and bar one, all of the younger ones think they are better for feeding their kids formula. dh had to defend my decision to bf to his mom. (not toomuch, but she did ask if baby had been given a bottle, and he said the baby had mothers milk, which was the best! this was about three hours or so after giving birth. was still in the labour ward)
similarly, female circumsion tends to be an african thing. and the people who do it tend to use islam to justify themselves. doesnt mean it is an islamic practice, just means they use it.

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Compo, I'm with you on the pain bit. with ds2 it was absolute toe-curling agony for at least 12 weeks, despite some really good people trying to get him latched on properly. I just knew I'd be so upset if I didn't breast feed that I carried on stubbornly when it would have been more sensible to stop. Miraculously, just when I was on the point of giving up, the pain disappeared for no reason (no change in his latch). So I do know what you mean about the pain, and it's not just 'a bit' painful.