Breastfeeding in the news this morning

[Jackieharris]

From what I heard on the radio a Brazilian study has linked breastfeeding with intelligence & 'success' later in life.

I've not read the study or seen any details so not sure about validity/is it applicable to UK/how long the sample bf for etc.

But I did also hear that in Scotland the bf rate at 10 days is less than 50%. I'm quite shocked at that. I'd have guessed it would be more like 70-80%.

Can't see this study/news changing that though.

What are the chances of GO announcing spectacular new investment in bf support in today's budget?

i saw it and tbh thought that it was another stick to beat mums with.

Yes I just saw this. BBC articles like these ("study shows breastfeeding is good!", "research finds smoking is bad!) always sound like thinly veiled government public health announcements to me.

Having said that, I am a breastfeeding advocate, I've been breastfeeding my baby for 9 months now and we've got no plans to stop any time soon, so I'm happy to hear more positive information about the benefits. It is nice to know I'm giving him the best start in life. It does actually sound like a solid piece of research as well.

Hate these, I couldn't breast feed due to having septicemia and being in HD for 10 days after giving birth. Just another way to make mothers feel bad.

I heard that. It made me feel briefly terrible. My three year old is bright and beautiful and has a whacking great vocabulary that frequently freaks both his parents out, but it made me remember the nightmare that was his first two months as my milk never came in, and mix feeding gradually became ff, despite me getting all the help I could possibly access, doing hormone tests, and pumping round the clock for tiny trickles that never became any more copious.

I've had to struggle in the years since not to feel that every bit of my parenting is an attempt to make up for what my body couldn't do.

I know this study says it controlled so the analysis wasn't affected by things like parental income/social class/education/maternal smoking etc, but I'd be interested to see exactly how they did that. Because I'm still hoping at some level that I haven't disadvantaged my son through no fault of my own.

This report has nothing to do with the British government. It was funded by the Brazilian ministry of health, Wellcome Trust and a Canada health organisation.

I'm pleased that every report I've seen has included a bit about how more support is needed to help those who choose to bf to continue to do so. That's the key I think. I'm not convinced it makes any long term difference to babies really.

(For context, I ff one from 6 weeks and bf one to 14 months, and hope to do the same with my next one)

Just another way to make mothers feel bad.

I know what you mean, but for some people it is a choice and there's no harm in hearing the latest research to help make that choice. Tapwater you haven't disadvantaged your son, there are a million other things that have more influence than breastfeeding. I wouldn't call it a disadvantage, I would just call breastfeeding a beneficial bonus... i.e. babies might benefit in a small but measurable way if we read precisely three story books to them before bed every night but that doesn't mean they'll be "disadvantaged" if we read less than that.

How can a study be a way of beating mums up/making them feel bad etc? I knew this would be the reaction to the news. It's a study showing facts, isn't it? It's not an opinion or propaganda. I understand that it subsequently acts to encourage bf but I can only assume that it was done scientifically and fairly so why the moaning about making mothers feel bad?

If a study came out saying that eating junk food makes you gain weight, would people complain that it serves a stick to bash the people eating it? Isn't it just an observation of truth?

I totally agree that social setting/income/later raising and nurturing will play a part in IQ and success. I'd be interested to read the report to see what other factors were taken into account.

Thanks, Mamushka.

My son feels his human rights are being infringed if he doesn't get three bedtime stories. I need to find a study that suggests that the Little Red Train books are detrimental to IQ...

I do realise that the Wellcome and several thousand Brazilians haven't conspired to give me a lump in my throat at breakfast time on a Wednesday - in fact, it surprises me how desperately upset I still get from time to time about it three years on, as someone who isn't unduly emotional or prone to guilt, and who grasps that (despite blood tests and lactation consultants and LLL and NCT peer supporters and HVs never figuring out what was wrong) it wasn't my fault.

Tap water

I have a friend who tried desperately to bf too and is still wracked with illogical guilt. Not being able to bf wasn't for lack of trying or not caring. It's such an emotive issue. It sounds like your dc is very lucky indeed. This study will be bound to upset people who have genuinely tried to BF.

As pp said, it might be more aimed at people who choose to ff. I'm not judging, it just lets them make an informed choice.

The lady (BF counsellor I think) on the BBC this morning made excellent points. There is no need for any more research into how breastfeeding is a good thing to do. They need to do more to enable Mothers to actually do it and research why they aren't and what can be done to help.

She also said some people can't and that is an important point as some people don't seem to understand that.

Agree Sparkling - she was very good.

I think there's also an important point here for women who do manage to bf - the study is about bf to over a year old

Totally agreed with the peer supporter on the bbc and her points about 90% of bf info is about how great it is and 10% about how to actually do it. Lots of women feel they've been missold bf as easy and natural when it's actually often fucking hard work, especially at 3 in the morning when the only help you can find is the wonderful feeding boards on MN.

I thought she was lovely Tilly. If she was my BF counsellor I would be well happy. She seemed to have a balanced view which seems a rarity.

She also said that more time should be spent at ante natal classes not saying how marvellous it is but how to actually do it.

Yes - that is the key, learning how to actually do it. And that for some mums/babies it won't go smoothly.

I find this kind of research a bit actually - of course breastfeeding is good on all sorts of levels, but those studies really can't take into account whether it is the fact of breast feeding or whether that those mums who put the time and effort into it, and for whom it works are also mums who will go the extra mile for their DC in other ways as they grow up and so help them develop in that way too.

My mother didn't breastfeed any of us, and we are all highly intelligent adults, with one of us having postgraduate study from Oxbridge. This is despite formula feeding, but growing up in a family where education was valued. I have breastfeed all three children (shortest for 17 months, longest for 24 months). They seem intelligent, though it's hard to say at their age.

When I hear about these studies I always want to know how much is correlation and how much is causation? As another poster mentioned, how many other factors are taken into account? For example, I read that one study suggested that a "well-educated mother" (whatever that means!) is more likely to breastfeed. I would imagine that said "well-educated mother" also cares that her children are well-educated too, and is therefore likely to engage her children with activities that will stimulate them, read to them etc. Surely, if the same hypothetical mother were to formula feed, but do everything else in the same way, there would be unlikely to be a massive difference in IQ. Has anyone studied children raised in the same family, one breastfed one not, but being raised with the same values and experience to see which has the higher IQ? I just think it's so complicated and there are so many factors involved that it's pretty hard to say exactly how much of an influence breastfeeding has on IQ.

And again, as someone mentioned, we don't really need people to tell us that breastfeeding is good anymore. I would hate to see amazing parents being made to feel guilty and worry that their child's future educational prospects have been jeopardised just because, for whatever reason, they formula fed.

Let's have a study now on the reasons many women have to stop breastfeeding, and if anything could have been done to provide them with more support. The breastfeeding rates in UK are relatively low compared to other parts of Europe. Why is that?

In Scotland. I got next to no practical help in BFeeding. It was definitely seen as good theoretically but no-one else on the ward was doing it and it was all rather fraught! I continued only because of info from NCT (pre mumsnet days.)

This is about overall policy and numbers, it doesn't always work out for many reasons - it didn't work second time around for me. It's not a massive deal for a well nourished, stimulated and well cared for child. Percentage points that are important on a national scale but for an individual less so.

Exactly, jubles.

www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(15)70002-1/abstract

In the confounder-adjusted analysis, participants who were breastfed for 12 months or more had higher IQ scores (difference of 3·76 points, 95% CI 2·20–5·33), more years of education (0·91 years, 0·42–1·40), and higher monthly incomes (341·0 Brazilian reals, 93·8–588·3) than did those who were breastfed for less than 1 month. The results of our mediation analysis suggested that IQ was responsible for 72% of the effect on income.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-31925449

I'd echo everything Sparklingbrook said.

I had friends who beat themselves up because they couldn't bf for medical reasons and other let down by a shocking lack of bf support.

I got lucky with support with pfd and was lucky I was in an area bf was common place. Knowing that I could bf do got me through feeding issues with second in a new area where bf support was really bad and attitudes in general anti.

However I found article and reports like this coming out while I was bf helpful - it help quieten down the extended family who never wanted me to bf for a bit as well as helped me tune them out.

I agree that more help is required in how to do it. the midwife banged on and on about it in ante natal. i said that i had been told that it hurt initially when they latched on etc, but that if you were doing it properly after that it shouldn't hurt. She just wanted to shut me up as she thought i was putting people off, whereas I was just trying to find out the truth as advised by friends who had done it!

The MW also banged on about how they would come round every day, every feed if necessary once we were home.

In hospital they said that they wouldn't let me go home until I had mastered BF. i said that i would top up with FF if necessary, so they let us go. I struggled with BF, i have big boobs and think that they were suffocating the baby, she hated lying down and feeding, wanted to do it sat up, i spent nights crying and trying to feed her.

I rang the MW and was told that they were too busy to come and help me. One day the MW didn't come at all and when I said about the BF she said,

"well you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink" and laughed

That night, when once again both me and DD were crying and not feeding, I got up and made a bottle and that was that, i never went back to BF. I did try expressing, but it all just ran down my front and not into the funnel.

so.... yes, much more support is needed. If the MW's can't do it, they should be able to access peer supporters who are willing and able to come round every day if necessary.

But I am not going to beat myself up about whether or not it will affect my child's HQ. Every child is different. Every child cannot be a genius. not every BF child will be a genius.

These studies need to stop and the money needs to go to supporting mums to BF.

and mums need to stop beating themselves up if they cant BF. The main thing that is important is that the baby is fed and that both mum and baby are happy!

It is a shame that people feel that reputable research is thinly veiled government health announcements.

I do appreciate that this research isn't easy listening for some (me too) but would you rather that they didn't research anything or that they didn't announce the results?

skye my experience was similar. This was 1999 and I thought things may have changed.
At ante natal there was no mention of BF being anything but a piece of cake.
The MW would come round and scrunch my boob with her hand into the baby's mouth. At one point she advised a glass of wine before the feed to help me relax.

Expressing I managed 1oz in an hour.

I agree with the lady on the BBC who said that there was no point researching the benefits of BF any more as we know John. Research why after 6 weeks lots jack it in instead.

Nah, I think thats a really weird attitude.

This was a comprehensive study carried out in Brazil. So the idea is that we, in the UK, tell every scientist in the world what they should study and why? O-kayyy.

But nobody is disputing the research of the comprehensive study. We aren't all amazed by it's findings are we?

I read it. It made me feel triumphant. I am currently breastfeeding both my 3 year old DD and 8 month old DS. To have confirmation that this - not just breastfeeding but extended breastfeeding - will have lifelong benefits for my children has me beaming.

It was a comprehensive study too - started In 1982, studied over 6000 babies and showed benefits in over 3000 of them who were tested 30 years later, even when differences in social class etc were accounted for.

Rather than seeing it as a "stick to beat mothers with", we should see it as yet more ammunition with which to demand better breastfeeding support,because god knows it can be bloody hard.