"Breastfeeding is oppressing women" (from The Guardian)

[morningpaper]

Let the breastfeeding rebellion begin

"In the 70s, many women protested that they were shackled to domesticity by the unreasonably high bar set for housework. Now, some say, it's not the vacuum cleaner that's oppressing women, but another sucking sound ..."

But but but but

This is a depressing article.

A British academic wouldn't give her name "because she is concerned about attacks from the pro-breastfeeding lobby"

I also fidn it really annoying when people say "I really tried to breastfeed for six days and it didn't work" - By six days lots of women will be in agony. The message that if you haven't got it cracked by six days then it hasn't worked - is just wrong.

And if there is such enormous pressure to exclusively breastfeed then why are only 3% of mothers still doing it at 5 months?

Yes women will feel guilty if they don't breastfeed. Women have the chance to feel guilty if they don't do a million things that are 'optimal' for their children's health and wellbeing. We can all agree that women need more support in the transition to motherhood, by setting up this monster of a pro-breastfeeding lobby is utterly unhelpful.

Having children BLOWS for women - your fanjo is shot to pieces, your career goes down the shitter, you piss yourself every time you sneeze, you lose your pension rights, your brain turns to mush, you have no social standing, boys stop grinning at your in the street - but BREASTFEEDING IS STILL THE OPTIMAL WAY TO FEED YOUR BABIES. You can't un-do that boring fact. And handing women a bottle isn't going to make everything better.

but what is that actually supposed to mean? i think you're just flapping your gums, tbh.

mixandmatch, I've got three children. I bf them all exclusively, except for my first who had a few bottles of formula at around 3 weeks, when I was struggling with breastfeeding. I didn't use formula at all with my two youngest.

I've never found it a problem not giving formula. I went back to work two and half days a week when my first was 5 weeks old, and managed with expressed milk, water and ... well, dunno. I managed. I have always worked, studied, done voluntary work and had a very busy life AND breastfed exclusively. I really don't see it as a big deal.

I couldn't have coped with my husband faffing around with bottles in the night. It would have been more disturbing to me than rolling over in bed and latching my baby on before going back to sleep myself.

"I completely understand that some women value the health benefits of exclusive breastfeeding above all feminist/shared workload considerations, but we shouldn't deny that those considerations are there and need to be given weight"

There are many, many other ways to share the care of a child without being forced into making choices which have implications for that child's health and development in both the short and long term.

Giving bottles to a breastfed baby at night has been shown to decrease the amount of sleep of new parents:

Breast-feeding Increases Sleep Duration of New Parents.

Feature Article
Journal of Perinatal & Neonatal Nursing. 21(3):200-206, July/September 2007.
Doan, Therese RN, IBCLC; Gardiner, Annelise; Gay, Caryl L.; Lee, Kathryn A. PhD, RN, FAAN

Abstract:
Objectives: This study describes sleep patterns for mothers and fathers after the birth of their first child and compares exclusive breast-feeding families with parents who used supplementation during the evening or night at 3 months postpartum.

Methods: As part of a randomized clinical trial, the study utilized infant feeding and sleep data at 3 months postpartum from 133 new mothers and fathers. Infant feeding type (breast milk or formula) was determined from parent diaries. Sleep was measured objectively using wrist actigraphy and subjectively using diaries. Lee's General Sleep Disturbance Scale was used to estimate perceived sleep disturbance.

Results: Parents of infants who were breastfed in the evening and/or at night slept an average of 40-45 minutes more than parents of infants given formula. Parents of infants given formula at night also self-reported more sleep disturbance than parents of infants who were exclusively breast-fed at night.

Conclusions: Parents who supplement their infant feeding with formula under the impression that they will get more sleep should be encouraged to continue breast-feeding because sleep loss of more than 30 minutes each night can begin to affect daytime functioning, particularly in those parents who return to work.

(C) 2007 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.

blimey thebody, everything you say sounds strangely sinister

You don't seem to understand that other people's experiences might be VERY different from your own. I'm very glad your have been positive. But a little empathy goes a long way.

My hospital pressurised me to breast feed HUGELY and then 5 days later insisted I make the apparently huge decision to feed her some formula because she was dehydrated. Obviously I felt there was no decision to make, and yet was in floods of tears that formula had passed my baby's lips.

I had pressure and support to breast feed, and the will to do it for my baby's health. It didn't work out and I feel angry about how much pressure there was. I am also amazed that with this much pressure and support 4 out of 5 mothers stop feeding so quickly.

Oppressed. Never have I felt so empowered and at ease with my body. Liberated more like it!

I don't want to hijack a thread that is mainly positive and offers differing insights.

But I really am curious to know if thebody really was a health professional and a trained nursing sister.

The numerous opinions, like "get a grip" "feeding is not that important" are safe in cyberspace and are only opinions but would have an different impact if they are/were unleashed on new mums.

For example, if thebody had to interact with a new mum who found motherhood, conception getting pregnant or giving birth, bf or ff a bit complicated and not the easiest time of their life???

thebody is a hcp??!! i must have missed that. where does she say that?

Lol hazeyjane!

I think it's been a very interesting thread with lots of very intelligent people taking the time to share their views. I never read bf/ff threads!

Exactly smallwhitecat that's the point I was trying (not very eloquently) to make earlier about ff and night feeds/any feeds really. mixandmatch of course your dh should share the workload of having a child with you. Of course they should do night feeds. My dp takes repsonsibility for having had a child, and does as much as he can, which is how it should be. But like smallwhitecat says, what if they work 10 hours a day 6 days a week like my dp? As a mother, in most cases, the buck stops with you and that can be very "oppressive" for a first time mum who doesn't know what's hit her.

What if you don't have (or don't want to have, lol) people dying to visit and feed your baby? Basically what I'm saying is I don't believe ff is more "liberating" than bf at all and that what can be "oppressive" for women is having a baby in today's society. Because of the lack of support, the loneliness, the sheer hard work, the career difficulties, the responsibility...

I am just too lazy to bottlefeed. Cleaning, sterilizing, making up bottles, deciding how many I need to lug around with me when i go out and having to pay for it all is far more oppressive to me than breastfeeding.

Having little ones was in no way shape or form the "easiest" time of my life. It was by far the hardest, most stressful and at times really horrible time of my life, and as my children are now 8 and 10 I know that I have forgotten most of how I felt (I say this with no angst mind you, I love my children, I think that they are absultely fantastic and woudln't be without them , and do not cry at all anymore about not enjoying their babyhoods)..

If you love babies it may be a lovely happy time, but mothers do not universally like babies. The most upsetting comments I had in those first couple of years (and especially the first few months with either of my two)were from people who totally dismissed my feelings with their "it doesn't last long" (when it felt like forever) and "best time of your life" (when it felt like the worst).

I had no problems at all with breastfeeding, a fast recovery from c-sections, a wonderfully supportive dh (mostly ) and family, and my mental health was/is quite normal, but I still hated that period. I am not unique in this, and really think it should be recognised that not everyone enjoys babies, and that that might be the root cause of some people feeling that all babycare (including feeding) is stressful and difficult, and yes at times oppressive. Luckily for me we found a lovely nanny who thought that my babies were the bees knees . I am a much much better mum of toddlers/small and medium children than I ever was of little ones, and unlike some of my contempory babylovers, I am quite looking forward to their teen years too . Lots more to being a great mum (or even a good enough one) than those first few years.

@ pink fizzle - interesting thought (now i am going to hijack it a little)

articles like this are irresponsible because real women might really take it to heart and choose not to breastfeed. How the jurnalist that wrote this drivel can sleep at night is a mystery. (why it is wrong: Swedish women -98% bf at 6 mo - more swedish women work than any other European country - clearly it is support that makes the difference)

all of us here could have the same effect on an individual on the forum, ...there is no 'safe in cyberspace'

"I couldn't have coped with my husband faffing around with bottles in the night."

PSML sabire so true.

But Starlight I had one to one midwife supervision every time I fed my dd (I was in hopsital for 7 days after the birth) - surely that counts as proper support?

She didn't take in enough fluid (and was under hot lights for jaundice) therefore got dehydrated - I can't see what would have prevented that from happening???

mixandmatch I totally agree with you, haven't read all of thread but have read the rticle and think it's interesting.

I bf my dd for 7 months, 4.5 months exclusively and 7 months partially, no probs, gave up when I went back to work.

I had suppor, but after the first 8 weeks I hated bf, it was relentless, exhausting and completely unforgivingly restrictive. It was the main factor in the development of postnatal anxiety for me and chronic insomnia. until 4.5 months dd wouldn't take a bottle and in the afternoons she never sent more than 1.5 hours without a feed, DESPITE THE SUPPORT. This got worse not better as time passed, it worked out ok to start with. She cried and fretted and screamed from 2.00pm until 10.00pm every day.

Then one day after a supportive hv giving me the truth i.e. bf is relentless and hard work, and developing a plan for us as to how she would take a bottle, she did after 6 weeks of trying. She was a different baby i.e. happy, and I was a different Mum, I slept for more than a couple of hours, the anxiety lifted slowly and I got a bit of my lafe back.

Am pg with number 2 and will do the exclusive bit for 2 months or so but am never going to put me or my family through that again. If I need or SHOCK HORROR want to go out/have time to myself then the baby can have a bottle of formula from dh. I do not feel gulity abou this at all, it's my choice for a happy me, happy baby and happy family.

A mothers emotional well being is just, if not more important to the long term well being of her children than the odd missed bf substituted by formula.

So 98% of Swedish women ebf at 6 months and 1% of British women. It all becomes clear now, the mysterious 'breastfeeding lobby / lactofanatics' are all bloody Scandies. Not content with forcing the mighty 'World of leather' out of the running with the proliferation of Ikea, they're trying to make ff feel bad. Evil.

why all the SHOCK HORROR? why should you feel guilty about giving your child some formula, especially when you know from experience that your supply is robust enough to withstand it?

WHO is telling you to feel guilty? i want names.

AitchTwoOh yes thebody posted earlier about 1pm today and mentioned she was a nursing sister. So ....she may not be one currently so may well be out of date with current thinking and research.

And I take your point oneopinionatedmother the web is a fantastic knowledge tool but maybe there is no 'safe in cyberspace', and the influence of the web is not to be underestimated.

My DH is from the Middle East and I find it interesting that even though they do not have midwives visiting post birth, the success rate of b'feeding there is a lot higher than over here.

However, if its a first born, the new mum will usually stay with their mums to get support, if its a second (or more), then the mums will come and stay with them, followed by the MIL - and they take over - its expected culturally. The family also help out by bringing meals over etc.

The mums I've met seem to be much more prepared for the reality of breast feeding - tiring, frequent and painful.

I read quite a few books before DS was born and I was in no way prepared for how hard, painful and restrictive breastfeeding was...the shock of that is something that I'm sure contributes to the low rates of successful b'feeding - I stopped at 6weeks!

There, the emphasis is very much on the family being the mother's job and I think in some ways (not all) it takes a lot of pressure off of the mums...there doesn't seem to be the work life balance guilt that is so prevalent in the West.

Of course, I am generalising to a certain extent, but it is interesting to see the differences

lol klaw i agree entirely

Podrick, Starlight is right.

It doesn't matter a bit if entire squads of midwives are observing every feed if they dont know what they are looking for.

Your baby cannot have been transferring milk effectively if he became dehydrated on day 5.

There are ways of checking this as well as observing.

You check the nappies - by day 5 he should have been producing copious yellow poo. If not, then it can be a sign he is not feeding effectively.

He could have been weighed, too.

You were badly let down by the people whose job it was to support you, and your baby became ill as a result.
It's shocking.

Just to add - babies do not suddenly become dehydrated. Your baby's feeding difficulty could have been spotted before he became ill...dehydration is a potentially very serious condition for a newborn, and any maternity unit that ends up with a baby in their care with it should be ashamed of themselves