"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.

No overwhelming evidence about b/fing having unsurpassed health benefits?

But the Hanna Rosins article is interesting - thanks for linking to it ElenorRigby. Here is the link again www.theatlantic.com/doc/200904/case-against-breastfeeding - Rosins had interesting things to say, I thought, on the emotional/social cost to women (which I think goes unsaid)...

We don't breastfeed on the advice of health professionals; we do it because we've made milk for our newborns, like all mammals do. Choosing not to b/f, for whatever reason, is an option all women have, but it's not the same as choosing to ignore current advice on whether babies sleep on their fronts or backs, whether to use a dummy or how to wean. Some posters make it sound like breastfeeding is the latest fad being peddled by doctors to make life difficult for them.

I'd be oppressed if I was prevented from breastfeeding, but fail to see how anyone could be oppressed into breastfeeding. Such tiny numbers do it for any significant length of time in this country that the 'oppressors' are clearly doing a crap job...

Well said, ermintrude.

Roisin's article does indeed put infant feeding into a social context, and that's a good thing.

ermintrude - good point about biological choice i.e. we don't have any! We make milk in our breasts by dint of having been pregnant and giving birth.

However, infant feeding, in whatever way it is carried out, is carried out in a specific emotional, psychological, social, cultural, historical context, which can be unique to an individual mother.

The task of a society, and its health sector workers, and its employers and politicians, is to recognise that, but not to enable it to prevent breastfeeding.

I agree with tiktok.

BTW - dunno if this has been said already but OPRESS? Female circumcision, sexual slavery, rape and domestic violence....THAT is opression. Feeding your baby is not.

What an appalling article.
I hate this cliche of the breast feeding brigade who think they are superior to other mothers.
Extended breastfeeders run into more animosity and rude comments than any formula feeder.
There is a certain kind of mother who thinks nothing of calling breastfeeding disgusting or wrinkling their nose at anything other than a babe in arms having breastmilk.
As mothers we all have judgements made about us and there will always be someone who disapproves of what we are doing and blame us for the downfall of society.
Start with yourself and let it go

lissie lou hello ,in reply to above i had a fairly 'tough' start-awful labour(chord round ds neck-hes lucky to be alive)terrible victorian midwife shouted at me to get on the bed while i was attempting active labour)

he was my first baby (never changed a nappy before) although i know people have had worse starts , i breastfed him with bleeding nipples because i was determined (nearly gave him a bottle once but didnt give into it) .i was not really encouraged to do it at hospital ,nor by the hv as he lost weight in the first week . hv told me to bottle feed - but i was encouraged by la leche league and made it through the year i fed . ds steadily gained weight after first couple of weeks and my gp sais i was the only person she knew who had followed the WHO directive on weaning at 6 months.

its hard enough to bf as it iswomen need to be encouraged to at least try it ,and not be made to feel bad if they dont suceed

i dont want a pat on the back though it is my proudest achievment -just think that bf is a personal choice no one should be derided for doing it and the act of bf should definitley not be treated with derision

i said the woman who wrote the article has wizened tits (or plastic ones) and she should get a moreliberal attitude before she shrivels in bitterness . with her post liberal post post feminist shit

"By ElenorRigby on Sat 18-Jul-09 15:05:08
Why are women so obsessed with what other women want to feed their babies. Surely just be happy with your choice!
I'm pro choice, do want is right for you and your baby..."

i'm highly irritated that you can come on here and read this thread and be so dense as to trot out the old 'personal choice' line. it's almost as if you actually haven't bothered to read the thread (which is imo very constructive and sensitive) and are instead choosing to, how was it you put it, 'warble on' about some other 'debate' that's not being had. it's almost as if you're obsessed with how women want to feed their babies or something...

and mrsruffalo while it would horrify me to stick rubber teat into my own newborns mouth to feed them with milk made in a lab, i do not judge other others mothers for doing this as said above its a personal choice like abortion,which i dont agree with either but am glad the choice is there for women who need it

tbh it did horrify me but when they're getting so skinny that their kidneys are in danger of being damaged you kinda lose your squeamishness on the rubber teat front, foreverchanges. how is it like abortion, though, i'm curious? because you'd never do it? well thank fuck you could bf, then...

just saying its a personal choice and a highly contencious one as you have just highlighted

but it's NOT a personal choice, that's just crackers. if you refused to put your sick child on formula then social services would get involved at some point. (quite rightly)

You're comparing formula feeding with abortion?

foreverchanges....please take care how you say things. Mothers who formula fed don't want to know you'd be 'horrified' to do the same thing, any more than you would want to hear someone tell you they'd be 'horrified' to breastfeed.

foreverchanges - the whole thread is saying it is far more than a 'personal choice'.

i said i disagreed with abortion aitchtwoh didnt say id never have one (never say never)

Some years after breastfeeding - I'd just like to say

The poster who talked about expectation is bang on imo. It's all v. well for midwives etc to tell you breast is best - as they did me, at length, I was absolutely sure I'd do that, it was the best way to feed my baby - but not actually to be realistic. Honestly, they did sell it 11 years ago.

It can be hardwork to bf. God knows why they don't tell you that. It is hard, it's also lovely, but it also can make you feel tired and tied down and helpless. It can take some getting used to too.

They shouldn't hide that fact behind the idea that it's all sublime, madonna and child stuff, dreamy and naturally done. It gets easier as you get more experienced and the child older. But god, you've got to grit your teeth for a fair old while. I wish someone had told me that - in a balanced way of course, I think I'd have been prepared better then. And I really didn't 'struggle' I don't think with bf, it just came as a bit of a shock.

It's as if people can't be honest about that, because they're too frightened of putting people off. Which is silly.

If everyone were a bit more honest, I think that'd help re expectations, low breast feeding rates and also feelings of failure if you couldn't do it.

These are my thoughts. You know, I don't think I have EVER been on a bf thread before!

if theyre horrified to bf then thats up to them personally i wouldnt give two fcuks
i think strong langauge is justified and i will say what i like are we also going to debate freedom of speech seeing as the abortion word is swearing on this thread ok its a tenuous link but i do believe its choice obviously in a different area hey i ll start a new thread .....

last msg for tik tok

I believe that the problem lies with the health professionals who don't/can't give the necessary support that some women need to establish breastfeeding.
Only when given the right support does it become a personal choice.

By foreverchanges on Sat 18-Jul-09 18:15:53
i said i disagreed with abortion aitchtwoh didnt say id never have one (never say never)

well then i REALLY don't know what you're on about.

tenuous? It's nothing like.

Tiktok's right, foreverchanges - I ended up formula feeding all three of my sons, because they simply didn't put on weight on my milk, as I've said in previous posts here, and I find your comments about your horror of rubber teats and milk made in labs, and your comparison between formula feeding and abortion to be hugely offensive, painful and upsetting.

Frankly, just by the words that you use, you are expressing clear judgement on those of us who formula feed, so your denial of this rings very hollow indeed.