Proud to have breast fed

[Keepdlingwhatyourgutsays]

I will start off by saying I don't care if you bf or ff. I see so many posts where women say they ff but none on bf. they get taken down or people straight away think it's a dig. Honestly what ever you chose to do you do.

However after so many negative and nasty comments when I was breastfeeding I can say I did it. I didn't give in to the people who were nasty I didn't let them bully me into stopping. I was a younger mum not young young but I was young and I was still very insecure about a lot of things and I did not feel supportive.
I do remember once the first time I breastfed on the bus I did that thing where I assumed everyone would be staring and one elder gentlemen was and he just grinned a very kind grin and that kept me going through some of the nasty comments.
If you are breast feeding and getting comments from family or friends please ignore it because looking back they were just insecure (not everyone but the ones I New) or they are just plain nasty. Anyone who makes a nasty comment about that isn't nice nor needed.
But remember wether you breastfeed or bottle it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. Online people get so angry about it but it really doesn't matter guys

It's a shame the ff on her cannot have the respect to just allow bf mums to talk.
I don't care how u feed your baby and don't judge. It's doesn't bother me. If I do decide to I'll go into the other threads

All of my friends ff I love them all but I can never have the conversations like someone who has also breastfed.

THAnk you to the last two commenters ❤️

and to the last two there is. O dig here and I'm glad u can see it. I just wanted a thread for bf mums who wanted to read and and gained from it like so many on here. But the few have to ruin it

Scientifically breastfeeding is best for your baby as well as reducing the risk of sids. You CANNON argue with that because you would be arguing against scientific facts. Just because something's hurt your feelings doesn't make it any less of a fact. And yes if this was a thread in support of formula no one would dare come on here saying that is was nasty towards breastfeeding mums because guess what? Formula feeding is the societal norm. 'The breastfeeding rate for England for 2016-17 is 44.4%, which is a slight increase on previous years at 43.2% (2015-16) and 43.8% (2014-15).' www.rcm.org.uk/news-views-and-analysis/news/new-breastfeeding-statistics-for-england We need more conversation in support of breastfeeding and at the moment we are not allowed to talk of it for fear of upsetting those who couldn't, didn't want to or gave up because it was hard. Is IS better for your baby and it IS hard and we should have more discussion and support around it. Not so much- 'it's hard formula is so much easier it made my life so much better'. Because it isn't better. Breast IS best.

@gladisabdherpug there really is no point trying to get people to understand people believe what they want to.

And I agree we need to be able to talk. It feels like "put your baby under a blanket" " put tape over your mouth"

Why are u here

This isn't a post to compete or prove what's best what are u doing except stopping breast feeding mums talk

Well I FF And got a lot of comments about that. Works both ways.

On the whole it's best for almost all babies especially ill ones which is why they have milk banks because it is so much better for tiny babies than altered cow baby/soy milk. It is made specifically for your baby. Why are you so defensive about a post encouraging breastfeeding which is not the norm (see below post). Formula should be used as a medicine.

Why are you here Kim this is for breast feeding mums to talk positively what are y doing. There are other posts if u want to argue

@Keepdlingwhatyourgutsays I wouldn't normally say anything positive about my experience of breastfeeding on here, as I would get ripped to shreds. But I will talk about it here because it's really nothing to hide.

I breastfed both of my sons (now 5 and nearly 2), and I'm continuing to feed the younger one. In both cases we had a difficult start to breastfeeding as they were both in SCBU being tube fed initially.

My eldest was unwell with Group B strep that was initially thought to be meningitis. I'd had a long induction over 3 days and then a further 2 in labour culminating in an EMCS when it was clear DS1 was never coming out vaginally. He was almost immediately whisked away from me to SCBU and I ended up in the HDU. I didn't see him for a day as I was too unwell. We spent a week in hospital learning to express and feed a mixture of formula and breastmilk where possible. He wouldn't or couldn't latch on to directly breastfeed. We went home doing a mix of expressing and formula feeding. Gradually over the next 6 weeks we managed to get him to latch and to reduce the amount of bottles until we were 100% directly breastfeeding. It was a huge relief to be able to stop expressing and bottle feeding, as I find breastfeeding to be much less stressful. The HV never offered much advice beyond "topping up" with formula and seemed astonished that we had got the point where we stopped giving bottles. Everything I needed to know about breastfeeding I had to find out for myself online, lots of it from here in fact. I fed DS1 till he was about 18 months.

I was hoping that DS2 would be a different story and I wouldn't have the same issues. However he arrived early and was very unwell at birth, and I was in the exact same position again with a baby in SCBU. It was easier in some ways as I knew what I was doing, but DS2 wasn't even able to latch on to a bottle to begin with and was much more poorly than DS1. But we did get home, again doing a mixture of expressing, formula and short breastfeeds. Took about the same amount of time to move over to fully breastfeeding. I felt intense relief to get to that point.

I am proud of getting through all the issues and once everything was sorted and pain free I really enjoy feeding. I had summer babies and loved being able to go out and about and not have to worry about being organised.

If people have been mean to you why come on a breast feeding thread to cause problems ?? Your as bad as the person who was horrible to u

People are so defensive about it because they know breastfeeding is better. We should hunt out all the formula feeding posts and go and complain on them all that they're being nasty towards breastfeeders and yet I'm sure we'd get the same backlash there too about being mean to them. Hypocrisy at its finest.

Assissnated your incredible. I tried to pump and it was so hard to do they with all the other stress and still manage to feed is amazing. And you have every single right to be proud of yourself ❤️

@Keepdlingwhatyourgutsays Eh? I was stating what the problems were in relation to poor breastfeeding rates and why it can be so difficult to do... hence the reason why we need to support, encourage and celebrate breastfeeding mums. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

I am a breastfeeding peer support helper and breastfed my son for 3 years. We had an extremely rocky start with very little support. Hence my decision to train to support other breastfeeding mothers.

@gladisandherpug we wouldn't though. But it's ok for them to like they have here. It's a shame really there are some incredible women here sharing there stories and a few want to ruin it

It makes me even prouder to know I've done it with all this

Haha, I love how you got a nibble on just the first two replies.

Well done to you (not said with sarcasm).

Breastfeeding is not easy- as you are told over and over again by people who formula feed- but they cannot muster a well done, just sarcastic comments.

@vasalineontoast I can only really really apologise I don't no what happened there. Very sorry

@Oowatchasay there is a lady actually bowing down to us too for it 😂

@Keepdlingwhatyourgutsays I know we wouldn't but it just pisses me off to see how silenced breastfeeders are. This post is a clear example. We can talk and we must talk. Formula feeders are the majority and it shouldn't be like that because it isn't as good for babies. No wonder so few people breastfeed when we're not even allowed to talk positively about it. Christ on a bicycle.

Well done op, I ff all of mine, part of me wishes I wasn't so nervous & self conscious to bf. They all got fed, that's the main thing.