Rant! People who ask are you breast feeding

[Murfs]

New mom here!! Just wanted to have a rant the amount of nosey feckers who ask if I am bottle or breast feeding like what business is it of anyones! The last 24 hours I have been asked by random dog lady in the park, old work colleague via text, random old lady in Sainsburys, random other new mum in the local shop and sorta friend who likes to give unsolicited advice via text!
When I was pregnant I also was asked almost daily by strangers, or colleagues if I intended to breastfeed one woman approached me in the swimming pool and kept lecturing for like 15mins this was after I said I intended too FFS!!
Im probably being overly irritated by it because I had a emcs and could only breastfeed for the first few days with tonnes of MW help in hospital then my milk dried out. My baby is thriving and bottle feeding works for us all and my hubby really enjoys feeding the baby but I feel this pressure to explain this to complete strangers! I might start telling people to feck off!!
There is faaaar to much emphasis on breatfeeding like your a shit mother if you are not doing it. Doing a little bit of research the last few days I think some of the "benefits" of breastfeeding are exaggerated!
I have to add genuine friends and family would never ask me and I would never dream of asking another new mom because I know its none of my business!!
Rant over!! Feel better now

I struggled to bf and also felt I really had to defend it in the early days. As time went on I felt better about it and if someone asked I just said no, I bottled fed and changed the subject, none of their business. As pp's have said though people often make comments about everything related to small babies.
I once had someone say are you sure your son is a boy, he's too pretty

I hated being asked this when I was pregnant as I felt quite ambivalent about breastfeeding but didn’t feel comfortable being honest due to how proper judge.

I don't ask random people but I do ask my friends. I make delicious lactation cookies and like to give them as a gift to my breastfeeding friends. I also know how tiring it is and offer a little bit extra support as I know what it's like being the only one who can do feeds, so little sleep!

I particularly like the question "are you feeding him yourself"

...As if he wasn't breast fed he would be palmed off to any fucker to deal with.

I got "are you still feeding her?". Well yes, if I didn't feed her, she'd die.

Although it happens whatever you do. I breastfed and after 6 months I would always get asked, "Oh, you're still feeding her?!" Or even better, "when are you going to stop breastfeeding?" People are odd sometimes!

I think sometimes people ask just so they can tell you their story (thank you stranger in a restaurant, I shall rest easier knowing your wife couldn't get the hang of it and switched to ff). If they get judgey they can bugger off! Agree with pp you seem to become public property when pregnant and it is most tiresome.

I don’t think it’s that big a deal unless you’re feeling defensive about it.

bf rates are low in this country and it’s actually more unusual than not across the uk.

Yanbu but I think people have often been thru difficulties with bf themselves and are coming from a well meaning place.

Disagree with you on the benefits of bf tho. A bit of googling doesn't make you an expert. Your baby will be fine on formula but breastmilk has stuff that's not in formula.

They're trying to find out if you have feeding method in common so you can chat about that.

My favourite response is “why do you want to know?”
That usually shuts them up as they can only really respond “because I’m a nosey/judgemental bitch” as anything else is a blatant lie.

My favourite response is “why do you want to know?”
That usually shuts them up as they can only really respond “because I’m a nosey/judgemental bitch” as anything else is a blatant lie
Not necessarily true megan other people may be making small talk to be pleasant, other new mums might be testing the water to see how your experiences are, some people maybe just curious. Some maybe nostalgic from their time from having babies.
I think your comment about them being a nosy bitch says more about your character than anybody else to be honest.

Babies only sleep, soil nappies and drink milk. I think there's a lack of small talk options. If you paint your baby purple that should introduce a more obvious line of chat.

Not had anyone ask me about feeding but randoms keep asking me if my baby is a “good baby”.

I get it, they mean is everything going ok but I sometimes feel like saying “yeah I think she’s quite good!”.

Also the “is she sleeping through the night yet?” Question usually comes on a day when I’ve had a horrific nights sleep and makes me scream a little bit inside 😂