'Bribed to breastfeed'

[AmIThough]

On Good Morning Britain today, they're talking about a new scheme to offer mothers shopping vouchers in return for breastfeeding.

Personally I think it seems unreasonable. As mothers we do what's right for us and our children. Breastfeeding isn't right for everyone and there's already a lot of pressure for us to do so.

All of my friends and I tried to breastfeed.

I have been successful but choose to combination feed which works best for me.

Some friends haven't been able to continue breastfeeding for various reasons - pain, MH etc

One even got told she needed to FF as the baby wasn't getting enough nutrition.

Would this have made a difference to the choices you made?

Presumably this scheme is being run in impoverished areas where mothers even attempting breastfeeding are at very low or non exsistant levels. I've seen similar before. Yes maybe the money would be better getting more bf support all round, but normalising bf in communities where there isn't a culture of bf is important. Many of the middle class mothers, who are most likely to bf, will be able to afford a lactation consultant or trips to a bf clinic if they need it. DD never had formula and it saved us a hell of a lot of money over the years, I can imagine for people surviving on very little the extra money saved along with the vouchers could make big differences for the baby and the family.

@Rainbowknickers my friend was desperate to breastfeed and baby wouldn't latch because she was crying too much while still in hospital (both mom and baby had infections).

A nurse came and took the baby off mom and came back with a bottle of formula in her mouth.

LO is 10 months old and my friend still gets upset talking about it.

I must admit my midwives were fantastic but not everyone is that lucky.

I never managed to exclusively breastfeed ds. I combi fed for the first 10 days. I had a difficult but not unusual birth, leading to an emergency c-section. I was weak willed and exhausted afterwards. I stopped pumping for 1.5 weeks and just formula fed. I then attempted to pump again and managed 1oz before completely drying up. Nearly a year on and I still feel like an absolute failure.

I Support breastfeeding encouragement but this is just patronising. I also hate the fact that formula feeding is treated like poison when the long-term outcomes are negligible for most babies. Some babies are hospitalised for failure to thrive due to lack of breastfeeding support and also the fear of using formula. My friends mum actually breastfed her sister’s baby with her own as the mother’s milk had dried up but she wouldn’t use formula!

I’d rather see money spent on breastfeeding support than bribery. It’s as if they think if a woman wants to breastfeed enough it will just happen! It’s not fair, women don’t just give up on breastfeeding for no reason.

Improving breastfeeding rates would save the NHS money. It has short and long term health benefits and should be actively promoted. Yes, it’s a choice but it should be a properly informed choice.
I too think the money would be better spent on breastfeeding support and funding of things like breastfeeding drop ins, peer supporter training and employed breastfeeding counsellors.
Reduced costs to NHS include -
Fewer viral infections and better immunity in first six months
Lower risk of ongoing asthma and eczema
Lower risk of infantile diarrhoea
In later life a lower risk of obesity, heart disease and some cancers.
Fewer food intolerances and allergies.
Fewer feeding error related problems- formula incorrectly made up or given in incorrect amounts.
In mother reduced risk of ovarian and breast cancers. Lower risk of osteoporosis.

@MustardScreams “babies deserve better” have you seriously just said that? Babies deserve to be fed no matter which way that is! Mothers deserve better that to be judged by others for their choice of feeding.

I desperately tried to breastfeed but following a traumatic birth I was very unwell so wasn’t actually able to be, I couldn’t even pick her up. I had no support from hospital staff, my DP was attempting to latch her onto my breast to feed for me. It was a horrendous experience which led me to go against my own wants and choose to substitute with some formula because my baby wasn’t getting enough nutrition which was absolutely the best thing for my baby. She deserved better than me continuing to attempt to breastfeed her leaving her without enough milk.
Any form of voucher scheme would not have helped me at all!
I think it’s a bit patronising and think there has to be a better way of encouraging breastfeeding.

Put the money saved on formula towards a boob job

Hmmm I think I would have needed to have had 20 kids and some serious compound interest

They just need to provide the proper support for women, not assume that people will just because they get shopping vouchers; that very much trivialises the issues some women face in BFing. A disgusting initiative in my opinion.

I think it's a stupid idea.

It's already cheaper to breastfeed than formula feed so I don't see how offering money would help.

Both of my children were formula fed and nothing would have made me breastfeed.

If they have money to spend, spend it on more midwives.

I agree with those saying that breastfeeding support is underfunded and underrated. But something really needs to change in order for breastfeeding rates to improve in the UK. I just don’t know what it is though- as so many people see it as “pressure” to BF rather than support or encouragement. And then so many other women get so defensive about their experiences that they feel like anyone who has struggled with BFing and continued is rubbing their face in it or being smug...
I do think women have bought into the “have it all” thing and think they can and should have a baby and still have a social life and me time etc when the reality of babies is that they are biologically designed to remain attached to their mother for the first year really. And some people don’t like that and disagree with thousands of years of evolution and the whole principles of us being essentially mammals first and foremost.

I think this is really difficult. This was trialled a few years ago and did increase BF rates in the trial area (Bristol I think) BUT, it’s basically incentivising poorer women and yet wealthy women are free to chose to feed how they want, as they don’t need to respond to the carrot dangled in front.

However, increased Bf rates are generally a good thing

This scheme wouldn't have worked for me - but suspect it wasn't aimed at me.

As a middle class, working, attachment parent who still bfs a toddler, it's easy for me to be sniffy about this sort of idea. But if it works it works.

But something really needs to change in order for breastfeeding rates to improve in the UK. I just don’t know what it is though

I think that 2-3 generations of formula feeding being more popular than breastfeeding means many parents today were not BF themselves so their mums can't give advice, never saw babies around them being BF so aren't comfortable with doing it in public. Basically the "village" element of older woman helping younger women is gone from British society. Women have to rely on midwives and HV who are overworked and can't help with the emotional stresses related to trying to establish BF.

It's a problem that money and investment themselves can't fix. Might be too late honestly.

I'm extremely lucky that I had excellent breastfeeding support in the hospital and at home. I was unable to breastfeed my baby for the first few days of his life as he was ventilated in NICU but the nurses/midwives were amazing in suppprting me to pump to establish my supply and when he was well enough to breastfeed him. I never realised how hard bf was and speaking to friends with babies they have said the same. Without the support of lactation specialists and peer support groups it would be very easy to stop. It's also very apparent that there's more bf support in the more 'middle-class' areas and the midwife admitted that more money is spent on bf support in these areas as the women are much more likely to try to persevere than in other areas where it's not even considered . Which is terrible as money should be being spent everywhere to support and encourage women to bf as it has so many benefits for mum and baby.

This pisses me off. If there’s money to spend on shopping vouchers then there’s money available to spend on actual breastfeeding support for the women who want to breastfeed which in many areas is utterly non existent.

I know several private lactation consultants and they see women every day who have the most basic problems with positioning and attachment / latch - problems they manage to fix very quickly. The NHS are completely failing at this and they want to spend money on rewards to convince women who don’t want to bf rather than spend money supporting the ones who do?

I couldn't breast feed due to a medical issue, I knew it was never an option even before I was pregnant. The amount of patronising talks I was given my health care professionals who didn't want to listen. As soon as I said, no I won't be breastfeeding (then was about to explain but was cut off and told i was a bad person in not so many words) I was publicly shamed at a prenatal group, made an example of for not being willing to try (and I just had to sit there because I didn't want to start discussing my medical issue with a room full of strangers).
Imo vouchers would be pretty patronising for mothers, as so many pps have said, fund breastfeeding support workers etc instead, the amount of people I know that have given up on breastfeeding through lack of support is staggering.

It depends on the vouchers. If you are on a low income and that means your diet isn't as good as it should be you may opt for formula because you know your baby will get the right nutrients.

Vouchers for meat and veg might mean you choose to bf.Vouchers for topshop or Game - not so much.

It's never going to happen with the nhs the way it is but I think with your first baby especially, an extended stay in hospital would do wonders for breastfeeding rates.

You're in and out mostly within a day if you've had a straight forward birth. Then if you need support it's waiting for heath visitor, packed baby clinics or travelling to groups (if there are any) which is hard work with a new hungry baby that won't latch.

When my mum had me in the 80's, normal birth, she was in for 5-6 days. Time to rest and recover, time for milk to come in and support to establish breastfeeding, shown how to clean and care for baby etc and with other new mothers all in the same boat.

Yes @edgeofheaven when I've struggled with bf the instant 'solution' from my mum and mil is to give the baby a bottle. Which is fine if that's your choice but I want to bf exclusively as long as I can. Rather than the difficult option of trying to persevere through sleepless nights, sore nipples, poor latch etc it's seen as too much of a problem to solve so throw so e formula in to solve the problem. You can see how women without adequate support struggle to continue with breastfeeding

People don’t need vouchers to breastfeed, whatever that costs would be better invested in support (and maybe a free tube of lansinoh cream! I went through tubes of the stuff).

Women will make whatever choice is best for them and if someone really doesn’t want to then that’s up to them. We have a safe and nutritional alternative so let people get on and use it if they want to.

Whatever a woman’s reasons for not bf’ing are it doesn’t matter, we’re talking about someone whose just completed pregnancy and childbirth so even if it’s for what some might consider silly reasons, it’s valid.

I’d like a bit more honesty around breastfeeding to be honest. It’s great and we’re all well versed in the benefits but bf babies are prone to not sleeping as well, do tie you down for much longer so gaining a bit of independence back is delayed compared to ffeeding friends, and bf does bloody hurt at the beginning.

My dd was/is a terrible sleeper and I was made to feel like I was a martyr or doing something wrong when actually, in retrospect, bfeeding was probably the reason I felt so overwhelmed by it all yet I was surrounded by people who ff (just the way it goes) and didn’t really understand why my baby didn’t sleep through or get the impact of not being able to delegate a night to dp. If the drawbacks were better publicised maybe support from the wider public would be better.

@harrypotterfan1604 sorry that wasn’t said in the right way,

Of course women that struggle and have a difficult time of bf should be supported and not given a voucher to fob them off. I was aiming my comment at women that refuse to give even colostrum because their bodies are more important. Those babies do deserve better.

Bloody stupid idea IMO. What this country needs is the money spent on an army of breastfeeding councillors to give advice and help to the many many women who would love to breastfeed but cannot because they got so little advice (if at all) when they were struggling with a newborn. And to also help those who or whatever reason cannot or do not want to breastfeed to bottle feed safely (I'm thinking impart a little more knowledge on sterilising & making up bottles correctly for example.) so that no mother feels guilty about how they choose to feed their baby.
I'm sure investing the money on the basics of feeding - getting the correct latch makes so much difference - as soon as baby is born will do far more to help increase the rate of bf than any silly voucher will.

From another perspective, I wanted to bf, was successful in doing so and would have appreciated the free vouchers 😂

@pollysproggle see I disagree with that. I was allowed home about 6 hours after DD was born (1st baby) and that was the best thing for my MH. I would have struggled psychologically with a hospital stay.

My MIL stayed in for a week with DP and believes that's the reason she got PND.

Two midwives came to see me the next day and they were fabulous.

However I was really lucky with DD so maybe if she hadn't have latched so well my experience would have been different.

I think the cause is correct - they are trying to improve the county's terrible breastfeeding rates which IMO is important.

However I think the approach is wrong. It's a problem rooted in lack of support and / or education and no amount of vouchers is going to fix that.

I work as a maternity voices representative in my area and in consultation with local parents we’ve redesigned the postnatal pathway - midwives now continue seeing women until 28 days PN. Some of the visits for weighing etc are done by maternity support workers rather than midwives and there are some MSWs with additional breastfeeding training for those who need support. Those who don’t want the extra visits don’t have to have them, but those who need more support can get it. I’m really hoping that this will have a positive impact as I’m so tired of speaking to women who tell me they’ve had insufficient breastfeeding support, especially women who have babies in NICU and SCBU who are encouraged to pump but not given enough support to transition to the breast.