Being paid to breastfeed

[SweetPea86]

Hi ladies just wondered what your thoughts are on breast feeding, I want to but I'm scared lol I feel totally clueless on pregnancy full stop I would like to give it a go for 3 months at least.

This morning on tele was on about coupons if you breast feed how will they possibly know that your breast feeding

What do you think on it.

Plus did u breast feed or bottle

i kinda compare it to the whole stop smoking campaigns at the moment. you get all this extra support and certificates and incentives to stop smoking during pregnancy, but if you are already a non smoker then you dont get any of it. surely everyone should get a smoke free pregnancy certificate?

Next they'l be giving out money for people who give birth vaginally. Same arguement. for some people its just not an option..

Is it your first?

TBH I would say to stay away from other people's horror stories and just do it.

I didn't have a clue what I was doing with my first either, but within a day or so we'd figured it out between us and she fed quite happily til about 15 months.

It doesn't have to be scary or complicated. Best of British.

Peepod I agree. I think rather than bribing women with money to breast feed spend that money on ALL women with a little bit more support on breast feeding. I know my friend couldn't breast feed she tried desperately hard to. And got really depressed about it, she didn't get much support.

I just don't see how they will monitor people breast feeding to give out money lol

Saucy jack yeah this is my first. That's the problem I think I haven't had any nice breast feeding stories all horrible ones lol just like child birth. All bad no good. I'm scared of every thing about pregnancy lol

you must do a search for positive stories. there are just as many out there as negative. specifically search positive breast feeding and positive birth stories..

i think the whole vouchers for breastfeeding thing is madness i can sit here and say ive sucessfully breastfed 2 children untill they where toddlers and found it easy i was lucky it worked out for myself and babies and i am currently breastfeeding my 3rd baby whos just a week old sadly some women try to and cant breast feed for what ever reason but least they tried i myself will just say i find it easier to breastfeed then bottle feed :)

Much media hysteria today about a very small pilot project that will no doubt be binned. If there is money sloshing about to improve breastfeeding rates it should be spent on training for MWs, HVs and breastfeeding counsellors to ensure that decent support is available to anyone who wants it.
OP can I suggest this book which is a down to earth and encouraging guide. It makes a huge difference to get good information before you start and to have identified local BF groups or BF counsellors where you can go to get help. Be prepared to ask for help and keep asking, I've found that staff on postnatal wards are really busy, but this is important. I was lucky to go to a good NCT breastfeeding class before I had my first child and to meet an NCT breastfeeding counsellor there who I was able to approach for help and who ran a support group I attended. We had a few problems to start with but I persevered and fed DS1 for 16m and DS2 for 24m.

I've had two really positive experiences of breastfeeding with my boys. I fed both of them until nearly a year old. With ds1 within 24hrs of having him we'd both figured it out and apart from the usual soreness (lanisoh nipple cream is a god send in the early weeks) it was fairly straight forward. I personally found the support was there either locally or on forums if you seek it out. I'd say give it a try but have no expectations just go into it with an open mind you might be pleasently surprised.

The voucher thing sounds a bit nutty. I doubt it would influence bf'ing rates a great deal. Personally I think we need a society wide attitude change regarding bf'ing to normalise it, not a hand out.

*Lansinoh not lanisoh