Why are breastfeeding rates so low in this country??

[PasstheBucket89]

This is not a judgment thread, im not evangelical about either ive done both through necessity, BF/FF,. Im genuinely wondering why in one of the richest countries our levels are so low, sometimes in comparison to poorer countries with less medical care infrastructure. is it purely cultural, is it worse now than 30 years ago, i was and my sister BF until about a year old, so did many of my cousins or is it getting better now? so yeah no bunfight please just curious, i would like to BF this time, hopefully it goes better than the last 2 times x

Breastfeeding is difficult. It can be painful, you get less sleep, it's harder to control and keep track of when and how much the baby has. Formula is an easier option in the early days. There should be more support for breastfeeding mums to make breastfeeding an easier option - help with correct latch so less pain for example.

I had my children in the eighties. My NCT group all breast fed and the NCT mantra was best is best. All my friends breast fed until they returned to work but most of us kept up the late evening feed.
Domino system was popular then at most maternity hospitals. In for the birth and out the next day. All the NHS staff I came into contact with were enormously pro breast feeding.
ON MN these days it seems fewer mothers breast feed. In real life most mums I know feed the babies themselves

Sorry, mantra was Breast is Best

Because it really hard and women are repeatedly told it's easy and so when they struggle it's easier to go to formula.

I had a friend who was asked to be a BF support worker because she had BF 5 children. She said no because she’d found it easy. What was the point being supported by someone who’d had no issues. She said you needed to have the people who’d had the worst time giving support as they would have experience to pass on.

Sadly my experience of the support networks was women who had relatively easy experience and had no answers for me apart from ‘keep trying’.
I was so exhausted I couldn’t think straight. What I needed was someone to say, maybe go see the doctor (who when i did see said I shouldn’t have been even exclusively BF as I had so many multiple issues).

There needs to be more education on mixed feeding as well.

I would add poor medical advice. When my DC3 had a jaundice and on day 5 we were in hospital for blood tests for jaundice the advice I got from a Pediatrics doctor is to feed every 3 hours 10 min max on each side (“after 20 min feed baby is not getting any nutrients and just using breast as dummy and if you feed baby constantly you wouldn’t know if and when your breasts are getting full”), give baby formula if still hungry after these 20 min and repeat every 3 hours. A sure way to stop BF in my opinion with an excuse of not having enough milk. Lucky this was DC3 and I bf DC1 and DC2 for >2 years each so knew some principles and ignored that advice.

Choice

Also many women can't afford to take 12 months maternity leave - mine only lasted 18 weeks so breastfed for 12 weeks and then HV said to allow 6 weeks to wean in readiness for DD to go to childminder

(And no I can't pump - I work in construction!)

I definitely second poor advice, my second wouldn't latch on at all in hospital, tongue tie wasn't even mentioned! and because I DID have serious production issues with my first DC, i just assumed oh there must be nothing there and was handed a bottle. how di they sort tongue tie? x

I don’t know, but I’d advise against it. Ruined my breasts and took over my life for two years...

@SnuggyBuggy

The low expectations we have as a society for the HCPs who work with pregnant and postpartum women is a disgrace. I don't try why it's so acceptable for them to be so poorly trained on breastfeeding

I agree with this. Surely it's a fundamental part of the job. We wouldnt accept midwives who werent trained to take blood pressure, or to do membrane sweeps. Why accept a midwife who isnt trained to support breastfeeding?

Ruined my breasts and took over my life for two years...

Does it ruin breasts? I thought pregnancy itself took a toll. My boobs didn't really grow much throughout pregnancy/bf but were big to start with. Some of my friends went up 3 sizes & they seem the most unhappy after the subsequent weight loss & some of them only FF.

Formula is heavily marketed even though it’s officially not meant to be. We all know the brands and the different markets that each brand is aimed at. Aptimil is the middle class choice, Cow and Gate for younger poorer mums etc even though they’re all the same nutritionally.

I breastfed and it’s hard at the beginning. You’re tied to the baby and that is your whole life for a period of several months. It’s not really surprising to me that people don’t want to do it.

It didn't ruin my breasts, although by the end of BF (2 years per DC), they looked like poor, saggy little things. They have since returned to their normal shape and size though!

I have to say it didn’t ruin mine. And I fed two kids for a year each. Both times by 4-6 months they were feeding for a total of an hour a day (in TOTAL) so maybe 5-6 feeds each lasting 10 mins. I have to say I am not very hippy- I didn’t offer my breast as comfort beyond the baby stage and to me it fulfilled feeding needs. Unless someone was in extreme discomfort (DS2 was hospitalised and I did breastfeed him through procedures) I kept the breast strictly for feeding purposes.

I think a few things. One aspect is definitely cultural:

-You see bottle feeding on TV and in rl much more than breastfeeding. The universal sign for a baby is basically a bottle. The whole prudish boobs are for sex stupidity. I actually found the though of it a bit weird (despite wanting to do it!) I had to watch a video of about a hundred babies latching on so I could work out what on earth you do. I'd never seen another woman do it, which is really odd in itself.

-Then I think the breastfeeding support for those who try is not there. I was lucky I could afford nct and hypnobirtbing classes before having my baby which looked at it a lot. I also had the confidence to speak to over 5 midwifes about breastfeeding to make sure I did it right when he was here. I then paid for a lactation consultant to get my baby's tongue-tie cut at 5 days old because the NHS didn't even pick it up. 😐

-Return to work will reduce the rates a lot

-Ff is such an easy switch when bf isn't working. I'm not saying that's a bad thing as babies genuinely starve in other countries, but a woman will also have 5 other bf women around her helping the latch. They will spend all day every day doing it until it works. I know a lot of people who felt helpless and depressed and gave up after one day, for many of the other reasons expressed above.

However I also know a lot of people who still bf. I wonder (sadly) if it's an education and class thing too. A single mum on benefits probably isn't getting the same support. Which is awful.

Overly sexualisation of the breast and the act of BF. Body shaming women.
Also breast milk isn’t a commodity. So there is much less promotion of it than wealthy formula companies.
I combi fed my son, so no judgement on women that do either. But there are so many women I know that wouldn’t do it because they felt embarrassed or that it wasn’t natural x

We are generally a more closed society (especially now with covid!) We are not surrounded by other women doing it.

almost most women don't like being the sole feeder and having a baby living off their breasts, contact feeding etc. I actually wanted to do it more than anything. I didn't care about getting into a routine or being this perfect Instagram mum. That's rl for you! But I can see how some mums couldn't cope with that.

*also

I am pregnant with my first and won't be BF (have my reasons and happy to stick to this)
But I have found my experience of being pregnant they like to talk about breastfeeding and making sure I'm reading up about it and if I have questions etc. I nearly don't want to tell them I intend to FF so just smile and nod!

So maybe there's a change and the focus will be back on BF?

They as in the midwives**

I think it's largely socio economic and cultural:

It's perfectly fine and safe to formula feed, it's a valid option that is right there. Because of this, despite the 'breast is best' stuff from the NHS, effort isn't really put in by health care professionals to really help with breastfeeding, lactation consultants are expensive and difficult to come by. Formula is right there on the shelf in Tesco.

Motherhood in the UK is much more relatively isolated than it used to be, or is in other countries. Mothers tend to be generally a lot more on their own, without their mums, aunties, mums friends etc all around them also being very hands on with raising the child and being able to help with breastfeeding. It's not really the same going to a breastfeeding group at your local children's centre (although what's one of those these days?!) and crying over your latch in front of a load of strangers.

It's cultural. We have worse BFing rates than Japan, the Scandinavian countries and the US (the last of which has mothers going back to work much earlier than the UK). It is a disgrace that our rates are so low but most women don't have mothers who BF so they can't help (or actively discourage as my aunt did to my cousin) and the support from MWs and HCPs is patchy at best. Is it any surprise women give up when we live in a FF culture that claims 'fed is best' and sends women to dirty toilets to BF beause it is viewed as disgusting to BF in public.

Not enough education, not enough support, and feeling culture in families.

For me it was completely normal to see family breastfeeding, there’s a photo of me about age 3 breast feeding my doll! For some people they just bottle feed as it’s what they’ve always done.

Personally I couldn’t be bothered with sterilising bottles and buying formula, seems like a lot more work, and once breastfeeding is established its less work. I guess that’s the cultural thing!

Another contributing factor to add to all the excellent responses above, is Britain's only partial adherence to WHO guidelines about the marketing of breastmilk substitutes. Britain has got round the ban on advertising infant formula by instead, advertising follow-on formula, which many other countries don't. Many other countries comply fully with the guidelines. Follow-on formula only exists to overcome the marketing ban. This is only one of many factors though!