Mumsnet undermining breastfeeding again.

[Redebs]

Just read the Mumsnet article on caring for newborn babies. It's sponsored by a bottle manufacturer.

Much of it is misinformation that will seriously interfere with mothers' success with breastfeeding. For example trying to get a feeding routine for a two month old baby. This is totally against normal practice for on demand breastfeeding.

Anyone aiming for regular naps will be seriously frustrated and will think there is something wrong with them and their baby. Night feeding is treated as if it's a massive burden that should be shared by using a bottle.The massively negative impact of inaccurate information and expectations is aimed at discouraging breastfeeding.

There's a 'helpful' link to another article on 'combination feeding' aka introducing formula, along with references to a whole lot of bottle feeding products you should buy.

The WHO condemns companies that use misinformation and pressure on mothers not to breastfeed. While it may be subtly disguised, that is exactly what articles like this are doing.

And for money.

Because it’s good on a population level and lots of women want to but can’t because of lack of support, such as tongue ties not being spotted and clipped early enough, for instance, or being given misinformation on how breastfeeding works, freaking out that clusterfeeding means low supply, and giving up when they don’t want to. Nothing about what I said suggests I want women who don’t want to breastfeed forced to at gunpoint. As for arrogance, aren’t we all stating our own opinions here? How arrogant you think yours trumps mine.

Why shouldn't other people's babies be given the health advantage that you give yours?
And why are you so angry about it?

On any other female centred issue on here - for example abortion - its ‘trust women’ and ‘let people make their own decisions’. With breastfeeding, the same posters turn up to say women are too stupid to make their own decisions and need ‘further guidance’ to achieve the result they would ‘like to see’.

What makes you think women are uninformed rather than just making a different choice to you? As formula is perfectly safe and nutritious, what does it matter anyway? It’s literally a non issue.

The support that is needed is breastfeeding support. The vast majority of people who stop could have continued with the right knowledge. Then there wouldn't be hordes of women believing that they couldn't breastfeed and needing emotional support.

The evidence strongly shows that a large proportion of women who started breastfeeding and then stopped wanted to continue longer. So there are women out there who WANT to do it but don't get the information or support to achieve their aim.

If all those women got that support then our breastfeeding rates would be higher - how is that a bad thing?

To be clear we are talking about women who WANTED to breastfeed.

Formula is not as nutritious as the manufacturers claim.
They were recently caught out lying about ingredients

’Angry’ 😆 you’re the one who started a whole thread about other women’s decisions, not me!

The health advantage is negligible. So small it’s only noticeable when you study hundreds of thousands of babies. Why not focus on obesity or screen time? Both are much worse for a child’s health. Rather than interfering in the perfectly safe choices of other women.

I don’t know why you are bothered so much? Everyone got their own brain cells to figure out something as important as feeding a child what they want to do?

I was fed on formula milk and back in the days it was supposedly the more ‘fashionable’ thing to do and my generation of millennials are grown up alright?

there are plenty of research of both side. Don’t get so worked up

@Moonicorn well, judging by some the articles on mumsnet they are reading misleading information so ... that...

Informed on all subjects to do with women's health is best. We all know though that women's health doesn't matter and clear information is rarely available. I mean the NHS website doesn't even like using the word woman to describe female cancers ...

Formula is not as nutritious as the manufacturers claim.

It's more nutritious than no feeding at all. I genuinely tried so hard to breastfeed. I was producing very little milk. The midwives & health visitors tried to help. I wasn't even able to express enough for a single feed. It wasn't the lack of trying or support. My body let me down. And posts like these still make me feel terrible, even now DS is almost 18.

Isn’t a sponsored Mumsnet article about bottles that could undermine successful breastfeeding interfering with women’s decisions? I think it’s an important topic, personally: why are rates in the UK so low? Does it matter? Can they be changed? I think they do matter, for health benefits on a population level as well as all the points @Twizbe made about mothers who wanted to continue but didn’t have the support to continue.

I don’t give a hoot about screen time and think everything in moderation is key, there; and I do care about obesity but this isn’t a thread about obesity. You might as well play the “what about CLIMATE CHANGE and UKRAINE” thread shutter-downer for all that screen time is relevant to this debate.

@monicorn where is your source that breastfeeding benefits are negligible

Not what I have read in the thousands of peer reviewed medical journals

That’s a different argument. When you say ‘just making sure they’re informed’ it sounds very much like ‘I won’t consider them ‘informed enough’ until they make decisions I approve of’.

Just stop honestly. Formula feeding is safe,
nutritious, and the health outcomes are negligible. So many kids are overweight, eat junk, have rotting teeth, do no exercise. Focus on those if you want to ‘help’ and ‘care about children’s health’.

The effect is indeed negligible. Wheel out your most impressive ‘breastfeeding statistics’ and they still make very little difference to an individual overall.

A friend asked me for support with FF as I was the only person she knew who had FF. She was trying to follow the advice on the box with her 2 week old baby. It told her how many mls, how many times a day. They were trying to soothe a hungry baby to get it to go "the right number of hours" between feeds then jiggling the baby to drink the "right amount" at each feed. I explained that they needed to follow their baby's cues and feed what they naturally took on demand. That wasn't on the box.

If you haven't formula fed then it is sneering to say "the instructions are on the box". Learn some empathy and try to think about the wider experiences of others.

There's a 'helpful' link to another article on 'combination feeding' aka introducing formula, along with references to a whole lot of bottle feeding products you should buy.

Proof you've spectacularly missed the point

I see your point but it does sound like nothing would have pleased you but a how to article on BF on demand and that really doesn't work for everyone.

The only person undermining women here is you, OP.

I’ve never understood why one mum would care so much about how another mum feeds their baby. You, as a mum, do what’s right for you or your baby.

You do not love your baby more or less due to your method of feeding. . You are not a better mother by your method of feeding. You do not have a stronger bond by your method of feeding.

Surely baby being loved, fed and well-cared for and mum’s physical and mental health being good is what matters.

Don't be silly.

I agree OP. Its vile how sneakily formula is pushed on new mums.

I’m surprised your crony hasn’t reared her head yet.

It's never ever occurred to me to even think of how another Mum feeds her child, let alone judge. I literally couldn't care less if Mary down the road formula feeds her baby and Janet next door breastfeeds.

It's so strange to me that people get upset about this topic. It's such a personal choice as well as medical, some women just cannot breastfeed.

I'm 29 weeks pregnant and I will try and breastfeed but if I can't, I have bottles stored away and will buy a tub of formula just in case.

Everyone should read The Politics of Breastfeeding: When Breasts are Bad for Business. It's on Amazon and kindle. It clearly demonstrates the way formula companies undermine breastfeeding and have done for decades.

Our low breastfeeding rates are not an accident or because there is a biological phenomenon where British women just don't produce milk. We are fed bad information, receive poor support, we are told it's common to "not produce enough" and to need to "top up" - which in turn only reduces our supply and makes reliance on formula more likely.

I was told so much contradictory damaging nonsense when trying to establish breastfeeding and I struggled terribly because of it. My newborn wanting to be held and nursed all the time was explained to me by a midwife that the baby was hungry and that I didn't have enough milk for him and he needed formula. Being a worried FTM I took the bottle and gave it to him. It took us 3 months to get off formula after that, because of the supply issues that were caused by supplementary feeding.

Some women genuinely might not be able to breastfeed. But the vast majority of us are sabotaged one way or the other.

Because as a society we are being conned. We have the perfect product for our babies at our disposal but we are collectively losing the ability to use it and are instead lining the pockets of corportations to feed our babies an inferior product. Our breasts are seen as sexual objects rather than for feeding. And we're tearing strips off each other because of it.

No it doesn't affect me how Sally down the road feeds her baby but the bigger picture is infuriating.