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.

The op and a couple of other posters have objected to the article recommending routine feeding as this was one thing that undermined BF. This is also incorrect as I perfectly happily EBF 3 DCs on routines from week 1. It was amazing. My first on demand was a nightmare. Even when people are trying to give correct information it isn't always correct for everyone.
For my first I did move to formula eventually and agree that I found it almost impossible to find advice on how. Much more complex than 'reading the packet'.

Formula feeding much better and easier on mums, but if one wants to breastfeed then do it

Exactly who cares what others do I just can’t understand it😂 plus for every woman saying breastfeeding is easier, others find formula feeding easier. Depending on soooo many factors. Good news is they get to solids pretty quick so all their fuss is for nothing!

But.. 5% of women is really quite a lot of women?

And I'd argue there's a not insignificant amount of women who could EBF successfully and the baby would indeed survive, like my son. If I lived in pre-formula times, there's a good chance he would have struggled on until he could be weaned as early as possible. But he wouldn't have anywhere near thrived without combi-feeding. There were medical and physiological reasons for this btw so not remotely interested in having anyone pick apart my experience - this was the conclusion reached by doctors and LCs when he was a month old, and I destroyed my mental health convincing myself I could move back to EBF until about 8 months when I accepted that combi feeding was fine - this was due to posts and sentiments like this I'd read online making me believe I could overcome the medically impossible if I just tried hard enough. I wish I could get that time back

Oh come on. All of those questions could be easily answered in 30 seconds on Google. Failing that, given that the vast majority of babies are formula fed then there's plenty of parents around to ask questions of.

The same can't be said of BFing and that's the problem. The less mothers who are successful at it, the less there are to provide natural support and reassurance to their friends, their sisters, their daughters. It's far easier to look up the answer to a specific question like "can a bottle be rapidly cooled safely" than it is to find out online that actually yes you are producing enough milk but your baby is going through a growth spurt for example.

It also doesn't always work. I did exactly what I was meant to - BF immediately after birth, on demand, no formula, no dummy, just BF on demand, round the clock.

Result = milk failed to come in.

Ironically I then got put on a feeding routine of 3 hourly BFing and pumping to try and force my milk to come in.

Eg Mental support for someone who can’t bf due to chemo who is formula feeding?? Can’t Google that love. Support should be given to all.

I know someone that drive themselves into such a mental state from not being able to bf she ended up being sectioned as her mental health alongside a screaming starving baby drove her insane. Ironically the baby went to her elderly mother for 3 months who formula fed her with a bottle. Sometimes bottles best ☝️

Also it’s ok that sone women do not want to bf. Totally ok. You do know that don’t you? There’s doesn’t have to be a reason/an issue….they don’t want to. And so what. Enjoy your bottle feeds 👍

I'm not sure how having to get up in the night and go downstairs to make a bottle and then sit up feeding them is easier than BFing in bed but hey ho

Or how having to sterilise bottles is easier than not having to

Or having to take bottles out when you leave the house is easier than taking your own body

Or having to spend huge amounts on formula each week is better than feeding for free

I am surprised at so much aggression against people who are just trying to encourage and enable proper infant feeding.

Even though you say you have made that choice yourself, over and over again you insult and flame anyone who cares about how babies are fed. It's bizarre.

There have always been those of us who care about the ways companies put profits ahead of other people's wellbeing. It's not a position I find hard to defend. I care that mothers aren't misled. I'm angry at the lies these companies tell to fool people.

But to be so angry and upset by that, as you are, that you repeatedly insult and abuse posters? It doesn't change the facts. It doesn't make formula 'just as good'.

The biggest problem is it talks about feeding routine. Babies should be demand fed!

Op you never responded to my one request

to post a single quote from the article that is evidence of “sneakily” promoting formula and doing as you claim

I suspect you didn’t bother to read the article. Just made an assumption and ran with it

You can do that with a boob or bottle guys don’t stress

Women are not to be infantilised. They choose to feed the way suits them and their lifestyle.

No article can 'undermine!!!' Breastfeeding adult human females choose.

I don’t think blanket statements like “much better and easier” help – on either side of the debate. Which to be clear I don’t believe should be a debate: most parenting choices shouldn’t be! It depends on the mother, the baby, the circumstances, the support.

I also think there’s a postcode lottery and a lot of luck involved in whether you end up surrounded by midwives, health visitors and professionals who advocate more for one or the other, or push one or the other. My first baby in Brighton the support was there but in a “just do it” way – I remember being in tears with one midwife standing there barking “delatch, latch again” over and over and I felt like I was in Private Benjamin for Boobs – with no one spotting or addressing the posterior tongue tie, and advocating for formula top-ups almost immediately rather than looking for root causes why breastfeeding wasn’t immediately succeeding. It took a lot of pain and money to breastfeed. Most recent baby at Hastings I had help straight away in theatre (C-section) that was much more practical: you want him to feed? OK, let’s see what we can do! Tongue tie spotted at birth, clipped within hours, midwives helping with latch and my recovery so I had the energy, literally physically supporting him and me in positions and latch; my home midwife even bringing me a nipple shield on Christmas Day to help my tiny baby engage with giant engorged boobs. It was a dream and he feeds like a dream; it’s very easy and I don’t see how formula would be any easier.

Formula was never mentioned because I was adamant I wanted to breastfeed, but I know from earwigging across the ward that mothers who planned to formula feed were equally well supported with information on amounts and preparation and hunger signals, and had the same level of attention to feeding and sign-off on feeding before being discharged home. But I know anecdotally this support isn’t universal: whether you’re breastfeeding or formula feeding, it really should be. Newborns are exhausting and all mothers should have what they need to succeed in feeding them. But that doesn’t mean sly advertisements and misinformation; it means more of my latter experience and less of my former.

Baffling adult women still can't just accept other adult women's choices for their own bodies. Bf/ff wtaf cares.

Do what suits you and mind your nose poke into other women's business

There’s no “should” about it.

But formula is also a choice for ‘proper’ feeding. Just because my children were bottle fed doesn’t mean that I don’t care how they were fed. The only insults I’ve seen have been towards people who have supported those who bottle feed either by choice or necessity.

Regardless of bottle or breast, a young baby should be fed on demand. To say otherwise goes against all official national and international advice.

I did "proper infant feeding" as you so charmingly put it.

The result was a baby so starving hungry with serious dehydration she only narrowly avoided brain damage. She had to be tube fed formula to save her life, as she was too weak to suck by then.

Careful that will lunch you for tube feeding next 😂hope she’s ok now x

I thought it was utter rubbish. I knew the article you were referring to by the title.

The hard work of bf pays off. Even more so for extended feeding. I've not slept a night or more than three hours in three years. But it's better for him to have the breast milk. I want to give him the best Even through mastitis, a burst ulcer on my areola I continued. It's what he needs. My needs are second to the children.
I'm also a ME and fibro sufferer who is physically disabled from another condition. We zoom around with him sat on my lap in my wheelchair when I can. Sleep is so vital for me. But I can catch up which to be fair working mothers can not. But....

If others don't want to persevere or feel they can't. Fine. But that article was extremely unsupportive and advised to do things which would make breastfeeding even harder.

It was essentially an advert for formula/ bottles disguised as an informative and supportive article. Very sneaky.

Great you’re doing what you want to do but many don’t want to bf so I guess the article didn’t need yo promote it. Plenty of articles to do that. Your language ‘but it’s better for him to have the breast milk’ is the issue. It’s better for you maybe. He would do well on either fyi.