Breastfeeding Uncovered

[tuckingfypo]

Is anyone else watching?

Just turned on to it. I'm quite frankly pretty outraged already, but only been watching for 5 minutes

Mainly middle class women tend to breast feed hence the stats show these kids end up healthier than those who are poorer anyway.
This point is never brought up.

When the presenter said she did a shout out to her breastfeeding "mummas"

Apparently 67% of people surveyed think there is no difference between breast milk and formula?

Now they're trying to uncover the hypocrisy of people judging breastfeeding mum's. I've no doubt it does happen, rarely. I've breastfed 2 babies and not once had anyone say anything negative.

And stuff about formula advertising showing an idealised image of childhood.... It's ADVERTISING.

As someone who really really struggled with feeding, I'm finding this a bit of a hard watch quite frankly. And the presenter sat there going on about new motherhood being a tough time, whilst contentedly breastfeeding her baby is getting right on my tits.

It's the patronising tone.

You get told how breastfeeding helps prevent so many diseases
diseases but if you formula feed, well oh that's your choice & aren't you still a great mother.

Just leave mothers to do what suits them & stop judging!

@endoftether82 agree! I'm very lucky that after the first initial bumps in the road we've had a fairly straightforward breastfeeding journey.

But this programme makes me feel like I should be shouting from the rooftops about how much I love breastfeeding. When really all I want is for my DD to take a bottle so I can have a bloody night off formula or breast milk, I don't care, as long as she's not feeding from me!

This programme is giving me the ultimate rage. No doubt to the Mother Earth presenter, who obviously invented breast feeding, I’d be the mother from hell. I FF after being put on Warfarin 3 days after DD’s birth because of a PE at 32 weeks.

Now I'm getting mad at all the people who are saying it should be kept private!

I think most people are staring because there's probably a big camera crew filming. I've never noticed anyone noticing me feeding, I'd like to think I'm quite subtle

I'm just sad how little things have changed in 16 years!!!!

It is going to take very many decades to get breastfeeding seen as acceptable in the UK! Makes me so

I'm not finding it patronising at all, all mothers should do what they think is best for their tots.

I turned over as it was making me quite cross. Ridiculous after all this time I still feel shamed and guilty by not being able to breastfeed successfully

I had to turn it off as it was making me so cross! I breast fed both my daughters, 1 for 6 months and the other for 11 months! Never had a negative comment or problem and I fed in loads of random places! If anything this.programme will put even more new mums off! Rage.

No one wants Mums who couldn't breastfeed to feel bad, what we want is a society where all mums get support yes to breast feed and you know perhaps enough donated breast milk so all babies could have breast milk not just hospitalised premmies!

@NoNoCharlieRascal I'm the same!! It's making me feel awful all over again!!

Please don't feel guilty, read Emily Osters book Expecting Better, someone who actually analysed all the research regarding benefits of breastfeeding.

@NoNoCharlieRascal the disclaimer at the start, that the programme is not about shaming mum's who formula feed. But a programme like this undoubtably will make people feel sad/ashamed/angry.

It's such a tentative subject, and I know it may be twee but I do believe the phrase "fed is best". My best friend didn't have a good start breastfeeding and chose to switch to formula early on. Nothing wrong with that, her baby is beautiful and happy.

I honestly think programmes like this make it a much bigger issue than it is, in terms of public attitude. From that programme you would think most people are disgusted by breastfeeding. From my own experience no one really gives a shit.

The only thing I will say is I don't think there is enough support for breastfeeding mums, I certainly found whilst in hospital, every single midwife gave me contradictory advise. They need to have one technique that they all teach, instead of every midwife having their own technique and insisting theirs is the right way.

That is in no way an insult to midwives, all the midwives I had took great care of me, but the inconsistency in breastfeeding advice made things so much more confusing.

I had as much support as you could get. Leche league, private breastfeeding consultant, great partner. I was still on a feeding schedule of 3 hourly breastfeeding, then expressing, then topping up with formula. I couldn’t have had more support, breastfeeding was just really really hard for me. And being made to feel guilty about it doesn’t help. The vast majority of people know breastfeeding is better than formula. But making out that if you formula feed then your kid is going to end up obese and diabetic isn’t helping anyone.

Yea I’ve never had a negative comment and I’ve fed anywhere and everywhere. I think people sometimes like to make negative looks/comments more of an issue than it really is. That said I do think a lot of new mums feel nervous about feeding in public so that needs to change. It was a good documentary but I wish it had been longer and had shown more of the video diaries of the new mums.

I honestly think programmes like this make it a much bigger issue than it is, in terms of public attitude. From that programme you would think most people are disgusted by breastfeeding. From my own experience no one really gives a shit.

During the bit where people were saying they didn't like women breastfeeding in public I was thinking to myself that they could have asked maybe a few hundred people and only 4 or 5 of them had negative comments, but they chose to feature them exclusively. Not very honest journalism.

I don't have kids so obviously have never breastfed but anytime I see a woman doing so, I never see anyone make negative comments. Of course I'd be much more sensitive if it was me, and maybe I don't notice it if it happens. But I do think this was deliberately alarmist, in the well-known C4 fashion.

Exactly, it's a snapshot of people but not the whole picture. With my first I was very shy and hated breastfeeding in public. I wore a breastfeeding pinny (I called it The Titty Tent), and the fact that said titty tent looked ridiculous probably meant more people stared than if I just went without.

For first time mum's especially, I think there's the idea that people will stare and judge and make comments (programmes like this perpetuating that idea) but really, no one notices.

In fact, the only comments I've ever had have been positive ones.

I wish they had talked more about cluster feeding. I don't think some people get the sheer amount of time you have to spend feeding a newborn.

tuckingfype You're so right that there isn't the support in hospital. I was fortunate that my baby's latch and her instincts were good because I had almost zero support with breastfeeding in hospital and yet had to be successful with it before we could be discharged!

I'm watching on record and finding it interesting but, so far, they've missed the point that people don't breastfeed because it's so bloody hard and we are not taught about this! Finding it so exhausting and not being able to share the load is what made me think I was doing it wrong/there was something wrong with my baby. I only kept going when I made it to a breastfeeding cafe and was able to talk to other women who told me it was normal.

@hodgeheg92 same here, for DD2 we had a few hiccups, poor weight gain and we had to top up with formula (well, we tried to, but DD2 would never take a bottle)

With DD1 I did have more support. I saw many different midwives who all had their own methods, and as I mentioned before, they were all telling me the previous person was wrong. DD1 was latched but it was AGONY. Not one midwife helped, they just said that she was latched on correctly and to just persevere. But it was truly horrific I just couldn't keep her latched on. I was lucky enough to be transferred to a different hospital where I saw a lactation consultant who saw that the problem was the way DD1 was sucking was not the "correct" way, and she fixed us as if by magic. That maternity ward is no longer open, if I wanted to see a lactation consultant with DD2 it wouldn't have been an option without paying a lot of money that I didn't have.

Helene Hayman famously breastfed in the House of Commons in the 1970s, so you would think that battle would have been won by now.
I am glad mums on here don't feel they get 'looks' from people, but I do think it is a shame people feel the need to feed under a cover, as if they feel there is something to hide.

There is a certain amount of support in my area but it was so anti formula. Ds was consistently losing weight and no matter how many groups and services I attended it never got any better until he went on the bottle.

The problem then is you are pretty much exiled from the small support group you had built up in that time. Not fun as a first time mum with no support network of my own in the area.