Joe Wicks and his breastfeeding journey

[IHaveAGreyLamp]

Joe Wicks has written in his ‘Wean to 15’ weaning and cookery book about how his wife breastfed their first child. He refers to it as ‘his’ journey- ‘This is just me sharing my experience and journey’. Sorry Joe but what exactly was your breastfeeding journey?

He goes to on preach about how you should just do what’s right for you and your baby, and ignore the opinions of anyone else. Sage advice but I think I would have felt better if it had actually come from his wife (you know, the person of actual experience of breastfeeding and what it’s really like?)

There’s also a lot of ‘we did this’ and ‘we did that’, for example his wife both pumped and breastfed but ‘we found this quite challenging’. Yes Joe I’m sure you did find it quite challenging considering you were neither breastfeeding nor pumping.

I have to say I’ve found myself filled with an irrational rage reading this section of the book. Why couldn’t he have let his wife write this section, to talk about it from a breastfeeding mother’s point of view, rather than a man trying to claim something so inherently biologically female as his? Argh!

Luckily I had only been lent the book to have a look through- I would have been even more annoyed if I’d actually paid £8 to line the pockets of this smug and annoying individual!

I agree, @Hardbackwriter, that's a concern.

There are occasionally threads on here about fathers who have very strong feelings about their partners breastfeeding, aren't there? I get that breastfeeding is a good thing and that it would be great if all women were supported to do it if they want to and are able. But there is a real risk that this sort of emphasis on 'our' breastfeeding might end up with men feeling they're entitled to push at their partners to feed when their partners are actually struggling with it to an extent that it becomes damaging to them.

Unless he is one of the weaning gestapo who makes you feel terrible because your toddler had a crumb of birthday cake or won’t eat organic kale... then he can get in the bin,

[quote OverTheRubicon]@Clymene it's pretty sad when a poster on a feminism board thinks it's hilariously unlikely that a young new father might ever read a book on child nutrition. [/quote]
I'm a realist as well as a feminist.

Isn't he the plonker who's written that you should wean babies on bitter green leafy veg and only then introduce such sugary goodies as pureed carrot?

If so he's a (sugar-laden, weaning-contraband) banana.

@LauraMipsum

Isn't he the plonker who's written that you should wean babies on bitter green leafy veg and only then introduce such sugary goodies as pureed carrot?

If so he's a (sugar-laden, weaning-contraband) banana.

Yes, he is. And that's what he worried some poor mother on here recently about because her baby wouldn't eat kale.

Knob.

Maybe he found it challenging because he was concerned for his wife about what she was going through? My DH found those early weeks tough too, and helped out as much as he could with sterilising the kit and feeding baby the pumped milk.

I was concerned about my friend going through cancer treatment, because of what she was going through. I helped out as much as I could.

But to describe it as “ My chemotherapy journey” would be fucking insulting to her, her husband and her children.

Being concerned about someone and trying to help them doesn't allow you to appropriate their struggles for yourself.

I didn’t have cancer, she did.

Men don’t get pregnant or give birth, their wives and partners do.There’s no “ we “ that are pregnant or “we” who gave birth.

Exactly what S00LA said.

Soola just somes up the whole thing for me just exactly that.

Complete marketing gimmick. He did his “Lean in 15”.....desperately looking for the next thing. Can just imagine - ‘what next, what rhymes with Lean.....Bean? Ooooh! WEAN!!! We’ll do that’ 🙄🙄🙄

He refers to it as ‘his’ journey- ‘This is just me sharing my experience and journey’. Sorry Joe but what exactly was your breastfeeding journey? Well that reads like he's sharing his experience of his wife bfing and then the baby weaning (he seems to do alot of the cooking) bit his experience of what it was like for him when the baby used the live in breasts for food. Unless he's talking about when we got mastitis or when our boobs were rock hard or when we leaked in public and didn't realise etc i don't think he's claiming anything that isn't just his experience of having a new baby.

He goes to on preach about how you should just do what’s right for you and your baby, and ignore the opinions of anyone else. But the advice is right so why is it automatically invalid of it comes from him, a male doctor, your husband etc just because they haven't breast fed? What if it was a women who's never tried it had kids? Can only women who have breastfed tell you it's ok not to?

There’s also a lot of ‘we did this’ and ‘we did that’, for example his wife both pumped and breastfed but ‘we found this quite challenging’ again depends on wider context. We found it hurt our breasts, we found getting up at 3 am and being milked whilst the baby slept, yes that's weird but in general terms why couldn't they both find it hard albeit for different reasons? Because she found it officially hard and he cared about her. Because it creates so much extra work and you're whole family's life can become centered around it? Maybe he did find looking after the newborn hard. It isn't a crime for a Dad to not relish every single second or parenthood and not be absolutely perfect at it.

Yes the whole thing could have been written from a different perspective but then don't read one written by a man

Complete marketing gimmick. He did his “Lean in 15”.....desperately looking for the next thing. Can just imagine - ‘what next, what rhymes with Lean.....Bean? Ooooh! WEAN!!! We’ll do that’ 🙄🙄🙄

Yip. When my dd left home she "forgot" her jw recipe book and a gallon drum of coconut oil she said I could use it

I agree OP - just like that Jamie Oliver tweet about his wife's 'natursl' birth. Ffs.

My DS did manage to latch on to DH once. Maybe Joe could ask him about his breastfeeding experience.