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Breastfeeding article

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
So what do people think about this article from the guardian?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/07/breastfeeding-women-bottle-feeding-problem?CMP=twt_gu

"By judging mothers’ choices, we reinforce the idea that women can’t be trusted to decide what’s right for their bodies"

In my view she definitely has a point. I feel sympathy for all women who have their choices judged, but I especially feel for those who get criticised for not breastfeeding. I think it's important that women are informed of all the facts surrounding the benefits of breastfeeding, but beyond that it's nobody else's business.

For people who want to, but can't... I imagine it must be really distressing to have all this criticism floating around from various sources.

What do people think?

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I agree mostly and dislike what I perceive to be a made up competition between mums that use formula and mums that use their boobs. We can't win. Mums that use formula get chastised by health visitors whilst mums that breastfeed are called 'breastfeeding nazis' or the 'breastapo'. But from my experience, at the beginning breastfeeding is hard and can sometimes feel impossible. I don't feel like I was prepared at all from the info I was given the hospital and the NCT antenatal classes I went to into how much of a hard slog it would be. That I would be sitting for hours and hours with Bax. I had no idea what I was doing and had to google mid feed on my phone to work out if he was even feeding properly. All of this I found out at a later date is perfectly normal in the beginning but I was so close to giving up.

    A lot of my friends have told me how they wanted to breastfeed but that 'it wasn't working'. Maybe I'm being presumptuous but I became convinced it 'wasn't working' either. I was fortunate enough to have an old contact who is a lactation consultant in my email list who gave me all the facts and told me that this long, hard slog was normal. Without that I'd think my boobs 'didn't work' either.

    Women need the nitty gritty info of how shit it can be at the beginning so they can start having faith in their own bodies. Not the watered down 'it either works, or it doesn't'. That makes it seem as if breastfeeding is some sort of innate power only some women have when really for a lot of women it's something to be learnt and perfected for mum and baby.

    If HV's and other professionals are short sighted enough to cast it off as a personal failing on some poor knackered mum then they are an idiot. Adequate support and no bull shit real info is what is needed. Not judgements and tuts.
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