Not sure if anyone saw it this morning on the BBC News but it was very interesting to see.
They are campaigning for fomula adverts to be banned as currently they are able to advertise for babies from 6 months. I thought it was 12 months so was a bit shocked to hear it!
There was a lady representing the NCT and a midwife that is doing a study into breastfeeding and why 3 in 4 women start off BF but give up in the first few weeks. Interesting that the MW discovered, although not set out to examine positioning of bf mothers, that most could not position correctly, therefore uncomfortable, tired and often caused the babies not to latch on.
Sian Williams does go down in my estimations each time they do a report on babies and parenting. There was that awful talk on Baby Led Weaning that made me shout at the tv and now she is arguing against the NCT woman about breastfeeding. Yes we do all know that breast is best and yes a lot of us couldn't do it. The point is, most of us couldn't do it because we didn't get the support we needed not like Sian was saying because we weren't physically able. The NCT lady pointed out very very little women can actually physically not bf, she said something like 1% can't.
I thought I couldn't BF with Erin but on reflection I now know that with some guidance and support I could have got there in the end. I wasn't even asked why I switched to formula by my mw or hv or whether they could help.
Instead of fluffing up the fact that so many of us give up (and yes I am one of them) and putting it down to not being "able" why not help, show and support us how to bf efficiently. As natural as it is, it doesn't always come naturally and it's a shame that in today's society people are more scared of making women feel like a failure by showing them the right way (formula is offered far to easily in hospitals) that the mothers and babies are both missing out in the long run. Why is advice taken as a critism these days?
Bump to Motherhood
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
One of the most important things you can have when you are a doula is all that information to hand for your clients - breastfeeding helpline numbers, locations of breastfeeding cafes if they exist etc.
Sorry Hannah, that's me, Lesley! Hubby must have been on Blogger since I last logged on.
Haha! I guessed it was you Lesley. I'm collecting up quite portfolia of information already for when I start :o)
I was very fortunate to have excellent support from my midwives as I breastfed all of my children. This included bf twins often at the same time. I had to have my twins in a local big hospital but after 4 days I was transferred to my local midwife unit. I spent 4 days purely being supported with bf and expressing. It was more difficult than with my 2 single babies as the twins were being tube fed for the first 4 days. Once we got home we managed to get into a great pattern. I would never have managed if I hadn't had such a great support at the start.
I really struggled with bfing but my midwife arranged for a breastfeeding co-ordinator to come and see me, it was superb. Without i think i'd have given up.
Post a Comment