Breast feeding, pros and cons

thatgirlsam

AnnieM.. you certainly will not be a bad mother!
you have every right to decide to bf of ff..
unfortunately there will be those who judge you, but guess what - they are not perfect parents, no-one is..

tbh its the attitude of some bf mothers who most likely put off some women from bf altogether.. i know it did me a bit when i was pg with dd..

neverdespairgirl

thatgirlsam wrote: »

well i was speaking a someone who lives and works in the uk.. i do apologise to the rest of the world but was stating facts used by the NHS in this country..

i am well aware that other countries do not have access to clean water, but thanks for calling me thick

As it was the World Health Organisation being quoted, perhaps the advice they give is related to the.... er..... world!

You called someone else stupid, so glass houses and stones spring to mind.

neverdespairgirl

AnnieM wrote: »

3. FF is inferior to the healthy norm .

That's just true. It's inferior. Fact. Deal with it.

I smoked when I got pregnant. Then gave up at 6 weeks. That's inferior to my not having smoked at all, and I don't expect people to !!!!!-foot round me by denying it!

thatgirlsam

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

As it was the World Health Organisation being quoted, perhaps the advice they give is related to the.... er..... world!

You called someone else stupid, so glass houses and stones spring to mind.

no, i said that was a stupid comment, not you are stupid.
ok, i apologise to all the ladies from the developing world reading this.. the information i gave may not be correct for you..
and for everyone else, i was right.

neverdespairgirl

thatgirlsam wrote: »

no, i said that was a stupid comment, not you are stupid.

You also said, though you are very foolish to beleive that (sic)

thatgirlsam

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

That's just true. It's inferior. Fact. Deal with it.

I smoked when I got pregnant. Then gave up at 6 weeks. That's inferior to my not having smoked at all, and I don't expect people to !!!!!-foot round me by denying it!

its not ALWAYS inferior.. ladies on medication, drugs, alcholics etc have inferior breastmilk to formula milk..

its just not right to say formula is inferior, fact.... when there are situations where breastmilk cannot be used..

most of the time, breast is best..
try not to judge those who don't bf

thatgirlsam

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

You also said, though you are very foolish to beleive that (sic)

someone would be foolish if they were HIV postitive and bf in this country, and if they believed their baby would be at less risk of contracting HIV if they did so..
i thought we had already cleared up the whole world/uk thing??

AnnieM_3

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

That's just true. It's inferior. Fact. Deal with it.

I smoked when I got pregnant. Then gave up at 6 weeks. That's inferior to my not having smoked at all, and I don't expect people to !!!!!-foot round me by denying it!

My gripe was that you said it was inferior to the 'healthy norm'. You make it sound like mums who ff might as well feed their baby toxic waste! :rotfl:

The point I was trying to make is that by using such emotive language, you may really hurt someone who can't bf. Can you put yourself in the place of a woman who can't, and imagine how upset you'd feel reading some of the comments posted on here?

I'm glad we agree on the smoking issue though. I hate to see women with huge bumps smoking grotty roll-ups!

I've just been on the bmj site (British Medical Journal) to look up about HIV and bf - apparently bf is preferable to mixed feeding where clean water is not available, as the contaminants in unclean water can damage the bowel and facilitate transmission of the disease. I guess it depends on each disease and how it transfers into breast milk as to whether bf is still preferable.

starbump

AnnieM wrote: »

I have tried to keep an open mind reading through these posts, and my personal belief is that I would like to bf when the time comes. However, due to medical issues I am not willing to share here for identity reasons, I may not be able to. This won't mean I am a bad mother, whatever some of you here think.

Your post made me feel sad. Of course, you're not a bad mom - or anyone else who can't breast-feed. I think it's more like infant formula milk is your second choice, after ruling out your first choice (breast-milk) for whatever personal reasons. It may not be exactly the same but if you had a garden and could grow your own veg and keep your own chickens that might be your first choice for food. Instead, you might rule that out (e.g. you don't have a garden, it's not practical, etc) and try to buy organic veg and free range eggs or whatever is the best you can afford (or the cheap stuff for yourself and the premium stuff for baby). Life isn't perfect but we just try to choose the best option we can to fit the circumstances we live in. For what it's worth, if you care enough to worry about what your baby will eat then I think you will be a great mom.

JimmyTheWig

AnnieM wrote: »

Right.... Gloves off... :mad: I realise I may get flamed for this, but I feel I have to say something.

I am utterly appalled at some of the coments on here:

1. My friend is sorry she didn't try to bf as her son now has allergies
2. Formula feeding is akin to smoking in pregnancy/around the baby
3. FF is inferior to the healthy norm

How dare you try to make mothers who either choose not to bf, or CANNOT bf feel inferior, humiliated, stupid, cruel, neglectful etc etc etc.

I have tried to keep an open mind reading through these posts, and my personal belief is that I would like to bf when the time comes. However, due to medical issues I am not willing to share here for identity reasons, I may not be able to. This won't mean I am a bad mother, whatever some of you here think.

Does it give you a happy sense of self-righteousness knowing there may be (for example) a woman who has had her breasts removed due to cancer reading this thread, who now feels totally miserable because you have made her out to be a bad mother because she will have to FF?

Why don't you think before you type?

Maybe breastmilk is the best, but you should not try an denigrate those who disagree with your personal preference.

It's not about making people feel guilty. It's not about making people feel sad. It's about giving people the information.
There are obviously going to be some mothers who are unable to breastfeed. Not many, in the overall scheme of things, but there will be some. The best thing for these women's babies is donated breastmilk. Society is failing these women and their babies if this is not supplied to them as routine.

The fact is that artificial feeding is inferior. Just because that fact is mean to some people doesn't make it untrue.

The point is that the vast majority of those who don't breastfeed their babies would be able to breastfeed them. There are all sorts of reasons why they don't. One reason is the lack of decent support. Another may be that they are taken in by the advertisers clever messages and believe that formula milk is good enough for them and their babies. Others may understand that it is inferior but decide to go ahead anyway.
But unless we get the message out then people may continue to make choices that they later regret. And unless the support is in place to help those who decide to feed their babies people will still give up when they don't need to.


Lets use another analogy.
The natural way for a human body to process urine is with kidneys.
An alternative way is with a dialysis machine.
This alternative is an inferior alternative. There can be no doubt about that.

By saying that I am not being mean to someone on dialysis. But it is a fact.
And if someone was deciding whether to swap their perfectly working kidneys for a dialysis machine I would suggest they didn't because it wouldn't be as good.
A dialysis machine _isn't_ inferior to kidneys that don't function. But in the majority of cases a dialysis machine _is_ inferior.