Breast feeding, pros and cons

skylight

My boobs are fine! 4 BF fed babies later.

You do have to take care of them though. Supportive bras all the time, proper supportive sleep ones on. Once you forget to take care of them then they loose the elasticity at the top and they drop.

Now, mine are not perfect, but still stick up and out when at my age (only 33!) and so many babies, most people are surprised! Yes, they are talked about in certain circles! Just a shame I dont take care of the rest of my body the same way!

libbyc3

Had to give my experience of this -
solely BF 1st 3 babies for 8 months and hated every second of it. resented being tied to the child - none of mine would take a bottle ever. The one bonus was night feeds - I just lay on my side with the babe feeding and went back to sleep. They all slept through fairly quickly.
By the time number 4 came along I just couldn't face another 8 months of feeling trapped by BF. Sooooo! From day 2 last feed at night was a bottle. This did not mean babe slept any longer or slpet through any quicker and did take couple of weeks to establish as I had to make sure she was hungry enough for the bottle at around 10 every evening but form then on she and I had the best of both worlds. She actually ended up on the breast for a year and I was happy with this as I knew I could have time off if needed as she would take both bottle and formula no problem.
I would highly recommend this to anyone, though midwives will tell you you can't do both as it affects breast milk supply.
Oh and nipple shields (not recommended by midwives either) are the only thing that enabled me to get through the first 2 weeks of toe curling BF pain!!

baby_boomer

Driving my son to 20 miles to meet his mum in our lunch hour for a year was a great bonding experience between the three of us .

My partner breast fed both her children for four years because it felt the natural thing to do, and the boys both liked it.

stimpy27

I mixed fed my son for 9 months, he was breast fed most of the time but last feed at night was a bottle, this gave me less stress as I knew that if i popped out and he caused problems for whoever he was with he could be given a bottle. When the time came no problems making transition to bottle either.
I will certainly mix feed again if I am lucky enough to have another.

All I would say is ignore people who say that if you mix feed they will reject the breast and ignore the breastfeeding mafia/websites that pour guilt onto Mums who bottle feed. You have to do what is right for you and your baby and only you know best.

Good luck

oystercatcher

Midwives are not allowed to give an unbiased opinion because we are not allowed to recommend formula and most hospitals have very pro breastfeeding practices which mean we are not allowed to advise mum's to stop unless they actually say they want to. The poster who said midwives just looked on while she suffered was probably waiting for them to advise her to give up and we can only do that if baby is actually unwell, and even then we still have to encourage expressing etc . We can be disciplined for encouraging mums to bottle feed !!

I would say that breastfeeding is much more likely to work when mum is relaxed and wants to feed. She needs to be happy and relaxed with her body and they way it feels and responds. Some mums are embarrassed, unrelaxed, don't like the feeling (it kind of equates with sex in an odd sort of way) . If they are sitting there all uptight then the milk won't flow, baby senses the tension and doesn't latch on and the whole thing fails. Mum feels this proves what she knew, that it wouldn't work .....

There are other things which can interfere with breastfeeding, it's not always simple but if mum is keen it's well worth persevering to try. There's always time to change to bottles but you can't go back to breastfeeding once you've started with the dreaded bottles!!

I breastfed all my babies and loved it, I found it much easier to pick up the baby and feed in bed. It was a real pain having to make up all the formula when they were older, another daily chore to add to the long list . I didn't want to be apart from my babies so it wasn't a problem that no-one else could do it .

The health benefits are very well known and lots of people have mentioned them. That being said, in a clean enviroment with our good water supply and the modern milks bottle feeding isn't particularly detrimental to health. It's not going to ruin your childs health or chance of going to University ..... so it's not worth beating yourself up about it if for whatever reason it doesn't work or the mum doesn't even want to try . We are all individuals with our own priorities and preferences and I always say to my mums , do what is best for you. I don't think anyone should have to breastfeed and resent it.
Also if mums want to bottle feed from the start they get taught how to do it in hospital, if they say they are breastfeeding we're not supposed to give out any information which might make them change their decision . I personally think this is wrong as then there is the danger that babies will be fed with bottles and or milk not prepared hygenically because mum didn't know what she was doing !!

The MSE opinion has to be give breastfeeding a try , it definitely saves loads of money !!
Don't go for the cheapest formula though , read the ingredients and decide what you want your baby to eat !!

Oystercatcher
(exhausted after all that!)

Rachie_B

*Louise* wrote: »

I do feel as though you shouldn't be trying to 'convince' her. It's a mum's decision on how to feed the baby. You have every right to make your views known, and 'ask' if she would consider it, but no one should be talked into doing it.

I breast fed 3 children, and I am going to be brutally honest here - I hated it. I done it for the babies, to try and do my best for them but never for one moment felt the lovely bonding feeling that some mums talk about. It was painful, uncomfortable and embarrassing. But that's my experience.

i feel the same !

BF both my boys,but only for 3-4 months each

i felt i had "done my bit" lol !

i was never going to feed them for longer than 6 months anyway,with teeth etc :eek: :rotfl:

also as i was young having them 17 and 23 ,i was quite @ feeding in public etc

pros for me were

no sterilising / making up bottles ( though i did mix feed after 6 weeks )
easy night feeds!
cheaper !

cons :

didnt feel comfortable feeding in public
wanted hubby to feed baby sometimes
didn't want baby to be only wanting me / not take a bottle or cup later on!

i guess i just wasnt a natural breastfeeding mum i found it restrictive, and as my boys were very hungry babies i was like a cow :rotfl:

feeding allllllll the time some days and it was very draining / tiring ,esp when you have an older child to look after too

xx

MiasMommy

I am a young mum 20 now, I breastfeed my daughter till she was one.
I didn't really think about it till I had just gave birth, I was really lucky she latched on well. I think the biggest problem at first is the thought of it my friend was anti breastfeeding and would make me feel like a leper (sp) for doing it. I was just too lazy to do the bottles and it saved me a fortune.

However as much as I loved it, it did cause a lot of problems, as the main source of food for her, I always felt guilty if she was ill ( I have eczema and I was sure if i did it she wouldnt get it ) I remember one viscious comment from my ex, he said cos I was feeding her I had given it her and that she wasnt putting on weight and it was all my fault. (thank god we're not together)

The breastfeeding I do actually feel that even though he loves her, he didnt really bond with her as much as I did. I always found it hard that it was just me she wanted and not him, even now to this day shes cling.

However all babies are different and mums, it is ultimately her decision, but my best advise is to just try it, hey at least she tried and said no Im not doing it, instead of regretting it in the future wishing she had tried.

Nicolefury

oystercatcher wrote: »

Midwives are not allowed to give an unbiased opinion because we are not allowed to recommend formula and most hospitals have very pro breastfeeding practices which mean we are not allowed to advise mum's to stop unless they actually say they want to. The poster who said midwives just looked on while she suffered was probably waiting for them to advise her to give up and we can only do that if baby is actually unwell, and even then we still have to encourage expressing etc . We can be disciplined for encouraging mums to bottle feed !!

My sister gave birth 4 weeks ago. They simply asked whether she was going to bottle or breast feed, and she said bottle. They didn't pressure her to try to breast feed, and simply showed her how to make up the bottles and left her to it. I like the fact she has in some ways because all the family have bonded with my beautiful nephew through feeding, and he's growing at a lovely rate. Me, my bro and sister were all bottlefed, and theres nothing wrong with us.

Totally the womans decision. It really doesnt matter what she decides to do.

morganb

I was lucky that DS1 and 2 took to breastfeeding straight away. I breastfeed DS1 till he was 18months old and DS2 till he was just under 2, they both decided when to give up. I didn't consciously feed them for that long, I just followed their lead and, to be honest, it came very easily to me, no problems at all (well, none that a savoy cabbage couldn't sort out!!)

The only times when it was really draining was when DS2 was going through a growth spurt before being on solids, and then he would feed literally all day. I was very very slim at this stage ... might have another baby just to get my figure back, lol!!

jessbrown100

hurricanewyn wrote: »

I wasn't able to breast feed my two, for various reasons, and I felt so upset about it, because it was something I had really wanted to do. Like someone has already said I felt embarressed taking out the bottles while everyone around me was managing without any problems.
However, there are some cons to breast-feeding that I didn't miss - the things you can't eat and drink, eg chocolate and milk in case it gives baby a bad tummy, pop in case baby gets wind, curry or spicy foods and garlic because the taste transfers over and def. no alcohol. After 40 weeks of being tee-total I was quite looking forward to the odd glass of wine.
But, I would agree without everyone else who has posted - it's definitely the best thing for baby and even if she really, really can't face breastfeeding, exressing the colostrum from the first few days is a great start.

Went to a bf talk last week with midwife at local hospital and she said that you could eat and drink whatever you wanted as long as it was in moderation (oh, sorry, not peanuts if you suffer from allergies). If you've got any links for this please post them so I can check them out as obviously I want to make sure that I'm going to be doing the right thing when I attempt bf'ing