| Archive for NEEPS North East Eco-friendly People's Site |
| nina |
Baby MilkBreast is Best. |
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| wildgarlic |
Totally right - there are times when the bottle has to suffice though. I couldn't breastfeed J because he'd been born with a cleft lip and palate - tried my hardest to do it and expressed for almost 4 months but to no avail. I do think that everyone should give it a shot, and prepare for it to be hard work at first too. Support from family and friends at this point is invaluable! | ||||
| nina |
What I don't understand is women who decide not to breast feed before the baby is born and won't even try. |
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| Sassinak |
It used to be quite amusing watching Nix breastfeed the twins when they were tiny. One tucked under each arm with their legs pointing back. You pick up the first one normally then grab the second one by the front of it's babygrow. An art I never tried to master, I was far more timid with them haha | ||||
| Fia |
Goodness, expressing for 4 months takes a great deal more commitment than cuddling up with your babe in mutual blissful comfort. Huge good on you's for trying, WG.
I think, in this sexualised society, some have partners who seem to think breasts belong to them, putting pressure on the pregnant woman not to breastfeed. It's very sad some don't try. They are missing out on something fleeting and wonderful. Our GP was asked how long you can breastfeed for. His answer? "Until they go to University" 
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| Smooth Hound |
http://www.urban75.com/Action/nestle.html | ||||
| Fia |
Good link SH, interesting site.
The consequence of promoting bottle feeding in some parts of the world can be death. |
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| Smooth Hound |
its relevant here too, not so much now, but until recently health centres were showered with charity in order to encourage them to promote it, if i remember rightly when my sons were born , my wife then, was sent home with tins of the stuff, i must oint out it was nothing to do with me suggesting her breasts were mine, although i do see where your coming from, | ||||
| Sassinak |
Nix was born at around midnight. I was woken at 6 the next morning with a tablet and a cup of tea. Dutifully swallowed both and then woke up!!
Asked what tablet was for - Oh just to dry your milk up !! I wasn't even asked. I, later, breast fed my son and bitterly regret that I didn't feed my daughter as well because there is no feeling like it in the world. |
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| Smooth Hound |
b ds | ||||
| Julie |
I always took it for granted that I would feed my babies myself and couldn't understand why anyone would want the hassle of making up bottles. I had enough milk for at least two babies and they grew like mushrooms. Was it just because I was so relaxed about it or am I just a milk cow? If you stress an animal it affects their milk supply, some farmers play classical music in the milking parlour because it improves the yield. Maybe some women are simply better milkers than others too, just like animals. I just assumed that when they stopped feeding they were full and were getting enough, fed on demand (it works out about every four hours anyway) and did what seemed natural.
We virtually train our expectant mums to think they won't be able to cope and can't do anything without guidance. The reality is that we have instincts like any other animal. From the day the EDD is confirmed there are classes to attend so they know how to give birth and a bombardment of information which leaves them feeling so lost, and terrified that they will get it wrong. No wonder they see breast feeding as a daunting task instead of the convenience it really is. |
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| Smooth Hound |
you could say that about most things in this dam system  life in general
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| Esther.R |
Rather a late reply I know...but I always assumed I would breastfeed mine, struggled first time as milk came in late and baby fought and screamed and wouldn't latch on, I mixed fed until 6 weeks but we never really got the hang of breastfeeding well. I assumed I had done something wrong, second time around was really clued up on everything, put her to the breast in recovery (I had a section) then she went into SCBU for 48hrs I expressed every 3hrs overnight as I wasn't allowed down to see her until next morning (due to section) and went down and fed her myself every 3hrs as soon as I could. She was a natural but still my milk didn't come in fully until day 8 (despite feeding her and then expressing every feed round the clock) by which time she had lost so much weight I was forced to top up with formula or they wouldn't allow us home to Shetland. I continued to mix feed every feed until she dropped the breast feeding herself at 4 months.
Sadly much as I wanted to breastfeed, not everyone manages. I knew everything and tried everything second time around and had the breastfeeding councillor etc etc but my milk just didn't come in when it should have done. I am very relieved I am having no more babies as I found trying to breastfeed incredibly stressful (incredibly rewarding when it worked, as it did with my second baby although I never managed to build up enough again to breastfeed exclusively). |
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| Julie |
That's my point. I knew nothing and consequently just got on with it happily. I took it for granted that the first few days where the milk was slow to arrive were normal and my boobs were so hard and tender that I couldn't lie on my stomach, but I just put up with it. All modern mums are brainwashed to worry about everything that isn't text book perfect.
You shouldn't read my attitude as judgement of mothers that can't do it for whatever reason, it's simply an observation that I apply to myself and an acknowlegement of my own good fortune. If we were still primitive, the babies of mothers who couldn't feed them would die and therefore not grow to pass on their genes. Perhaps it is therefore unreasonable to expect everyone to be able to breastfeed well anyway. As humans, we defy natures natural selection processes and maybe many of our health expectations are unrealistic? Again, this isn't a judgement of others as unhealthy stock, merely an observation. |
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| Esther.R |
Sorry mine wasn't meant to be a reaction to your post  , it was a general reaction for the thread. It was only a reaction to yours in that I also automatically expected to breastfeed and then I couldn't. I suspect stress did play a part in mine no1 was an unplanned (although welcome) pregnancy and then I went on to be diagnosed with postnatal depression which turned out to be a very underactive thyriod which was undiagnosed for a year, then with no2 I was worried about being ill again as I was with no1 and of course her being in SCBU didn't help my stress levels, neither did being in Aberdeen with a toddler at home with grandparents on Shetland, and of course c-sections don't help with early milk production either.
It frightens me to think of mine in the past, I had two c-sections due to big babies/small pelvis, breastfeeding problems and then my second was in SCBU after being born with pneumonia. Both myself and my babies might not be here today if it wasn't for modern developments, and neither had anything drastic wrong in modern eyes. I am an archaeologist, I have seen those sad skeletons with babies engaged in the pelvis.....or the little newborn skeletons
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| Maria |
or another kind new mum would feed them?? Depending on how much community 'credit' they had stored. Perhaps I'm talking about a little time after 'primative' society? I HATED midwives walking anywhere near me when I was in hospital - and health visitors for the first few weeks after having my children. Someone always seemd to want to faff with my breastfeeding position - some even tried to take baby from me and move me and around. I mean - for goodness sake!!!!! |
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| Forget-me-Not |
Breast FeedingOhhhhh pregnant skeletons..... that's so heart braking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!My two were both sections, first an emergency one, stuck wrong way round and wonky plumbing on my part. Second knowledge of wonky plumbing and suspected bloodclot on lung at 34 weeks, plus had Polyhydramnios with both. (Too much fluid, too much pressure on pregnancy.) First tried, but hugely over dominant mother in law, made me uncomforatble with her interest in my attempts, baby had huge rash/ hyper reaction to me taking penicilen for thrombophlebitis, (felt like I was contaminating her) plus seriously anaemic and turned down transfusion. Second, so much more confident and good at keeping mother in law at bay. Fed for 9 months. At 8 months, hospital stay as O's colon went back on itself. Posters everywhere promoting breast feeding (Yorkhill Glasgow) yet thay just couldn't understand my answer when asked what milk she was on. They got flustered when I refused to leave her to go and eat and waited for David to bring it in. Her ASD screaming whenever anyone held her just about finished them off! Idiots! 
Beth |
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| Julie |
I hadn't thought of that you know. On the premise that we live in social groups not dissimilar to elephants, apes and dolphins in many of our social habits, perhaps another group mother in a primitive tribe would have helped feed the infant of a sick mother - or one who had died in childbirth. In the middle ages it would have been common for wealthy families to employ a wet nurse. Do you know it is a lot less than a hundred years since the practice of putting a sickly newborn out on the windowsill to succumb to the cold was going on in some sections of the community. It sounds barbaric now doesn't it, but I suppose it was preferable to letting the child dwindle away slowly or end up institutionalised. I have heard people from my parents generation talk about it happening.
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| Julie |
What a fascinating job to have........you would know better than any of us what befell our ancestors wouldn't you. I'll bet there aren't many of us who don't have a similar experience that would have finished either us or a close relative. My own Dad died two weeks before I was born from a simple complication of High blood pressure (his aorta ruptured instead of him getting his usual nose bleed) tablets would have set him right less than twenty years later. |