Hi guys,
I'm currently trying to conceive and so I've been reading the posts on here (trying to learn something, or anything) and there's a trend that I've noticed. Everyone seems to think that breastfeeding rates are really low (that not many mothers breastfeed). Also, lots of people have implied (directly or indirectly) that "most" people (from the general public) think that bottle-feeding is the norm and that only a few women choose to breastfeed.
I seriously did not know this! Are breastfeeding rates low in NZ or is this just Australia? (I'm in NZ). I have never been around babies in my whole life. I have no friends with babies, my siblings are older (except one brother who's 18 months younger so I don't remember him being a baby) all my cousins are older than me so when I was growing up I was not exposed to breastfeeding at all (because there were no babies). I am still too young to have any nieces/nephews or anything like that so even as an adult I have not been exposed to babies. Even with all of this complete lack of baby knowledge I completely assumed that breastfeeding was totally the norm and that almost all mothers breastfeed (for a while anyway) and that bottle-feeding was a back-up system for mothers who can't breastfeed. I didn't know that my mothers generation were encouraged not to breastfeed (I have since asked all the women from my mother's generation I know who have kids "did you breastfeed?" and it turns out they ALL did. Although, this was way back in the early 80s or before so I couldn't possibly have witnessed it coz I wasn't born yet).
Man am I out of the loop on this one! Was anyone else surprised to learn that there is a whole government funded education effort to convince women that "breastfeeding is good" because you didn't know people thought it wasn't?
Sorry if this doesn't make sense, I was just caught by surprise. It turns out I've been living under a rock.
I'm currently trying to conceive and so I've been reading the posts on here (trying to learn something, or anything) and there's a trend that I've noticed. Everyone seems to think that breastfeeding rates are really low (that not many mothers breastfeed). Also, lots of people have implied (directly or indirectly) that "most" people (from the general public) think that bottle-feeding is the norm and that only a few women choose to breastfeed.
I seriously did not know this! Are breastfeeding rates low in NZ or is this just Australia? (I'm in NZ). I have never been around babies in my whole life. I have no friends with babies, my siblings are older (except one brother who's 18 months younger so I don't remember him being a baby) all my cousins are older than me so when I was growing up I was not exposed to breastfeeding at all (because there were no babies). I am still too young to have any nieces/nephews or anything like that so even as an adult I have not been exposed to babies. Even with all of this complete lack of baby knowledge I completely assumed that breastfeeding was totally the norm and that almost all mothers breastfeed (for a while anyway) and that bottle-feeding was a back-up system for mothers who can't breastfeed. I didn't know that my mothers generation were encouraged not to breastfeed (I have since asked all the women from my mother's generation I know who have kids "did you breastfeed?" and it turns out they ALL did. Although, this was way back in the early 80s or before so I couldn't possibly have witnessed it coz I wasn't born yet).
Man am I out of the loop on this one! Was anyone else surprised to learn that there is a whole government funded education effort to convince women that "breastfeeding is good" because you didn't know people thought it wasn't?
Sorry if this doesn't make sense, I was just caught by surprise. It turns out I've been living under a rock.