Pressure!!!

Do you think the pressure on women to breastfeed contributes to many women to stress out and decrease milk flow, therefore going to bottlefeeding?? What role, if any, do you think pressures from both yourself as a new mother, and outside influences played in your decision to breastfeed or bottle feed???

hello
i do agree
i have a five week old girl and at around 3 weeks she got bad wantet to feed every 2 houers and would hang on me for 1.5 houers so you can imagen how dead i felt!!!!!
i wanted so bad to breastfeed that it made me cray and question myself about th ematter at the end i was on my nerves end and i did what was best for baby and me i gave here a bottel whit formula (i did have it in the cupert for 3 days )
after giving it to here i fellt bad in fact so bad i always was asking mayself if i am a good mother if i can not only breast feed!! Thats when i joind in these forums here!! and thanks to a lot of people here it pased and i feel bether about myself
at the moment i feed my baby (nadia ) 3 night feeds(at around 8-9pm, 1.30 - 2am and 5-6am) and the rest is breast (mostly expressed do so i can see how much she takes )
i do not feel bad anymore and i would say they should stop presering moms in doing it after all whats best for you and baby counts
SPECIAL THANK TO Twins+1 and okmurf

cheers mitti

There is certainly pressure placed on you to breastfeed! I remember doing my ante natal classes, and someone asked about bottle feeding, just for later knowledge, and we were told 'sorry we can not talk about bottle feeding as we are under obligation by world health organisation to promote breastfeeding and only breastfeeding.'

So for all those mums who couldn't breastfeed, were not armed with the knowledge they felt they required, which I think is wrong! That's like being told from the outset, that if you formula feed, you don't wish your child the best possible start in life.!

There are people, myself included who would've killed to have breastfed my baby! unfortunatly due to a few things, such as Mckenzie having a really bad suck at birth, hating being latched onto my breast, my nipples being flat, and never ever expressing more then 5 mls of milk My little girl made up the decision for me, and indeed for her to survive, I had to resort to bottlefeeding her.

I too struggled endlessly for weeks over being a rotten cow lol and was forever upset about this issue, I also gave birth the week of national breast feeding week which was NO WAY good timing lol! My little girl has thrived no end, shes still tiny at 6 1/2 months she weighs 6.6kgs or 14 pound 9 ounces, (weighed her today!!) eats like its going out of fashion, and in no way do I regret now making that desicion, even though it seemed the most painful one I've ever had to make. I mean you always get told, about the bonding with breastfeeding, but never are we told the pros of bottle feeding either! Don't get me wrong, I still would kill to have been able to breastfeed, and I am envious of anyone who has been able to do so, but in the end, I bottle fed out of the love of my little girl.

sorry about the ramble Love Kel and Mckenzie xoxox

I sure do it didnt happen to me but a friens gained alot weight whil pregnant. She was breast feeding her baby 2 weeks old and someone - (A friend) told her - oh gee arent we fat now! (yes she really said that to her) well she went through depression and lost her milk the next day - completely.

Hi have to agree. At our antenatal we were told the same thing as kakkles - they only told us about breastfeeding.

I'm finding that I'm getting pressure from people in my coffee group, friends and family etc about my baby not yet taking to a bottle - it's driving me nuts! I'm happy to breastfeed, he's happy to breastfeed - it's just other people that think he should be on a bottle now that he's 6months old. Oh the joys of it all - haha!

My first son was in neonatal ward for the first 24 hours after his birth, i was rushed to hospital with pre eclampsia and after the birth, wasnt allowed to move, so the midwifes took it upon themselves to bottle feed my baby. being such a stressful birth and after birth being seperated from my baby and not even being given a chance to try to BF, my milk, or colostrum failed to come through. Over the next 10 days in hospital, i had midwives more or less insist i BF, one even refused to get my son a bottle (i wasnt allowed out of bed), saying i wasnt giving it a chance! My son went without a feed for her entire shift, despite my objections etc, as she tried hour after hour to latch him onto my breast. I ended up putting a complaint in about her and the other midwives then accused me of postnatal depression for not wanting to BF and BOND with my child. i had constant high blood pressure and tears in the hospital, and eventually signed myself out. As soon as i was home tears stopped and my BP went down. Just my individual experience on bitchy nurses demanding BFing.

I wanted to breastfeed so much but bub has a sore jaw at birth. I felt for weeks afterwards that I had to justify my situation to those who asked. Isn't it awful when you have a brand new baby and you're doing the best you can and someone raises their eyebrows at the way you feed them?

Also while in hospital, the nurses really pushed me to feed him and on day three I got the baby blues terribly because I thought that when I walked out the door the next day, my baby would starve because I couldnt' feed him. One kindly midwife assisted me to transition to bottle but when other midwives on the later shifts wanted me to feed and I asked for a bottle, I got arguements for two of them.

Im also constantly asked how much I weigh which really gets to me. Im very very fortunate and weight 5kg less now than I did when I first got pregnant but people for some reason think its their business how much you weight! LOL.

Quite frankly, Ive found bottle feeding easy, affordable and I can share the task with my husband. Yes, breast feeding is best for the baby, no one disputes that but formula is a pretty good second and breast feeding is only good for the baby if both baby and mother aren't stressing about it.

mumtosam
well said


lilmiss, which hospital did you go to, if you want to say, it sounds very similar to what i experienced with my first born. Isn't it funny how if you have a little cry they automatically label you PND. I could't wait to get out of there and just do it myself without 30 different midwifes telling me what to do.ahhhhhh


I have to say though breastfeeding is not easy it took me 3 months to get it right with my daughter then fed her to 11 months and am now feeding my 5 month old twin boys, it works for me and is cheaper at the moment.

Wollongong hospital, and everyone i know that has had a baby there didnt like the maternity ward. The actual birthing unit is nice though.

Hi I had to bottle feed my girl (Breanna) After a week as i dried up so i had no choice to give her formula, i felt bad at the start as ppl are always saying they dont mature properly but i have bottled feed my girl formula since a week old and there is nothing worny with her, so dont feel bad if u cant do it u cant do simple as that

Oh and she is 4 months now sorry forgot to write that

I don't know if I'd call what I got 'pressure' - but maybe because I had planned to breastfeed it was more 'encouragement'.

Apart from a few learning issues in the first couple of days, Rhys & I took to breastfeeding quite well. I'm hoping to continue to 12mths but right now with my letdown/supply issues I'm wondering whether I should. To avoid pressuring myself, I just say "If I can't, then we'll move to formula".

Interestingly, when I called the ABA she mentioned other mums had bought formula to put in their cupboard, which stopped them worrying about not having enough and allowed them to keep breastfeeding! Amazing what the mind can do!