Comments on: Make a Choice, Make a Stand. Don’t Sit On The Fence

By: Diaper Cake

Diaper Cake — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:01:33 +0000

This is a great site, I love the theme you are using. I Stumbled it for you and bookmarked it on Digg.

By: Public Breastfeeding: Is There a Stigma? | Fair Weight Loss

Public Breastfeeding: Is There a Stigma? | Fair Weight Loss — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:29:27 +0000

[...] Recently Lila was discussing the low numbers of breastfeeding mums on her blog. She pointed to stats from The Office for National Statistics which recorded: “Only 35 per cent of UK babies are being exclusively breastfed at one week, 21 per cent at six weeks, 7 per cent at four months, and 3 per cent at five months.” [...]

By: Public Breastfeeding — Healthy Eating by Dietriffic

Public Breastfeeding — Healthy Eating by Dietriffic — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:32:14 +0000

By: lila

lila — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 01:15:16 +0000

Melanie, I know what you mean about the signs in cafes and restaurants (although to be honest I’ve never seen one in Northern Ireland!) It is the most natural thing in the world and if there is one group of people who should be supportive of breastfeeding, it’s Christians, since we believe that God created women in this way for a specific purpose.

Thankfully Lisburn FPC has quite a lot of breastfeeding mums, so I always feel comfortable with feeding in the cry room. I just hope all churches and Christians in general will become more accepting of it in the future.

By: Melanie | Dietriffic

Melanie | Dietriffic — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 23:27:43 +0000

Lila,
Thank you for writing about this. I also think there is strong social stigma against breastfeeding in our culture, which is sometimes very strong amongst Christians, this is shameful.

I’d love to know why women choose not to breastfeed (apart from those who simply cannot), I imagine there are many who don’t because of the opinions of others and their snide comments. Personally, I don’t care about that.

I read somewhere there are cafes and restaurants who put up signs, “breastfeeding mums welcome here,” and while that is good on one level, it makes me mad that I need to be “welcomed” somewhere when I’m doing one of the most natural things in the world.

By: Andrew Gribben

Andrew Gribben — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:36:54 +0000

That’s not a bad idea Russell!

By: Russell McQuillan

Russell McQuillan — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:25:02 +0000

Andrew.

What a nightmare, then at 3am you loose count of the scoops and half to start all over again !

Best thing we bought was a fridge and bottle heater for upstairs ! lifesaver

By: Andrew Gribben

Andrew Gribben — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:07:52 +0000

You always get the people that giggle and snigger at the thought of it and look disgusted when someone is feeding (overheard at the parentcraft classes) even when the way they dress shows off more than the mother. Then there’s the attitude that it’s so much hassle early in the morning. How it’s harder than 7 scoops of formula, 210mls of water, not too hot, I don’t know. It’s more complicated than the way I make coffee!

By: lila

lila — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:20:54 +0000

Thank you Jess! Your nephew is an encouraging example to all breastfeeding mums. The health benefits are fantastic and it would take a lot of determination to feed for two years!!

By: lila

lila — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:16:30 +0000

Yes this is a big problem for many mothers who have complications during labour, and I should have made mention of this in my post! There are so many medical reasons as to why some babies cannot be breastfed, none of them the fault of the mother. This is a good point, thank you Russell.

By: Russell McQuillan

Russell McQuillan — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:56:15 +0000

I agree with what you are saying and I agree that the numbers are very very low.

However whilst some mums simply can’t be bothered to breast feed, others cannot for many many reasons.

For example my wife lost so much blood in the operation she could barely keep herself alive never mind a baby and the quality of the milk was so poor that Hannah rejected it. Following doctors advice , formula was the only way we could feed our baby to stop it from loosing weight.

By: Jess

Jess — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:24:45 +0000

Add to that the fear that the baby isn’t getting enough to eat, as you can’t measure unless you pump, the limitations on daddy feeding (again, the pump solves that), and women being generally self-conscious about appearance and ‘leaks’. It’s tough. My brother’s kid breast-fed for almost 2 years (I don’t know if the kid is fully weaned or not). He never had the bad ear infections or illness. A few mild ones, but nothing bad. It’s GREAT for health. I’d much rather see a woman breast-feeding than a kid being placated with junk-food. The latter is so much worse on so many levels!