Each to their own. I breastfeed (am still with 6 month old) up to a year and i still got asked from others do u have enough milk? Some people are always going to be questioning you and I’ve learnt to ignore them . If baby is happy and putting on weight then that’s all that matters. Babies cry for many reasons and most of the time its not cause they’re hungry, most likey it could be either stomach upset and they need to let some wind out or they need a good burp.
Breastfeeding is bloody hard. 3rd time round wasn’t easy. I still had latching problems and sore nipples. Its still uncomfortable. I don’t get it when some mums say; it’s a beautiful thing and a time they can bond with bubs. It bloody hurts but i just put up with the pain and its convenient to do.

Your body, your baby. Whatever works for you. No judgement for everyone doing their best to look after a baby. Love to all mums and dads.

Whilst pregnant with #one, my hairdresser gave me the best advice. Breastfeeding is hard, very hard for the first 6 weeks at least. Your milk supply will vary, your nipple will be sore and you will be very very tired. She advised me to stick with it for six weeks before making any decisions. She was so right. I did find it tough and some of the advise from nurses was not helpful, however at 6 weeks it was like someone flicked a switch and it was wonderful. Maybe if we had someone telling the truth and offering more support in those first weeks we would succeed- so sick of the debate – so sick of the Mummy bashing. Do what is right for you and baby.

I have had both pressure to breastfeed and then people trying to hurry me up to bottle feed, in the end I used to say I am happy baby is happy why do you feel the need to comment

I too was pressured to breastfeed even though I was unable to do it for some reason. My father-in-law even came into hospital and told me I should be breastfeeding. You go through enough just having a baby let alone having to put up with the guilt felt from not breastfeeding.

I felt the opposite, it was all negative comments towards me & breastfeeding. I had another first time mum have the hide to say to my other half “You make sure she’s feeding that baby, it’s too skinny.” Meanwhile her baby was one month older & had been bottle fed since the day it was born. I also had another lady I know say to one of her friends, who was a complete stranger to me that “Kelly struggled to breastfeed her baby.” Just because I stopped at 7 months & she continued up to 18mths +. I had to cut these negative people out of my life, including midwives.
I believe all midwives have different opinions, if you don’t like what one tells you seek another opinion. I found some of them can be quite rude & tell you what they think is right not. I stopped seeing them & went to my GP instead.

I know of 2 Mums (one of them personally) who had what was supposedly plenty of milk. In both cases neither of the babies gained any weight and seemed to be continuously hungry.
In both cases their breastmilk was tested and had practically no nourishment in it at all.
Another one had to have an emergency C-Section at full term because the baby was too big for her to deliver and wasn’t able to breastfeed at all despite her best attempts. It was decided by medical professionals that her body must have gone into shock.

i felt pressured by the hospital to breastfeed

I personally feel that breastfeeding education PRIOR to birth is severely lacking. Before the birth of my first i read books on it and went to a ABA class but even with this preparation i was not prepared about what to do if it didn’t work as expected after birth. They only just talked about normal latching and the physiological process of how it happens. i think that there is more information needed about what to do if you have large flat or inverted nipples, a small baby, tongue ties, delayed milk coming in, vasospasim. how to avoid giving formula by pumping, how to reduce comp feeds. i don’t think that its fair that you find out that you have shitty nipples post birth. i don’t think that you should be trying to work out this stuff in the first few days to weeks after having a baby when you are tired, anxious, hormonal, and have never done it before.
I really though that i had prepared myself well to breastfeed, turns out i knew nothing.
I also had bad conflicting advice from midwives and lactation consultants after birth when i ran into problems.
With the 2nd on the way, i am thinking of talking to someone and forming a relationship with a LC or mothercare nurse prior to birth so i know someone and will know they are on the same page as i am, trying to preempt any problems and have solutions and plans already in place.
wow that was a rant.

This is great thanks follow r sharing

Yes there is a lot of pressure to breast feed, its a big eye opener once you have children yourself and fail to be able to breast feed or cope with the demand and stress of breast feeding at how many people will try and interfere with your decision to go ahead with formula. Parenting is meant to be a joyful experience I agree with you each and every mother out there is individual and there is no right or wrong decision on whether you choose to breast feed or formula feed. For some breast feeding just isn’t even an option they have to choose.

The nurses were horrible to me with baby number two because I couldn’t breastfeed him as he had a cleft palette.
Not all of them of course but a few in particular, I was still young too so it took me a while to get over the guilt.

I can’t believe a nurse reacted that way. She needs some kind of retraining. That is just cruel.

Thanks for sharing this article; babies and mothers need to be loved and cared for and not made to feel inadequate for doing their best. Breast fed/bottle fed; some children in the world do not get fed!

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  • • TheZooKeeper_Blog replied
    • 05 Dec 2014 , 2:09 pm

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  I completely agree. Thank you for reading.
  p.s. If you are on Instagram check out my page for more blog updates and a shop (the zookeeper_blog)

very true I have also heard women yelled at for giving there baby formula even when they had no other option.
formula is the devil apparently.

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  • • TheZooKeeper_Blog replied
    • 05 Dec 2014 , 2:12 pm

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  Terrible isn’t it. Thank you for reading x
  p.s. If you are on Instagram check out my page for more blog updates and a shop (the zookeeper_blog)

Good on you Kelly. I agree with everything you say! I am a retired midwife and over the years I have witnessed so much pressure on mums emphatically telling them they have to breast feed! especially in a baby friendly hospital!. I was overheard by my superior one evening telling a new mum that it is best if you can breast feed but the formulas these days are pretty close to breast milk in lots of aspects so if you cant bubs will still thrive! Happy mum happy baby!. Well after that I was severely reprimanded and almost lost my job.
You see I have been on both sides of the fence so to speak.I tried desperately to breast feed my first bub but no milk came so she was put on the bottle. I felt a failure! Anyhow when I had bubs no 2 they discovered my milk came in at day 10. I am what they call a slow cow or milker! It hurt like hell at first then after 5 weeks the body slackens and you are more relaxed. So when the next 2 bubs came along everyone knew what the set up was.
I am proud to say I never put pressure on any mum when i was a midwife. In fact one evening a happier dad gave me a big hug and thanked me for giving his bub some formula because it gave his dear wife a chance to have a rest and bubs had a rest too. Of course i got hauled over the coals for that too!

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  • • TheZooKeeper_Blog replied
    • 05 Dec 2014 , 2:13 pm

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  Thank you so much. You are the midwife we all need. The first few days are crazy enough without any added pressure. Thank you for reading and sharing your story.
  p.s. If you are on Instagram check out my page for more blog updates and a shop (the zookeeper_blog)

I found it very challenging as well. I’m still have pangs of jealousy toward the mums that take to it so effortlessly. I really beat myself up quite a lot about it initially and considered myself a failure but it was actually my sons Paediatrician who championed the idea of doing whatever works. His argument was that he’d treated thousands of children over the years and he can’t tell the difference between a BF baby and a formula fed baby.
As it turned out I persevered with BF but topped up with formula as required. In essence I did have pressure to BF but it was generated by my own self.

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  • • TheZooKeeper_Blog replied
    • 05 Dec 2014 , 2:14 pm

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  My thoughts exactly. You are doing a great job Mumma! Thanks for reading x
  p.s. If you are on Instagram check out my page for more blog updates and a shop (the zookeeper_blog)

I hate these articles, babies are supposed to be fed mothers milk, all babies, humans, dogs, cats, mice, cows and everything else, HOWEVER this does not always work, in the wild many babies are abandoned as the mum cannot feed them and fortunately if a human has difficulty feeding a baby they have options and one of those is formula, No mum should ever be made to feel guilty for not breastfeeding, they should be congratulated for doing what they consider is right for their baby and themselves. I had twins and tried to feed without success, was made to feel a complete failure, when I had my next child I fed her for a few weeks but could not even get her up to her birth weight, she simply did not gain weight and the nurse actually suggested formula, she still did not gain weight until she was about 12 weeks old so she was simply a baby that did not gain weight. But all three of my children survived and I do not believe they have suffered any ill effects from the formula they were fed. Leave mums alone and let them do what they feel is best for themselves.

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  • • TheZooKeeper_Blog replied
    • 05 Dec 2014 , 2:15 pm

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  Here here, I completely agree. Thank you for reading x
  p.s. If you are on Instagram check out my page for more blog updates and a shop (the zookeeper_blog)