We need to take a leaf out of NZ book!! Here it's the opposite! The minority breastfeed, it's almost fashionable to bottle feed and it's something you would deem "odd" seeing a woman breastfeeding. I hate our country's attitude towards it, i believe it should be what mums actually want to do! Not just give up because it's "too hard" as some say, well why have a baby if your not prepared for it to be a bit challenging! So annoying.
Lexi I found it more than 'a bit challenging' I WANTED to breastfeed, we didnt buy any formula before LO was born, I didnt know how to make formula, and I always imagined Id breastfeed my child regardless of health benefits or not, its how I WANTED to interact with my baby.
The fact is I was too ill to have skin to skin for a long time after he was born, he had no suck reflex at all for the first 3 days, how do you breastfeed a baby who just sleeps in your arms and has no interest in it?! He wouldnt open his mouth, let alone latch on. I tried for the first 48 hours, continuously, every midwife in that hospital had a go and couldnt help so they called in a specialist, who also couldnt get him to latch on. He couldnt do anything with a bottle either so they had to squirt my breastmilk into his mouth. I was so stressed from the experience that it affected my milk supply, by day 2 I couldnt hand express anything, nor could the midwives. his blood sugars were dropping and they had to give him formua cos i wasnt expressing anything and he wasnt prem so couldnt have milk from the milk bank. i spent the next 10 weeks usig a breastpump every 3 hours for 20 mins each breast, things picked up at one stage and i could express a couple of ounces a day but thats it.
this was my continuous routine:
00.00 prepare formula feed and leave to cool
00.30 add colief drops
01.00 use breast pump
01.20 skin to skin and offering breast to baby while still 'milky'
01.30 baby getting hysterical so pour whatever milk from breast pump into bottle and give to baby
01.35 more skin to skin as hes camer after a little bit of milk
01.40 offer formula bottle
01.55 wind baby try to settle him to sleep
02.15 clean breastpump, bottles and sterilise ready for next time
02.30 - 03.00 time for me to shower/sleep/eat/ comfort screaming baby/clean up sick/ do laundry
03.00 prepare formula feed and leave to cool
03.30 add colief drops
04.00 use breast pump
04.20 skin to skin and offering breast to baby while still 'milky'
04.30 baby getting hysterical so pour whatever milk from breast pump into bottle and give to baby
04.35 more skin to skin as hes camer after a little bit of milk
04.40 offer formula bottle
04.55 wind baby try to settle him to sleep
05.15 clean breastpump, bottles and sterilise ready for next time
05.30 - 06.00 time for me to shower/sleep/eat/ comfort screaming baby/clean up sick/ do laundry
I could go on, this is continuous, 24 hours a day. I did this for weeks on end, I hardly slept, on weekends OH was home from work so he did the cleaning/sterilising and preparing feeds part so that was my 'break' I couldnt use the breast pump in front of the tv cos I couldnt hear it. I would sometimes have to sit there on the breast pump while my baby screamed and I couldnt get up to him and continue pumping so I had ot sit there and listen to him scream, often he'd be sick while i was on the breast pump, or fill his nappy so Id stop and sort him out, but then the whole routine would be out of whack and he'd be starving before I had time to do the full 20 mins on the breast pump.
If you want to tell me that that is just a little bit challenging you need to get back into the real world. It was hell. I stuck with it and he latched on for the first time when he was 6 weeks old. It was the best moment of my life. I worked closely with the breast feeding support worker to try and wean him off the formula feeds but my milk supply just didnt respond, my GP refused to prescribe domperidone and by 10 weeks I just needed to stop. So yes, it was too hard, I chose to formula feed my baby. But if you are lucky enough not to be aware of any of these issues then I think you should spend more time being damned grateful how lucky you are instead of putting down mothers who arent as lucky (yes lucky, not skilled, superior, or better in any way)
x
those posters about how wonderful breastmilk is, in the postnatal ward made me cry everytime I walked past them.
and 
x x I didn't know how much you'd suffered sweetheart 
