Kate Garraway - would you let another women breastfeed..

[Tasha20]

Your child?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... -baby.html

I find this so very interesting, wetnurses are still going today.

I think it might be quite an emotive topic, but I can see why women do it.

The maternal instinct is so strong, if a child really needed to be fed and the person wanted me to, I think I would do it.


What do you think?

 

[zebrastripes]

My initial reaction is "no"
BUT I know that's me thinking of me so to speak.
I mean, if you let your baby drink the milk of an animal not even your species, why not milk from another human? Up until about a century ago wet nursing was common practice, and even if you couldn't afford a nurse you'd get someone in your village etc to do it.
So yes, i probably would feed someone elses child etc

In the light of cold logic, I don't see it as any different from giving yuor child a bottle of formula, but ofc it's not as simple as that and you have to consider the various emotions etc involved.

*edit* Some brilliant comments too..

"Personally, I don't understand why any woman would want to become a cow for her child, that I do find 'icky'. I'm really fed up with people saying breast is best and continuing to let their babies breastfeed until they are 3 or something....and then calling people like me selfish? I think they need to look at their own reasons for doing that.

At the end of the day, we all want healthy children, get them off the bottle/breast and give them food - as soon as possible!"

 

[beanie]

If the woman has had all the necessary checks then I would be fine with it. I wouldn't be delighted about someone else feeding my baby from the breast but then I am not delighted with someone doing it from a bottle either. I would prefer Cally to have human milk then cow milk and if I can't give her mine I would be happy to use someone elses. I would also feed another womans child if she wanted me to, I am already donating breastmilk so it would save me expressing. Would be weird to feed a child that wasn't mine though lol but I would love that as a job, being paid to sit there and breastfeed

 

[Jade&Evie]

I wouldn't let someone breastfeed my child.

To be that bond is special to a mum and her baby and I don't like the idea of it.

I think people donating breastmilk is a great thing but I don't think I would let someone feed my baby from their boob IYKWIM

 

[LisaJ1986]

As Jade said, it'd be too weird for me. It's my bond with my child, same as i couldn't do it for others as it's 'stealing' that bond. I'm donating though to help those in need without offering my boob.

My mw told me about men in America. They have operations so that they can breastfeed. They have the bags under their arms and tubes going to their nipples!

 

[dannii87]

I wouldn't let someone breastfeed my child.

To be that bond is special to a mum and her baby and I don't like the idea of it.

I think people donating breastmilk is a great thing but I don't think I would let someone feed my baby from their boob IYKWIM

That's exactlt what I was going to say... x

 

[beanie]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/0 ... index.html

this story makes me cry

 

[Happybunny]

It is absolutely fascinating! Thanks for the article.

I couldn't let another woman feed my baby because breast feeding is a massively emotional thing for me - it is me and only me that can provide for my daughter. The bond it has given us is incredible.
As it is, I can't provide enough for my little one and I supplememnt with formula, but had I known about all the options, I would certainly have given her another woman's breast milk via a bottle.

I would happily breast feed for another woman if she asked me too. It is a lovely thing to do.

 

[*Star*]

i couldn't let another woman breastfeed my child (i dont know though, if it was a family member then i may do), but i would definitly breastfeed another child if the mother wasn't able to.

im hoping to get a good expressing regime up with this baby and eventually look at donating breast milk

 

[widowwadman]

The same thing was in the Garuniad on saturday and annoyed me a lot. Fair enough, breastfeeding is better than formula, but I think it's absolutely wrong to guilt trip women who use formula for whatever reason.

And I'm really not sure about the idea of getting a wet-nurse. Children can cope and have coped perfectly well with formula for ages, so there is no scientific reason not to, other than this hunch it wouldn't be natural. I don't like it when people argue from hunches rather than hard fact.

On the other hand, I wouldn't feel comfortable with someone else breast-feeding my baby. Think about germs. Obviously donors are tested, but in some diseases it takes a while for antibodies to show up after infection, so they can't be detected while the infected person already is infectious. A bit too big a risk if you ask me, and it's definitely to transmit diseases between humans, than it is from animals to humans.

 

[kelsey]

As far as i know we are the only species that rear our babies on another animals milk therefore i would be much happier for someone to breastfeed my child if i wasn't around.

 

[Minxy]

As someone who has no problem at all with her child having grown big and strong on cows milk, I would equally have no problem with a child of mine thriving on any human milk. I *think* I would prefer it to come expressed into a bottle rather than from a breast but as needs must.

If my child needed it to survive, I'd get over it I'm sure.

Having previously used formula successfully that would be my second choice after feeding him myself though.

 

[Squiglet]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/22/china.breastfeed/index.html

this story makes me cry

Oh beanie... thats made me cry too...

I know I couldn't let others bf'd my girls by choice because I'm a bf'der, that bond I get from bfing lil miss is more special than any kind of closeness... but if I was in a serious accident I think that I could.... I'd feel jealous though and I think it jealousy that creates alot of these feelings surrounding bfing and wet nursing...

On the other hand, I wouldn't feel comfortable with someone else breast-feeding my baby. Think about germs. Obviously donors are tested, but in some diseases it takes a while for antibodies to show up after infection, so they can't be detected while the infected person already is infectious. A bit too big a risk if you ask me, and it's definitely to transmit diseases between humans, than it is from animals to humans.

While this is true, a lot of illnesses are transmitted through the use of milk and human handling too. In fact there are more cases of infectious gastric illness in formula fed infants than in bf'd infants.

Most things carry risks when feeding your baby... its a mine field of worry. But wet nursing is more emotive due to the bond associated with bfing.

 

[Urchin]

Wow interesting articles ladies!

If it was a matter of survival, I have no problems whatsoever with someone feeding my child. I would also feed another ladies baby in an emergency, like that policewoman.
If it was just convenience then no, there would be a better option, but otherwise I think it would be fine.

 

[budge]

Your child?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... -baby.html

I find this so very interesting, wetnurses are still going today.

I think it might be quite an emotive topic, but I can see why women do it.

The maternal instinct is so strong, if a child really needed to be fed and the person wanted me to, I think I would do it.


What do you think?

i think i could breast feed another baby but i couldn't let someone else lbreastfeed my baby.

 

[maybebaby]

I agree 100% with the arguement for giving a baby human milk rather than cow's milk if unable to breastfeed, but I couldn't let someone else actually feed my baby from their breast. It was such a special emotional thing for me I couldn't do it. I would happily feed my baby expressed breast milk though.

By the same reasoning I don't think I could breastfeed a child that wasn't mine. However in extreme circumstances like the one reported in the article with the newborn twins who knows what maternal urges would take over.

I'd be bloody annoyed if I found out a friend had been breastfeeding my son behind my back though. I couldn't believe that childless woman who put the baby to her breast to comfort it that's just weird in my view, use a dummy

 

[Jade&Evie]

HOW GOOD DOES KATE GARRAWAY LOOK!?!

 

[lisa&alex]

opps edit to say its - Other People's Breast Milk is on Channel 4 on Wednesday, September 9 at 10pm... i havent read the artile coz i wanna see the programme

 

[zebrastripes]

The same thing was in the Garuniad on saturday and annoyed me a lot. Fair enough, breastfeeding is better than formula, but I think it's absolutely wrong to guilt trip women who use formula for whatever reason.

And I'm really not sure about the idea of getting a wet-nurse. Children can cope and have coped perfectly well with formula for ages, so there is no scientific reason not to, other than this hunch it wouldn't be natural. I don't like it when people argue from hunches rather than hard fact.

I don't think either the article or the documentary is intended to guilt trip FF mothers. It is to create a debate: why is it perfectly normal to feed your child cows milk, but not human milk from another human? It isn't about the rights or wrongs of formula, it is asking "why is cross feeding so taboo?"

And actually, formula feeding is very much a product of the last 60 or so years.. It was first marketed to women as an alternative to being "the common cow".
As for scientific reasons not to, it isn't so much that there is anything wrong with formula. It's simply that breast is best, not because it is "natural" - but because it has 400 more nutrients than formula,it is the ideal food for a baby, it can never be replicated by any synthetic milk,etc etc etc. How is that a hunch? Also, are you aware that roughly 13 million children across the developing world die as a result of formula misused? They don't have the resources to sterilise etc. Pity their mothers didn't have a "hunch"

I'd just like to clarify that i have absolutely no problem with formula, we are lucky to live in a society where there are safe options to feed. However I do find it quite patronising to be told that my descision to breastfeed was because of a "hunch", when, with all due respect, you seem unaware of many of the "hard facts" yourself.

 

[widowwadman]

I don't mean the decision to breastfeed yourself (I'm planning to do that too), but the suggestion that wetnursing would be neccessarily better than formula or rather that formula would be inadequate. Apologies, if it was unclear in my original post