Breast or Bottle – the right to choose!
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Hi Girls,
I am so annoyed and just wanted to rant! I was at pregnancy yoga the other night and instead of yoga, we had some breastfeeding mothers in giving their opinions.
Three of the ladies were fine, and I had no problem listening to them, the fourth really annoyed me. She started saying how much healther her child was in comparision to her sister-in-laws who was not at all healthy and was constantly getting antibiotics. She suggested that if you do not breastfeed, you make your child sick and that you were selfish.
I have the utmost respect for anyone who decides to breastfeed, it is hard work. Equally, I expect them to have the same respect for us mothers who decide to use the bottle. After all, we women have be fighting for years for our rights, so why is it that so many people are currently trying to force breastfeeding onto us and suggest that we are bad mothers if we don’t?
I have an 19month old ds, who has been on the bottle since birth – he is a very healthy child and is rarely sick. I, myself, was bottle fed and am now on my second pregnancy at 37 – I have never been sick in my life(outside of the usual colds) and had two healthy pregnancies – and hopefully will have a 2nd healthy baby in March.
Breastfeeding or bottle feeding is a personal choice and I think people should mind there own business and stop trying to make mothers feel guilty, whichever there choice!
Totally agree with you, it is definatly a personal choice and one that i did not make for myself. I bottle fed all the way.
Ranting and raving about it and forcing your own opnions down other peoples necks is not the way to promote something.its the same in the hospitals the nurses, midwives and doctors try to get you breastfeed too with all the material you get in the packet at your booking appointment
i admire anyone who chooses to breastfeed and i’m sure it does have benifits for the baby and the parent but everyone has the right to choose how to look after their children
but when something is pushed at me from all sides just because someone else thinks its best for your baby ii’m not going to change my mind
i’ve bottle fed all of my children and i don’t see a problem with it my children don’t seem to care either they never suffered malnorishment from it so i see it as a god thing and i will be bottlefeeding my 4th baby too
i wish everyone would just let people choose how to feed and look after their children and stop trying to make them feel bad about their choiceIt is all down to personal choice – on DD I tried to breastfed, she wasn’t a natural (neither was I!!) and I found it very stressful, and the attitude from some of the nurses there was horrible about it… this time I will definitely NOT be doing it!
I don’t think its right that women will push their opinions on others and judge them badly because they decide not to feed themselves.I totally agree with all of the above comments…I did breastfeed my dd and loved it, that said a lot of people both mine and dp’s family were clearly uncomfortable about it and that made me feel akward.
On the health thing, my dd got the usual colds, sniffles and ended up in hospital for a week at 6 mths with an infection, so that rubbishes the idea that all bf babies are super babies !! 😀 Go with what you are comfortable with and dont mind anyone else…
every mother has the right to choose which is best for them – breast or bottle. What ever the mother is comfortable with will be the best method for her and she should not be put under pressure for which ever option she chooses. I was bottlefed along with all my siblings and we have never had any major illnesses except for the common childhood illnesses that all children get. I tried to breast feed my daughter however after two days it just wasn’t working out. She ended up having jaundice, had to be hospitalised. I opted for bottles when I became worried that I didn’t know if she was getting enough milk and it was quite obvious that she wasn’t latching on. Once we moved onto bottles, she improved and I felt so much better. She is very healthy She only had antibiotics when she was 18 months old.
I do think there is alot of pressure from women to breast feed and make mothers feel guilty if they don’t choose that option. At the end of the day we should respect the decision of every mother and support her rather than trying to out do each other over whats best. We have fought long and hard enough to be respected as women and mothers in society as equals, trying to make women feel guilty because they didnt breast feed their babies isn’t right.
I breast fed my ds (only for a few months) and it was brilliant and soooo easy, but I was very very lucky. I fed him every 3 hours just like a bottle fed baby, not into all this pc shite about having baby on the boob at every whimper… I used a soother too between feeds, Shame on me 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 I choose what would work for me, but as Dinomum said I did feel a bit funny about some people, my two sisters included.
I think if the breast works thats great but if its not working then formula is best, formulas now days are brilliant and by no means bad for a child.
When I was in OLOL last month there was a young 19 mother in the ward, she was trying and trying to stick at the breast feeding and one night the midwife brought her in a bottle and fed the baby…… both mother and baby settled and she was delighted at how happy the baby was on the bottle, it was unreal how stressed both were getting trying to bf.
I think even if you give one feed your giving your baby very important anitbodies, my ds never had a antibiotic untill he was over 2 but I also know of this of bottle fed babies too.I did find bottle feeding very very hard when I did switch. I found night time feeds so easy on the boob as you dont have to move or even wake up (only night fed for 3 weeks, dont think I’ll be aslucky this time) The whole washing and making bottles, plus when going out and about with formula is tough going, so I admire mothers who bottle feed rather then the other way around, as bottle feeding is soooo much harder
What ever works of you is the best option, I’d love to feed this time but It just might not work out, so fingers crossedi think midwifes push ya to much to breastfeed is well when i was pregnant on dd everytime id go the hostipal the would say are u gonna breastfeed and would make a speech about the benefits and how good it is for you and the baby by it was everyweek i got a little peed off wit the hour speech everytime id go up i ended up bottle feeding and the mood swings as well did not mix wit it.
😆 I agree that there is soo much pressure on women to breast feed. Its totally not fair. I was told I had to breast feed as my baby was in intensive care. One thing u ever get told is that breast feeding wrecks your breasts. Mine were always firm and pert, but after breast feeding they had dropped and looked like the stuffing had fallen out of them .Seriously I was shocked. IIts the only way I can describe it. Is this why boob jobs are so popular? 🙄
I completely agree with this. BF’ing is a personal choice. I completely respect mothers who choose to do it and are sucessful but I agree that the same respect should be extended to those who don’t for whatever personal reason. .
I attempted bf and it was a miserable failure and my dd simply didn’t take to it. I told dr etc from the beginning of the pregnancy that I would consider bf’ing but would not be bullied into doing it. But despite this I felt such a horrible mom thanks to the phn and some of the nurses I encoutered at the hospital. I gave it a serious serious go and attempted to express when dd wouldn’t latch. I had the milk supply of an ant.
My dd is healthy, happy and has been rarely ill – 2 courses of antibiotics for a skin problem. My DH was bf and has suffered from asthma, allergies, weight concerns and cancer. There are no guarantees in this life. I was bottle fed and am a happy, healthy person.
All Mommies deserve respect for what we do! We should be Boob and Bottle United! 😀
I spend the last few weeks of my pregnancy’s tormented about what i was going to do!! 🙄 On DD1 I was all ready to give it a go and i had mastitis VERY PAINFUL and my milk went dour straight away. So it was straight onto the bottles. My DD1 has only ever had one antibiotic in her little 5 years of life because of an ear infection. Then i had DD2 and again my head was wreaked. Again the day she was born i knew straight away it wasnt going to happen she was starving and my boobs where blocked agian. They swelled up full of lumps and my skin stretched that much i still have stretch marks from after giving birth! I even had lumps under my arms I had to keep my arms up on pillows. When my milk did come out after 10 days! It was yellow and sour. It has completely turned me off the idea of breastfeeding. Anytime I see a woman breasfeeding i just shudder when i remember the pain it shoots up my spine! 😯 But then they are abviously having a different experience than i did and I am genuinely thrilled for them.
When I had Ava out with me in her pram i always had women ask me the usual how is she at night for ya is she a good feeder are you feeding her yaself??? I always felt guilty that i wasnt breadtfeeding 🙄 and i would have to explain myself all the time! Silly isnt it! My DD2 is nearly 8months now and she has been on 2 antibiotics and is not as hearty as dd1 she seems to have a runny nose (cold) more often and seems to have a low immune system. I dont know if it is because i didnt breastfeed but i look at dd1 and she is the complete opposite and was never breastfead so i dont know its just one of them things.
Just to add another side the the breast/bottle debate.
I breastfed ds for 11 weeks, in that 11 weeks he only put up 2Ibs. I went to phn as I was alarmed that his weight loss was sooo little, she confirmed that it was lower then normal and he had dropped from 50th on the centile scale to 2nd 😯
She told me to top up with formula but this was such a hassel I gave up on the breast, he is now 4 weeks on formula and he has put on 4Ibs and its thrivingSo in this case breast wasnt best
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