Kerry, I liked your post very much.

I too think we should actually avoid trying to make individual women 
'see' what we know about infant feeding. Of course they should be 
informed about their options to breastfeed - women from predominantly 
bottle feeding cultures may not have the first clue that it is 
actually possible for them to breastfeed.

But trying to somehow persuade them by telling them how wonderful it 
is and how bad formula is?

No.

Instead, put *all* mothers and babies together immediately after 
birth, so they both get the skin to skin - make this a routine part 
of all immediate postnatal care. Help the mother see how her baby is 
adoring being close and how his behaviour is linked to breastfeeding, 
and do this gently and relaxedly,  so it is seen as an every day 
wonder *and* something special and unique to her and her baby.


Keep up that support afterwards, and build up the mother's confidence 
that she can do it. If there are fixing problems,  don't bring out 
the full-on hands-on production team to push baby and breast together 
(I so hate this) with the mother sitting there feeling helpless, 
disempowered and useless.

The great thing is that all of this is evidence-based. We don't need 
to prove that this supports breastfeeding any more. The studies are 
out there, piling up.

It's not 'promoting' breastfeeding we need to be worried about. It's 
'enabling' breastfeeding.

At the moment, we tell mothers how fantastic it is for her baby's 
health and then the system actively prevents her doing it.

How cruel is that?

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK

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