Susan, we need to be saying this repeatedly and loudly and
clearly....the 'discovery'  of 'foremilk' and 'hindmilk' has led to
the totally spurious notion that the baby must get x of one and y of
the other, that the milk is in two distinct parts, and this has crept
into the general discourse about breastfeeding and breastmilk.

Two of the most popular and influential babycare books in the UK -
the Contented Little Baby Book by Gina Ford and the Baby Whisperer by
Tracey Hogg - base much of their (very poor) breastfeeding advice on
this notion, and in fact the Baby Whisperer invents a new, third milk
called 'quencher milk' which the baby has to get. But mothers dont
have to have read these books to have learnt this.

Most of the health visitors and midwives I teach are in thrall to the
idea, and mothers tie themselves in anxious knots wondering if the
baby can 'reach the hindmilk' if he has been feeding for only x
minutes - and they're often told by HCPs that the baby  'can't be
getting a balanced feed' if the number of minutes is not enough.

While knowing that breastmilk is not a homogenous fluid is probably
useful to mothers and HCPs,  the way foremilk/hindmilk
'understanding' has developed has been almost wholly negative in
terms of its effects on breastfeeding efficacy, I am sad to say.

It feeds into the ideas of measuring, timing, scheduling that are
often anathema to a happy breastfeeding relationship.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK

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