By Treacle Tart
Posted on January 1st, 2017
As I write this, my 18 month old little boy is contentedly nursing from my left breast. This is not the norm in Ireland.
We have some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world, on leaving hospital 56% of women said they were breastfeeding, by 6 months this has dropped to 6% and once you pass the the 12 month mark it drops again to 2%.
From the moment I knew I was pregnant, I wanted to breastfeed. My mum had nursed both myself and my sister and we have a close family friend who is a lactation consultant. In fact, she and my mum were founding members of Cuidiú, a breastfeeding support group here in Ireland, back in the 1980’s. So I was well educated on the benefits of breastfeeding and knew I would have the support from my family and my husband, who is a big breastfeeding advocate. Also, to be honest, we could not have really afforded the cost of formula in our family budget.
I had some issues to begin with, notably vasospasms, which are linked with Raynaud’s phenomenon, where the blood flow rushes away from the nipple in the cold and when the baby latches on it all comes rushes back and is very painful. But these were easily treatable by stuffing those instant handwarmers down my top and avoiding the freezer aisle in supermarkets.
But all in all breastfeeding has been easy for me and I enjoy it. I love the closeness of holding my little boy close last thing at night as he drifts off to sleep, or when we get home from daycare and he has a little feed for comfort and reassurance.
The trouble has been with people outside of my little bubble of support. It started at about 4 months old when, traditionally, weaning onto solids starts (this is despite guideline issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE) who both recommend not starting solids until 6 months).
“Are you still feeding him yourself?”
“Yes I am”
“Are you sure he’s getting enough food, should you not be starting solids?”
“No, he’s doing fine. He’s in the top percentiles for height and weight. Besides it’s not advisable to start solids until 6 months according to the WHO and HSE, so I’m waiting till then”
They generally have no comeback to that. But then you hit 6 months old and people are still asking “Are you feeding him yourself?” and when you say you are, they start to tell you that you’re spoiling your child (!) and you get a lot of side eye, which only gets worse as your child gets older.
It also doesn’t help that in Ireland if you have any kind of problem with breastfeeding that your GP, unless you are very lucky, will immediately suggest formula unless you fight and insist. This is despite the guidelines issued by the HSE that healthcare professionals in Ireland are supposed to be supporting and helping improve the breastfeeding rate.
So while I have no problem with mums who decide to formula feed, for whatever reason (I am definitely in the a fed baby is best), I find it hard to read positive formula feeding posts because they add to the feelings of pressure I am constantly getting every day to stop breastfeeding.
I have tried to analyse this feeling. Do I care what other people think about my breastfeeding a toddler? No, not really, he needs the nourishment and comfort it brings and that’s more important that other people’s opinions. Do I feel uncomfortable with formula feeding and feel like breastfeeding is superior? No, however anyone else wants to feed their child is no business of mine, so long as that child is fed.
The only thing I can come up with is that for so long I’ve been taking in the message that formula is the best way to feed a baby – through the endless advertisements on tv for follow on milk (a completely made up product), brochures that purport to support breastfeeding, but are sponsored by formula companies and put forth a lot of false information about it – that I am defensive about my decision to continue to nurse my child until he weans himself (or I get really sick of it, but that hasn’t happened yet).
So while I understand when my friends in other countries complain about how breastfeeding is pushed at them with the exclusion of everything else, I wish we had that problem and I wouldn’t feel like I was a weirdo for wanting to feed my child the way nature intended.
We have some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world, on leaving hospital 56% of women said they were breastfeeding, by 6 months this has dropped to 6% and once you pass the the 12 month mark it drops again to 2%.
From the moment I knew I was pregnant, I wanted to breastfeed. My mum had nursed both myself and my sister and we have a close family friend who is a lactation consultant. In fact, she and my mum were founding members of Cuidiú, a breastfeeding support group here in Ireland, back in the 1980’s. So I was well educated on the benefits of breastfeeding and knew I would have the support from my family and my husband, who is a big breastfeeding advocate. Also, to be honest, we could not have really afforded the cost of formula in our family budget.
I had some issues to begin with, notably vasospasms, which are linked with Raynaud’s phenomenon, where the blood flow rushes away from the nipple in the cold and when the baby latches on it all comes rushes back and is very painful. But these were easily treatable by stuffing those instant handwarmers down my top and avoiding the freezer aisle in supermarkets.
But all in all breastfeeding has been easy for me and I enjoy it. I love the closeness of holding my little boy close last thing at night as he drifts off to sleep, or when we get home from daycare and he has a little feed for comfort and reassurance.
The trouble has been with people outside of my little bubble of support. It started at about 4 months old when, traditionally, weaning onto solids starts (this is despite guideline issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE) who both recommend not starting solids until 6 months).
“Are you still feeding him yourself?”
“Yes I am”
“Are you sure he’s getting enough food, should you not be starting solids?”
“No, he’s doing fine. He’s in the top percentiles for height and weight. Besides it’s not advisable to start solids until 6 months according to the WHO and HSE, so I’m waiting till then”
They generally have no comeback to that. But then you hit 6 months old and people are still asking “Are you feeding him yourself?” and when you say you are, they start to tell you that you’re spoiling your child (!) and you get a lot of side eye, which only gets worse as your child gets older.
It also doesn’t help that in Ireland if you have any kind of problem with breastfeeding that your GP, unless you are very lucky, will immediately suggest formula unless you fight and insist. This is despite the guidelines issued by the HSE that healthcare professionals in Ireland are supposed to be supporting and helping improve the breastfeeding rate.
So while I have no problem with mums who decide to formula feed, for whatever reason (I am definitely in the a fed baby is best), I find it hard to read positive formula feeding posts because they add to the feelings of pressure I am constantly getting every day to stop breastfeeding.
I have tried to analyse this feeling. Do I care what other people think about my breastfeeding a toddler? No, not really, he needs the nourishment and comfort it brings and that’s more important that other people’s opinions. Do I feel uncomfortable with formula feeding and feel like breastfeeding is superior? No, however anyone else wants to feed their child is no business of mine, so long as that child is fed.
The only thing I can come up with is that for so long I’ve been taking in the message that formula is the best way to feed a baby – through the endless advertisements on tv for follow on milk (a completely made up product), brochures that purport to support breastfeeding, but are sponsored by formula companies and put forth a lot of false information about it – that I am defensive about my decision to continue to nurse my child until he weans himself (or I get really sick of it, but that hasn’t happened yet).
So while I understand when my friends in other countries complain about how breastfeeding is pushed at them with the exclusion of everything else, I wish we had that problem and I wouldn’t feel like I was a weirdo for wanting to feed my child the way nature intended.
About the Author:
Irish mother of one and stepmother to four. Married to a Wiccan. Pro-choice, extended breastfeeding feminist. Enjoys cooking, reading, watching films. Needs to learn how to write more entertaining bios.
Irish mother of one and stepmother to four. Married to a Wiccan. Pro-choice, extended breastfeeding feminist. Enjoys cooking, reading, watching films. Needs to learn how to write more entertaining bios.
