The politics of breast-feeding

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10 April 2012

Ed Milband's timing could hardly be worse. Just as the Tories try to shake off their image as milk-snatchers by pushing employers to provide fridges and breast-feeding rooms for mothers returning to work, the leader of the touchy-feely Labour Party accidentally reveals his three-week old son Samuel is becoming a connoisseur of formula milk.

It is a terrible PR gaffe for Miliband, who has yet to be forgiven for failing to appear on his first son's birth certificate. To many, feeding formula to a newborn is scarcely better than child abuse. Indeed, government guidelines, adopted from the World Health Organisation by Labour's Hazel Blears in 2003, insist a baby should be breast-fed exclusively until it is at least six months old. It is a deadline promoted with religious zeal by health workers. So what is going on in the right-on Miliband household?
Of course, there are many reasons why women are unable to breast-feed (mastitis, woefully painful nipples, not enough milk or a baby that won't latch on) or choose not to (employing a night nanny or convenience). And many women, apparently including Ed's partner Justine Thornton, opt to combine feeding methods. There is one golden rule: thou shalt not judge another mother.

Yet there is evidence aplenty that breast is by far the best for your newborn, and new mothers — like myself — are force-fed literature on the benefits for months before the birth. Breast-fed babies are brainer, have stronger immune systems, bond better — the list goes on. Bottle-feeding carries risks too, from tooth decay to obesity.
So for me there was never a question that I would breast-feed my daughter, Robin. She loves it, I like the intimacy and, now that I'm back at work, it's a very satisfying way to reconnect at the end of a long day apart.

My baby is 10-and-a-half months old and I plan to keep feeding her until she's at least one, albeit at a slightly reduced rate and perhaps supplemented with a little of Mr Miliband's favoured formula.

Why doesn't everyone do the same? Perhaps I make it sound simple, but breast-feeding is never completely straightforward. To keep it up for a whole year is rare, despite the official pressure, and at times it requires a will of steel. Of my National Childbirth Trust group I'm the only one still breast-feeding and I wouldn't criticise any of the women I know who gave up because of baby's growing teeth, nannies being hired or simply because they — or their partner — wanted their body back.

Blissful breast-feeding is one of the great myths of motherhood. Even middle-class, organically oriented mums start giving up almost as soon as they start — stealthily mixing up their baby's feed with formula to get through the tricky early days when no amount of nipple cream will salve their woes. What they won't necessarily do is broadcast it, as Mr Miliband inadvertently did.

In fact only 30.9 per cent of mothers in England are still solely breast-feeding at two months, a figure that plummets dramatically with each subsequent week.

Even among dedicated breast-feeders, the first thing that goes is the late-night feed. This I discovered last February when friends began saying their six-week-old babies were sleeping through the night. Mine had no intention of doing so, and was happily waking every two hours for a snack, so I was curious to learn the other mums' tricks. It turned out there was only one — a big bottle of formula at bedtime.

This works because formula, being based on cows' milk, is harder to digest. Unlike mother's milk, it forms curd-like solids in the baby's stomach that take many hours to process — leaving the child feeling full for longer. It's a simple equation — a little formula equals a lot of sleep — and you can see why so many mums go for it.

But not me. Having decided to rear a free-range infant, fed "on demand" for as long as she wants, I persisted long after my peers with the breast option. I'm glad I did, but most people wouldn't choose to go 10 months before getting a full night's sleep. By that point I was semi-hallucinating, had permanently pink eyes, bleeding gums and scratchy skin. Quite a price to pay for purism.

Other mums were more pragmatic. One began swithering around two months in. She never properly enjoyed the experience and was worried her son wasn't getting enough milk. She was also desperate for sleep. After agonising, she decided to do "half-and-half". Some experts think this strategy encourages women to breast-feed, albeit partially, for longer than they otherwise would. I'm certain it's the case with my friend, who continued to give her son breast-milk until he hit the half-year mark.

In London it is actually quite difficult to reject the breast. Figures back this up — 61.9 per cent of babies are totally or partially breast-fed at six weeks, compared to 44.4 per cent nationally. So something must be working.
For one thing there is a sense of obligation to breast-feed, with health visitors and clinic nurses being quite militant about promoting it.

But there is also proper back-up. Anyone facing difficulties is urged to drop into one of numerous free breast-feeding support groups in their area. I visited one early on and was instantly matched up with mothers who shared my problem. We swapped advice and everything was back to normal in days.

Later on, when I asked whether I should start my large, hungry five-month-old on solids, I was told in no uncertain terms to stick to pure breast-milk instead. I didn't appreciate the strictness at the time, especially with a baby who needed to be fed almost every hour throughout the night, but bar a few spoonfuls of baby rice, I did as I was told.

I won't pretend otherwise — my year of breast-feeding has at times been a sleepless, teetotal slog. But I wouldn't swap a drop of my hard-won milk for formula. And neither would Robin.
nctpregnancyandbabycare.com

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