Choosing how to feed your baby should be a simple choice, you either decided to breast feed, bottle feed or a mix of both. But over that last few year the government, health officials, midwives etc have all been banging on about how “breast is best”.
No I’ve no doubt about that, there is nothing better than using your own milk to feed your baby. However I’m sick to death, of people like me, who choose to bottle feed, being kicked down and made to feel like we are not doing the best for our child.
Almost every week we see articles about how breast fed babies become more intelligent, more successful, thinner, healthier etc.
All the while making mums like me feel guilty for the decision we made.
Why did I choose to breast feed? Well depending who you are you may think my answer is a selfish one.
Breast feeding FREAKED ME OUT! I can’t explain why, it just did. I didn’t mind seeing other women breast feed, but the thought of me doing it made me feel sick and I would come out in cold sweats.
When speaking to my midwife when I was pregnant with my first child, she would bang on about breast feeding totally disregard my decision by just saying “you’ll change your mind once baby is here”.
Fast forward to the birth, quite a traumatic experience, 31 hours or labour, ending in an emergency c-section. When she was finally born the midwife turned to me and asked how I intended to feed my baby. Now I’m high on the drugs they had given me and i’d worked myself up for a fight. I was extremely shocked when I said i was bottle feeding I didn’t get the lecture. In fact, that midwife was super nice & made sure I was happy.
Other midwifes on the ward weren’t so happy about my decision, refusing to get a bottle for me (don’t forget, i’d just had a c-sec and can’t move) when I asked for one. In the end I had to get my husband to bring a supply in.
In my job as a newborn photographer I get to speak to many mums. All those that chose to bottle feed, all tell me they are constantly made to feel guilty.
Some choose to bottle feed for medical reasons, some can’t breast feed, and some like me, it totally freaks them out. I’ve seen other mums who put themselves through so much stress & pain trying to breast feed, but they won’t stop because they are constantly being told its good for the baby.
A happy mum = a happy baby FULL STOP!
We should be free to choose how to feed our babies and be supported by the professional around us.
I exclusively bottle fed both my children and they are both perfectly healthy and very intelligent. It has not done them any harm.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Take a look at my last blog an interview with an mum about breast feeding
