My Breastfeeding Story

I figured now would be as good a time as any to tell my breastfeeding story and why I loathe the very idea of infant formula.

S was born in October 2010, on his due date no less, weighing an ounce short of 9 pounds.  I had always known I wanted to breastfeed, even as a little girl although I was formula fed myself.  I think it was more my childlike fascination with boobs rather than understanding that it was the best thing I could do for my future baby.  So when I found out I was pregnant (having been diagnosed with PCOS a few months previously), my husband and I were stunned and thrilled and scared.  Only one of us was working and although I was looking for work, it became impossible to get a job once I found out I was pregnant.  So the pregnancy itself, although it progressed smoothly, was a very emotionally stressful one. 

I never once doubted for a second that I would breastfeed, even though I bought me a big ol' tin o' Cow 'n Gate "just in case".  I had read through every single page of What to Expect When You're Expecting and I just knew it would be breastfeeding for us.  So my handsome little angel arrived right on time and was popped straight on to the breast.  I was one of the lucky ones who had actually researched breastfeeding beforehand and was familiar with how to get him to latch (along with help from my midwives) and voila!  He was on, he was nursing, he was a champ from the get go.  However, after several hours of constantly nursing, I was dog-tired and asked for a top-up *sigh*.  So he had a quarter of a bottle of Aptamil and he was out like a light.  He slept for 5 hours and although I hadn't slept for about 36 hours, I only slept for 3.  So when he woke up he was popped on again and we continued nursing.  I *think* he had another top up before we left although I can't be certain as I was pretty exhausted and still a bit out of it from the pethodine.  Anyway, before we left to go home he had his first bath and one of the midwives snuck me a couple of little bottles of Aptamil and off we went. 

We arrived home and we nursed and nursed and topped up and nursed and nursed and one more top up and then my milk came in!!  Hooray!!  My boobs looked a-m-a-z-i-n-g...  I have always been rather lacking in the breast department so when my milk came in I was positively thrilled!  My breasts were enormous and what was better, they had milk in them!  My son was a little champ at nursing by the time my milk came in and although my nipples were quite tender, they were not nearly as sore as I was expecting them to be.  I developed a few small blood blisters but I could get past the pain.  I think the reason why we were so successful at breastfeeding was because I was confident in my body's ability to nourish my child.  I didn't 'think' he wasn't 'getting enough', I didn't let the pain at the beginning of every feed daunt me, I had luckily researched sufficiently to know that everything I was doing was right.  When my milk came in and seeing how huge my breasts got, and seeing how much I leaked when I touched him or heard him cry, I never stopped for one second to think that he might not be getting enough.  And I was right, by day ten he had put on over a lb.  I was so extremely (and rightfully) proud of myself that I had done this, I had nourished my baby, it was my body that had kept him alive.  Needless to say, the formula was thrown away :) 

Fast forward to when my son was about to turn 3 months old, he was a chubby, happy, healthy little chap (and a heartbreaker to boot, I'm still shocked my husband and I have produced such a beautiful child) and we were all about to immigrate back to Africa to live with my parents while we could get our feet under us.  Boy, what a mistake that was.  So we landed at Harare International Airport after travelling overnight with a baby who slept all the way and not five freaking minutes after getting off the plane, was my mother talking about 'toughening' my son up to cigarette smoke o.O  I remember thinking at the time "F*ck".  So we said nicely to my parents that we don't smoke around S.  A few days after arriving my milk supply plummeted.  My son was constantly feeding, he had a horrible nappy rash, I had my parents whinging and whining about going to buy him formula and I was just stressing out.  So off to the doctor we went and I was prescribed a mild anti-depressant that boosts milk supply and off we went.  All was well.  Fast forward 2 weeks and my husband and I are in Cape Town with his family and my husband has just read me something on the dangers to children from cigarette smoke.  I phone my mother and ask her if she would not smoke in the house while S was around.  Yowza did I get an earful about how it was her house and she would do whatever she wanted.  Nice grandmother. 

Fast forward a month and we are back home with my parents.  My mother starts in on me about starting solids.  He was 4 months old.  I told her he wouldn't be starting solids until he was 6 months old.  "I will NOT let that child starve!!  All he's had is the sh*t that comes out of your chest!  Give him formula, he's not fat enough!"  ...

Yeah.  This is where my research journey began.  I eventually started my son on porridge at 5 and a half months old, but boy did I get filthy looks if he didn't have 3 meals a day!  He was also given formula on the odd occasion on the advice of the 'health visitor'.  So here I was, moved to a country I thought I loved, husband and baby in tow, and listening to all this 'advice' that did NOT sit right with me at all.  So I started researching.  It took me a loooooooooong time to get to the risks of infant formula and when I did, I immediately stopped giving him the odd cup and stopped putting it in his porridge.  I felt awful that I had allowed myself to be pressured into giving that stuff to him just so my mother could feel better.  I still feel incredible anger towards my mother for pretty much ruining the first year of my child's life.  I was supposed to be enjoying him, not constantly listening to how fat I was and what a bad mother I was. 

So, is my vendetta against the infant formula corporations because of how I was 'forced' to use formula?  Maybe.  I think though that I'm pretty pissed because I didn't KNOW how awful infant formula really is.  And that I was told it was acceptable.  There are already so many contaminants in our environment, why should my son have to be exposed to more if it is wholly unnecessary????  Why should he have to have his chances of cancer increased even more???  So yes, I think I partly hate infant formula because of the way it was shoved in my face, but I think I hate it more because it is so vilely corrupted.  The people that sell me that shite don't care about my baby.  They don't care that it could kill him.  They only care about the profits they make for their shareholders and that is why I want them to display health warnings on their labels.  So mothers actually know what they are contaminating their children with and more likely to be determined to succeed and flourish with breastfeeding.

Let's fight back!

I have posed questions both to Aptamil and Cow & Gate asking why they don't display the health risks of using their products on their tins/cartons as cigarette companies have to do.  I have also asked why they don't print ALL of the ingredients on their tins/cartons.  Suffice it to say that I have subsequently been blocked from both Aptamil and Cow & Gate pages on facebook.  Whether this is due to the questions I was asking or because of the arguments that ensued from righteous (albeit rather ignorant) mothers, or both. 

I have since taken steps in obtaining both UK health statistics and global health statistics on the use of infant formula as well as approaching someone about starting an international petition to have the law changed so that formula companies HAVE to print the risks of using their products on their tins.  This could take YEARS to accomplish but if it saves just one baby's life, surely it is a very worthy cause? 

In the wise words of the Alpha Parent, "breastfeeding should be EVERY baby's human right". 

We need to educate those mothers that are too blinded by the cunning marketing web that has been spun around them.  We need to re-educate the health professionals who offer formula as an easy alternative all too often.  We need to impress upon mothers that they need to do their own research instead of just believing everything they hear.  The government needs to spend more on breastfeeding and limit the amount that is spent advertising on formula.  Unfortunately, I think there is a link somehow between governments and the formula companies, whether the formula companies sponsor politicians, or the government makes a hell of a profit on VAT income from the sale of formula I'm not sure.  It could be both. 

KNOWLEDGE is FREEDOM.  We are all pulled into marketing traps every day of our lives.  60 years ago Camel cigarettes were advertised as the 'healthy' option of cigarettes.  If such an advert displayed on our television screens these days, complaints would be made by the thousands to Ofcom et al.  The same approach needs to be taken with formula.  We need to be horrified that formula is marketed as 'healthy' or as an 'acceptable alternative' to breast milk. 

The sad truth is that we are victimised and our health is compromised by formula.  We are subjecting our babies to suffering from the day they are born to the day they die.  It's not fair.  We need to fight back!  We need to prove to these people that we CAN think for ourselves, that we are HUMAN beings, not lab rats!  No one can deny that formula has saved children's lives, but it was created for the sole use in cases of maternal death or physical inability to breastfeed.  The formula companies got greedy so they sexualised breasts and made us doubt our own abilities as mothers.  Why do women buy into the biggest lie, but not only that, the biggest lie run by MEN. 

What have we been fooled into doing to our children????

So after a long long think and much debating and arguing I have come to one conclusion.  The formula industry is as evil and twisted and corrupt as the tobacco industry.  They play a psychological money game with those in the health profession and in 3rd world countries they aggressively target mothers to use their products.  AT WHAT COST???  At the cost of millions of little lives every year. 

By no means am I having a rant about mothers choosing to formula feed.  No no no.  Mothers are led to believe by advertising and misplaced advice from health professionals that formula is just as good as breast milk.  I've heard of so many stories of mothers who have been to see their family GP and being told that there are 'no nutritional benefits to breast milk after 6 months old'.  W-T-F????  I wonder, does anyone know WHY they say this?  I do.  After reading an article from the Archives of Disease in Childhood, I know EXACTLY why these GP's say such things.  Here is an extract from the Archives of Disease in Childhood which is an offshoot of the American National Library of medicine.

"It is now known that the use of infant formula instead of breast milk is one of the most important causes of preventable mortality in infancy world wide.^1,2,3 However, there is growing evidence that this is not just an issue for poorer countries. Research in the United Kingdom has shown associations with increased morbidity,^4,5 reduced later intelligence quotient (IQ),⁶ and increased risk of adult ill health,⁷ and a recent paper from the United States showed an association with excess infant mortality.⁸ This places the use of infant formula high among the avoidable risks to health to which children in the United Kingdom are exposed. Yet in the United Kingdom, breast feeding rates are stagnant, after encouraging rises in recent decades, and there is a clear social class disparity, which means that children in the poorest families, already facing multiple adversities, predominantly start life without the protective benefits of breast milk.⁹ Globally, breast feeding is also under threat, with signs of reverses in rates of exclusive breast feeding in many countries.<sup>10"

So from this we can see that despite the governments breastfeeding campaign mothers are not getting the proper support and information on breastfeeding.  The government spent £729 011 on advertising breastfeeding in 2006/7 whereas the formula companies spent a staggering £7 626 847 in 2006/7 a 36% increase on the previous year.  Who can blame mothers for choosing to formula feed when they are bombarded by more advertising on formula than they are on breastfeeding?  We also have to take in the emotive factors that formula companies create with their consumers.  "Their product kept my baby alive, I'll keep using it rather than try breastfeeding the next one".  Only 2% of mothers aren't physically able to breastfeed according to WHO and the NHS.  Mothers come up with all sorts of excuses about why they 'couldn't' breastfeed, not realising that with the help of a proper breastfeeding peer counsellor that they could have had a long and happy breastfeeding relationship with their child.  Let us not forget about the sexualisation of breasts in Western society.  Thanks to.... The formula companies!!  Early advertisements of formula included images of breasts that successfully alienated the breast as the natural form of nutrition.  Let us look at another excerpt from the above article.</sup>

"Infant formula manufacturers have a duty to their shareholders to maximise sales of their products, which by definition means minimising exposure of infants to breast milk. Hence while publicly stating their commitment to breast feeding, as required by law, IFMCs are, in fact profiting from the failure of breast feeding. With growing knowledge of the hazards of infant formula, manufacturers need to seek ever more sophisticated ways of promoting their products as scientific and safe. Any link with paediatricians or other health professional is thus likely to enhance their products' credibility and sales. IFMCs are therefore happy to provide funds from their advertising budgets to achieve this. There are three main ways by which IFMCs forge these links with paediatricians: through educational activities, support of a department or organisation, and funding of research.

Sponsorship of an educational event promotes a company and its products at a number of levels. The firm's name is linked to that of the institution on widely distributed publicity, those attending the course receive material such as pens bearing the firm's logo, and all involved will then tend to have subtly enhanced respect for that company and their products. When companies fund clinical activity or support health related organisations, this also conveys an impression of the company as being “health giving” even if their products may cause net harm to children's health.

Research into formula milks, although ostensibly necessary, in fact serves an important role in promoting the use of infant formula, as the results are then used to enhance the impression of their “equivalence” to breast feeding, once compounds present in breast milk, such as “pre‐biotics”, are added. Every supposed enhancement of an infant formula, which EU law only requires be tested in trials of equivalence to other formulas, can then be advertised as making the formula “even closer to breast milk” even though there is no evidence that any such enhancements have actually increased the safety of formula. Paediatricians also tend to attach great significance to the role of IFMCs in developing specialist formulas, which may be useful for a tiny number of infants, without necessarily recognising that far more infants suffer because they were deprived of the protective benefits of breast milk by the use of that company's products."

 

Hmmm...  A stunning insight into the corrupt psychological games that the formula industry plays on the government and pediatric science...  What does this mean?  It means that the afore mentioned GP will tell you that your breast milk is not enough for your child after the age of 6 months so they should be fed an artificial, substandard, potentially harmful alternative instead?  Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight...  Thanks I'll stick to breastfeeding my 18 month old child rather than risk his health with a product that has the potential to kill him at the age of 40.  Lets look at another extract.

 

"If breast feeding, with all its benefits, is to be established as a majority activity, we paediatricians must learn to recognise the elaborate web woven around us by formula manufacturers, which currently ensures our goodwill and support for a product that we may acknowledge, but would mostly not wish to actively promote. Fifty years ago nearly everyone, including doctors, smoked and it was perceived to be a necessary and inescapable part of our culture. Now it is unimaginable that we would smoke in front of our patients or accept gifts from cigarette manufacturers. It is time for a similar shift to take place with respect to formula milk. Just because many mothers currently choose to bottle feed their infants and a tiny number of infants cannot be breast fed, it does not mean we should be seen to be endorsing a product that causes net damage to the health of children. The time has come for paediatricians to recognise the influence of IFMCs, shake off their silken chains, and become truly uncompromised advocates for breast feeding and against the hazards of formula milk."

 

Well at least SOMEONE knows something funny is going on right?  But the problem is, how to inform the public?  Mothers are very defensive about what choices they make when it comes to feeding their children.  They don't WANT to know that they are feeding their child something that can cause child/adulthood cancer, diabetes, obesity, gastroentiritis, SIDS, respiratory illness, asthma, eczema etc etc etc. 

 

Our responsibilities, not just as parents, but as human beings, is to expose this industry for what it really is.  A corrupt, power-hungry, money making scheme that kills millions of babies every year.  There need to be drastic changes in the medical profession and government attitudes towards infant formula.  Midwives need to stop offering gift vouchers to those who can give out the most samples of formula in a day (yes!  they do that!), doctors and scientists need to stop accepting 'funding' from these formula companies and need to study and promote breastfeeding more, laws should be changed with regards to infant formula. 

 

My aim, my GLOBAL aim, is to have a law passed that formula companies display the health risks associated with the use of their products on their tins so that mothers can make an INFORMED decision at point of sale.  Do I contact someone to help me breastfeed or do I buy this stuff and risk my child's health, both now and later on in life?