For some women breastfeeding is really hampered from the start by apalling care from health care professionals.  Sometimes women who have always assumed their babies would be breastfed, who have worked tirelessly before birth to secure the support they’ll need, who’s family are helpful, who really do not want their babies to have formula milk, sometimes these women do not succeed :-(  It’s not because they’re one of the magic 2% who actually can’t do it, but because something hasn’t clicked into place in the early days.  Here’s an example situation:

1. Mum has her baby, birth goes well

2. Baby isn’t interested in feeding for a few hours

3. Baby isn’t kept skin-to-skin which would make feeding more likely

4. Inflexible hospital policies mean that midwives get twitchy about the baby not feeding

5. Twitchy midwives who don’t understand how breastfeeding works decide that the baby needs forcing to feed

6. Midwives grab mum’s breast, and baby’s head and ram them together

7. Touching the back of baby’s head makes him pull his tongue in, rather than out where it needs to be to latch on well

8. Baby manages to get some milk so midwives are satisfied

9. The experience is upsetting and traumatic for baby and mother, and is also painful for the mother as the poor latch means that the nipples get damaged

10. Mum and baby leave the hospital - mum with damaged nipples, baby with bad breastfeeding technique and possibly even a phobia of breastfeeding (situation is even worse if baby has also been bottle-fed formula milk and/or if mum has been told to use nipple shields to help her nipples heal)

11. Mum is desperate to undo the mess created by the immediate post-natal care and gathers support around her again

12. Breast feeding continues to be agony.  Poor latch and nipple shields means baby feeds all the time as feeding is so inefficient and ineffective milk-removal causes mum to get severe mastitis on day 14.

13. Only way to clear mastitis is to express milk and nipples are so damaged that mum decides to bottle-feed expressed milk until her nipples are healed enough to try feeding at the breast again

14. Mum tries extra skin-to-skin contact and ‘co-bathing’

15. Mum is spending so much time expressing so she doesn’t get mastitis, crying because everything hurts and worrying that her baby’s not getting enough milk and that she may never be able to get breastfeeding working, that she has spent no positive time whatsoever with her two-week old baby

These mums *cannot* bond with their babies with all these negative hormones racing around their bodies.  Sometimes switching to formula milk is the only way for women and babies to relax enough to get to know one another.  How do mothers weigh up the physical benefits of recieving breastmilk with the emotional benefits of enjoying the early weeks of parenthood and getting to know your baby?  It breaks my heart.  I’m so angry and furious that crap care means that women have to choose!  They should be able to do both.  Everyone should be able to do both!  This is so wrong.  Midwives need more time, more money and, above all, more bloody training!