Dissertation help "attitudes towards breastfeeding" any articles?

[mrscupcake]

Hi girls im a student midwife, and I go back off mat leave in November and have a dissertation to hand in in the new year so I thought I'd start on it now as I have no idea how I'm going to fit it in (dreading going back too ) but anyway was thinking of doing it on attitudes towards breastfeeding as I breastfeed myself and it's been interesting hearing the differen attitudes towards it and, when was it in history that breastfeeding became a taboo?!! Seeing as it is natural? I find it very odd how it is seen in our culture and in other cultures they wouldn't dream of formula? If any one have any thoughts, opinions and articles that would be grately appreciated xx

 

[MsEmski]

With no *actual* formal knowledge, I think its decline & the way it's seen in society is directly linked to the major commercialism & convenience-driven attitudes that came about post-war.

Its decline arrived around the same time that the UK & the US saw popular culture drawn towards fast foods, TV dinners & less "make do & mend". My mum breastfed me back in the 70's when most others were opting for the convenience of bottles & formula- she was the only person she knew doing it. However, if you think about our Grandparents & their parents, non-human milk for babies was never given. If there was a problem with supply (or more likely death of the mother) a wet nurse would be called for, whether she was paid or a family member. In the majority of the so-called developing countries I think this is still a norm today.

I think it's also, more importantly, about the decline of family values & priorities. I don't mean that we individually don't value our families, I mean that our society with its constant bombardment of advertising to upgrade our lives and how we have to earn, earn, earn and spend, spend, spend in order to be happy, makes it so difficult for us to be & enjoy being families. If you look at history, we used to live close to, if not with, our families, so Globalisation has gone a long way to make our support networks smaller, which in turn makes it a lot more difficult to parent; I'm back at work, my husband works evenings & my mum has been a great help & I'm bloody knackered! Breastfeeding is time consuming & restricting...

Even down to the books written only to make money telling us that our babies should 'self-soothe' & just how unnatural our children are at sleeping... When, in actual fact, if you read the majority if blog posts, we're all wondering the same things... Perhaps if we didn't all prescribe to it & it was stopped being shoved down our throats we'd all parent a little easier.

I've digressed a bit! Sorry! In short the point I'm getting at is that the supermarkets stock, the advertisers cleverly make us want & well-meaning people around us tell just how easy it can all be... Just give your little one a bottle!

(I've just hit the nine month bf-ing mark & I'm getting annoyed at myself for being apologetic to people for still breastfeeding, hence the rant!)

 

[Tacey]

Have you read The Politics of Breastfeeding? That might have some useful information for you. I found it really opened my eyes to how things have changed through the years. Good luck for the dissertation!

 

[Lucy Lu]

Ooh my mum mentioned the other day about a Victorian article she saw referred to, in which it recommended that women breastfeed to a year at least - I think that was exclusively as well - I'll double check with her where she read it and can let you know x

 

[Lucy Lu]

With no *actual* formal knowledge, I think its decline & the way it's seen in society is directly linked to the major commercialism & convenience-driven attitudes that came about post-war.

Its decline arrived around the same time that the UK & the US saw popular culture drawn towards fast foods, TV dinners & less "make do & mend". My mum breastfed me back in the 70's when most others were opting for the convenience of bottles & formula- she was the only person she knew doing it.

This is really interesting - I wonder if there is also a regional bias to it - back in the 1970s and 1980s, our family lived in a much more rural area, where commercialisation was potentially slower to kick in! My mum and all my dad's sisters breastfed till a year, and never had the criticism that I've experienced today. My mum is so surprised when she hears I had comments from people asking when I'm stopping or remarking on why I was feeding so often and not in a routine, especially when LO was so young. She said no one would have made these comments back when we were younger - they trusted that you as the mother made the call about your baby's feeding. She used to sit and cluster feed me all evening, and also feed regularly in church and can't recall any hostility. My aunt bfeed until her son was 3 - the only negative comments she had were from my gran and it was only because my aunt had become so thin and wasn't eating enough herself, so my gran was concerned for her daughter's welfare.

That's not to say everyone breastfed - it wasn't for my mum's sisters. However, it seemed to be much more the norm to feed past 6 months. It was quite refreshing recently to go back to our roots and have my aunt say 'ooh did you want someone more quiet to feed?' as opposed to, 'oh, you're still feeding your 9 month old baby?!' She just assumed that I was still doing it.

This is all opposed to my MIL who lived in the city, who breastfed in a very rational, structured and quantifiable way - e.g. x mins on each side every 4 hours, with gradual weaning off from 4-6 months, replacing by solid meals.

Of course there are other factors, and my observations are based on a handful of people, I just found these differences very interesting and wondered if there was any regional explanation to it!

Excuse my rambling - sounds like a really interesting topic you have there though. Hope it all goes well x

PS - forgot to say kellymom.com might have some helpful references

 

[Bee70]

hey, sorry flying visit, but sheffield are pioneering a pro breastfeeding campain throughout the city. it is so effective that i havent thought anything was unusual about breastfeeding until i returned to work this week. i work in doncaster, only 30miles down the road, and not even the nursery knew anything about breastfeeding or expressing - i had to teach them how to store it and warm it etc!! just thought that you might be able to contact some breastfeeding support workers over here to get more information

 

[mrscupcake]

Thankyou girls for your ideas I shall check those out! Thankyou MsEmski for your reply-very interesting!! It never fails to suprise me how people can be so judgemental over breastfeeding and have negative attitudes towards it due to the media and advertisements etc. It is NATURAL and like you say, before the war there would have been no formula! I think it is gradually making a full circle though as the NHS has been pushing new breastfeeding initiatives for the past few years. When we as midwives do a "booking" we MUST give all women the advantages of breastfeeding, we are not suppose to stock any formula on the wards, and must never ask a woman "how are you feeding your baby" as that means we 'agree' with formula. When baby is first born we incourage skin to skin which helps bonding but also because I think natural instincts normally take over in both mum and baby to breastfeed. We give out leaflets, DVDs etc antenatally all on breastfeeding...some people may say this is wrong and that it is actually putting pressure on women to breastfeed, but some may say it is brilliant support. Either way, I think these initiatives are positive as long as midwives do support women in their any choice they make.

 

[OmiOmen]

I only really have opinions of what I find interesting so it probably is not much help. But I think it is interesting how so many people think it is common that women can not breastfeed. The midwives told me it is vary rare and I believe them because many times I could have given up and said I couldn't but it really would have being a case of me not sticking with it. My son had crystals in his urine the first few days (so a viable sign he was not getting enough food), he had issues latching on, it took a while for my milk to come in (some would give up and say it didn't come in), he was constantly attached (I have heard people say that means they are "too hungry" and need formula!) and I have found it very stressful at times. So I think I could have said "I could not breastfeed..." for a few reason at one point or another but it would have being lack of support and not sticking with it than a genuine reason. Yet so many people say they couldn't and I think fair enough if they did not want to as that is their choice but at the same time I think not as many people genuinely can not as do it as is said.

I also think it is quite interesting that there seems to be a link between people who formula feed early weaning and many people who breastfeed seem to wait until 6+ months. Some people have suggested that I should be weaning now I am the 3 month mark or that I should switch to formula now.

My hospital was very pro-breastfeeding and yet from all the people coming and going on my bay I think only 1 other person tried BFing. The 3 other people seemed annoyed that I did not give in because DS was crying while trying to establish feeding and it was keeping them awake at night.

 

[gills8752]

There are loads of good links hanging around in this section - just need to trawl a few pages to find them. Try the WHO website too - and LLL they've got good articles.

 

[Archie46]

I know this is a very old thread but....how did you get on with your dissertation?