Should formula milk be supplied in hospitals?

[Foogirl]

If you've made the choice for FF, something which you've no doubt decided on in advance, I actually think its then very irresponsible as future parents to 'forget' to take your baby's food into hospital.

In that instance, I would say the NHS should supply 1 feed only and your partner sent away immediately to get your baby's food.

Forgetting is not a good enough reason.

Ok so i was set on bf. my daughter wouldnt latch. i had no choice but to give her lil formula. after an exhausting labour i had to wait ALL night for dh to come in morning with a lil formula.

the vast majority chose to bf, but doesnt always work out!

Why did you have to wait ALL night? With 24hour supermarkets, OH could have gone there at midnight and bought some.

 

[Tasha]

We don't have any 24 hour supermarkets round here, ours all close at 9pm or 10pm. I think it depends on area.

 

[babyhopes2010]

If you've made the choice for FF, something which you've no doubt decided on in advance, I actually think its then very irresponsible as future parents to 'forget' to take your baby's food into hospital.

In that instance, I would say the NHS should supply 1 feed only and your partner sent away immediately to get your baby's food.

Forgetting is not a good enough reason.

Ok so i was set on bf. my daughter wouldnt latch. i had no choice but to give her lil formula. after an exhausting labour i had to wait ALL night for dh to come in morning with a lil formula.

the vast majority chose to bf, but doesnt always work out!

Why did you have to wait ALL night? With 24hour supermarkets, OH could have gone there at midnight and bought some.

he was sent home at 9pm by midwife. assuming she will feed. she didnt.
he was 1hour drive away and it was 2am! plus he wouldnt have been able to even be let on the ward at that hour

 

[LegoHouse]

I want to say no. Maybe they could make it so it was available in extreme cases where the midwives agreed it was necessary. And then if you want to ff you can bring your own and if bfing genuinely doesn't work out you get what you need?

 

[Foogirl]

he was sent home at 9pm by midwife. assuming she will feed. she didnt.
he was 1hour drive away and it was 2am! plus he wouldnt have been able to even be let on the ward at that hour

So he leaves at 2am, drives to the supermarket and then drives to the hospital. He doesn't have to come on to the ward to bring in formula.

We had to wake my OH at 2am when I was first in hospital and he was 9 hours away. These things happen and I don't believe the NHS is there to make up for inconvenience.

 

[babyhopes2010]

so why cant they have them avialiable to buy!


btw all the time i was trying my best to bf!!!

 

[special_kala]

so why cant they have them avialiable to buy!

That would be the easiest option but not sure how it would work with the current laws.

There must be a way around it though

 

[Foogirl]

so why cant they have them avialiable to buy!


btw all the time i was trying my best to bf!!!

Because they are a hospital, not a convenience store.

 

[Tasha]

so why cant they have them avialiable to buy!

That would be the easiest option but not sure how it would work with the current laws.

There must be a way around it though

I imagine it being at the same price as in the shop would be the only way to get round the laws as any discounted/subsidised rates would probably break them.

 

[sue_88]

But then they'd still have to find money in the budget to purchase the stock? And they'd have to purchase every brand of formula on offer to not be advertising more over the others?



I can't see that working.

 

[Foogirl]

so why cant they have them avialiable to buy!

That would be the easiest option but not sure how it would work with the current laws.

There must be a way around it though

I imagine it being at the same price as in the shop would be the only way to get round the laws as any discounted/subsidised rates would probably break them.

There is also an issue with what they carry as stock. They cant be seen to be endorsing a certain brand either.

 

[special_kala]

so why cant they have them avialiable to buy!

That would be the easiest option but not sure how it would work with the current laws.

There must be a way around it though

I imagine it being at the same price as in the shop would be the only way to get round the laws as any discounted/subsidised rates would probably break them.

The NHS must get a discount for bulk buying?

 

[Pearls18]

When I thought I couldn't feed (after I was at home) I sent hubby out at 4am to drive an 80 mile round to trip to get formula as we didn't live near a 24 hour shop....he didn't complain...it was his job as daddy, thankfully it was such a long journey that DS managed to BF in the time and we never needed to use the formula

I didn't buy formula before going to hospital because I thought that was a defeatist attitude, BF was my default and if we had to resort to formula it didn't need to be easy to get to, I wasn't assuming to need it so if we did we knew it would be out of our way to get it, a baby isn't going to starve if you have to go out to get formula, in my case it actually meant we succeeded in BF, if we had formula to hand I would have given it to him in desperation and probably never BF again. Thank god that didn't happen when there was no need, how many people in hospitals that supply formula have perhaps given up too quickly because it was so easy to get hold of and then end their BF journey? Not saying that for this reason it shouldn't be supplied, but just something else to consider.

 

[special_kala]

Term babies are generally born with enough stores to go 24 hours without a feed anyway.

 

[Foogirl]

Term babies are generally born with enough stores to go 24 hours without a feed anyway.

See, I did think that, and was going to say that, but I've never had one so I didn't know for sure

 

[Tasha]

The hospitals I have given birth in have all had the various brands any way. Perhaps a vending machine for the little glass bottles is the best option, I dunno. I don't think there is a perfect answer.

Kala, they would but surely they wouldn't be allowed to pass on that discount as don't the laws say about not discounting formula which is why they are pretty much the same price every where?

 

[special_kala]

Good point Tasha.

 

[Tasha]

So in affect the NHS would be making some money on it (probably), which no doubt would cause uproar.

 

[Foogirl]

Also, is there not some rule about the NHS not being able to sell things to the public?

 

[Tasha]

Not sure but there would be ways round that, as it could be seen as similar to private prescriptions or if a vending machine then like the vending machines you get a drink or crisps etc out of x