This is one mum's story when breastfeeding did not work for her or her baby!

"There are a couple of points on breastfeeding which I feel are not represented by magazines and other sources including Health visitors and midwives. These are points which I feel new mums and mums to be should be aware of!

I found that the ante-natal information you are given on feeding your baby is incredibly biased towards breast feeding. Whilst I agree that this is best for baby I believe that you are made to feel somehow inadequate if you choose to bottle feed and the information on this option is lacking.

Also on this point, you are not informed that your baby may not like to breast feed and you are therefore made to feel rejected by your baby, especially with all those hormones flying around. This is my experience which I would like to share:

My baby was born with alot of mucus in her mouth and nose and did not latch on immediately, and as she was born in the early hours the midwives at the hospital said I should try again after a few hours, morning came and we tried again, but she would not latch on correctly and if she did she would only have a couple of sucks and stop. Obviously my baby was crying alot and hungry. The midwives seemed unconcerned so I tried not to worry, but that night in hospital the midwives tried all night to get her latched on using all the tricks up their sleeves and the same things happened - she would latch on, have a couple of sucks then move her head back so only the end of my nipple was in her mouth, then after a while she would just pull away and cry.

When I went home it got slightly better and she had a couple of long feeds, but I had to endure her feeding from the end of my nipple, she just would not take the whole of the aureole in her mouth. After a few days of screaming and fighting at trying to latch her on (including very patient midwives who became very impatient!) I sent my husband out to get formula as she was hungry and her mouth was dry... I then expressed what I could but she still preferred formula milk to breast milk which both the midwives and myself found unusual.

The result of this was psychologically very difficult - why would my baby not latch on? why didn't she like my milk? what was so wrong with me that I could not feed my baby?? I felt incredibly let down that I couldn't breastfeed and as the midwives/health visitors promote only this you are left feeling both rejected by your baby and my the people who are there to support you.

She is a healthy 4 month old now who is getting very interested in our eating habits and I'm sure will be weaning before too long..so I have no regrets about bottle feeding and can happily talk about the benefits of this to anyone.

Benefits

• You know how much food your baby is getting;



• Your baby will sleep for longer periods;



• If you were embarrased about feeding in public you can bottle feed anywhere;



• Most places have bottle warming facilities, not everywhere has breastfeeding facilities;



• Your nipples don't get sore!"

Lisa