You will no doubt have seen the beautiful artwork that is swamping the internet at the moment in the form of the Tree of Life Breastfeeding pictures along with the hashtag breastisbest. As beautiful as they are and as stunning as the art is the hashtag does nothing to help those mums who can’t breastfeed for any number of reasons and its time we stopped putting the emphasis on one way of feeding or the other!
FED IS BEST!
From personal experience I tried breastfeeding and the children just wouldn’t take to it, i spent many nights crying in agony and the babies crying in hunger but for some reason they just couldn’t or wouldn’t take the milk from me. Before anyone jumps in with it takes perseverance, I discussed this with my midwife and health visitor and it was decided for my sanity and for the babies health that giving the bottle a try wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world and you know what….they drank straight away and I was instantly less stressed!
I was told the stress was no doubt being passed from me to my babies and that is why they were struggling to feed, they could feel my frustrations and that makes me so sad, even more so than having to bottle feed in any circumstance. People have health issues, babies are born who need to be tube fed, there are women who have no breasts through cancer and why should we be shamed into doing what we need to do to feed our babies – we shouldn’t!
FED IS BEST!
Society has moved on enough to realise that breastfeeding is normal but as such, bottle feeding should be classed as normal too – advances in science and medicine mean that babies are fed the nutrients they need through either way and we should be trying to normalise EITHER way of feeding and not just one! #fedisbest
I take offence to the fact that people throw about the wording that breastfeeding helps you bond with your baby more and helps brain development etc thus insinuating that those that bottle feed have less of a bond and not so smart children. My bond could not be stronger with my children and believe me when i say we have children that act way beyond their years and are so smart it hurts sometimes. I am so proud of what our children do and who they are becoming and that certainly wouldn’t be any different depending on how they are fed! Likewise i am sure you think the same of your children regardless of how YOU fed your babies too!
FED IS BEST
Whatever way you feed your baby, bottle, breast, tube, you are a strong mummy and you are doing what is best for you and your baby! YOU ROCK!
XOXO
Debbie
**Bottle feeding mummy extraordinaire**