The Confident Mother

Helping ambitious women in technology develop their career with confidence

Jamie Oliver and breastfeeding

Today something different as a rebuttal to an article posted on 18 March 2016 in response to Jamie Oliver’s thoughts on supporting women to breastfeed:  a guest post by author and breastfeeding counsellor, Heather Welford.

EDIT: The article Heather is responding to has had some amends since originally posted, and some of the most florid bits of it have now been toned down. But it still stands as deserving of Heather’s criticism.

OK, Fleetstreet Fox. We get it. Breastfeeding is not for you. You don’t want to do it, and there are a bunch of advantages for you, as you see it, in hitting the bottle, right from the start.

But wow. Please don’t pretend you know about this stuff as it applies to other women, and other babies.

We don’t expect an evidence-based piece of science from you. ‘I don’t like breastfeeding and I don’t want to do it’ would be enough to justify your choice with me, and most other human beings, I reckon. If someone presses you for more, tell them where they can stuff their maternity bra….just don’t come out with the ignorant vitriol you have listed in your column today [18 March 2016]. Otherwise you are going to make a right, er, tit of yourself.

Let’s start with something super-easy. ‘Breast milk has more sugar than some formula milk’.

And?

The sugar in breastmilk is human lactose. It’s meant to be there. It’s been evolved to be there over a good many zillions of generations, to meet the needs of baby humans. This human lactose is more than a tad different from the 27 teaspoons of sucrose in a can of fizzy pop – but you knew that didn’t you? Really, you did, I think.

Moving on to the sludge you say is the breastmilk made by a mother on a poor diet … however much junk she eats, the breastmilk she makes will be just fine. This is because the breastmilk she makes is not made from her own diet. No, honestly – it’s not. Who’d have guessed, that what goes into her breasts is not a sieved-up mush of burgers and fries. In fact, her diet is irrelevant. Her breastmilk has no need of the regulations that make sure formula is made according to the rules, because her body makes breastmilk from her blood, and does a very good job of it, too. Actually, it’s worth checking the science on this one as the idea that you have to watch what you eat is such an unhelpful myth.

And while we’re talking science, all that stuff about breastfed babies (and their mothers) being healthier because they are middle class? Any good study takes this into account – it’s called controlling for it, soz if you know this, but not everyone does – and guess what? There are still fewer infections, hospitalisations and yes, cancers. Breastfeeding’s not a magic wand, and breastfed babies do get sick – but in some parts of the world not breastfeeding can be truly devastating (imagine bottle feeding as a refugee mother, camped out in the Jungle in Calais or Idomini in Macedonia – how on earth are you going to keep your feeding equipment clean and safe? The same goes for mothers and babies in the developing world, where breastfeeding is a literal life saver every day – how odd you think formula is better for them).

Breastfeeding can hurt – not going to argue with you there, and I have the experience with my own kids to know you’re right. But happily, I got good support and information, and changed the way I was positioning my babies (needed tweaking each time) and it stopped. A network of knowledgeable supporters and well-trained midwives and easy-to-access information – that’s what Jamie is asking for, to enable mums who do want to breastfeed to do it without pain.

And while we’re on about personal experience, unless you are aged about 70, your mum was in a very small minority feeding you Carnation milk. Formula milk has been widely available since the late 60s, and was in routine use for about 15 years before then. Ask her again. It might be another example of you getting your facts wrong.

Heather Welford

As some of you know, I am an NCT breastfeeding counsellor myself so this guest post is received with much love, warmth and great respect for the author.

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Comments

  3. Amazing response, I have wrote a post about it myself, but not so eloquently put!
    It is a battle we are constantly fighting to get better support, I am fortunate that our area has a specific breastfeeding team, I know we are in the minority.

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  4. Couldn’t agree more. If you don’t breastfeed, own it. But don’t dress it up in rhetoric and ridiculous ‘facts’. Breast milk is just amazing for babies. If it doesn’t happen for you or you don’t want it to then that’s enough said. Don’t try to undermine the reality and, even more dangerously, suggest it’s less healthy.

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  5. We’d have died out as species if breastfeeding didn’t work.

    Babies fed by malnourished mothers in death camps like Auschwitz managed to thrive too …

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  10. Thank you for posting this, Sherry. I wrote the post in response to a ridiculous diatribe by Mirror Online’s Fleetstreet Fox, which is still available on their website.

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    • Hi Heather, I’ve complained to IPSO & they’ve asked me to outline the specific inaccuracies my complaint relates to. Do you mind if I copy & paste your fab post in my email to them? I would of course credit you!

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  12. i find it so ridiculous, what do they think all mammals do to feed their young, and what happened before formula was invented, (wet nurses)..victorian rich ladies, paid poor ladies who had milk to feed thir babues … how stupid these stories are, and usually written by men …

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  15. She also contradicts herself somewhat in the article by implying that breast milk is at a higher risk of being unhealthy due to the mother’s diet, which as you pointed out is rubbish anyway, then saying “while it’s right to say breast-fed children are less likely to have infections, obesity and diabetes,”. If fleestreet fox is implying that breast milk is less likely to be healthy, it’s contradictory to later state in the same article, the exact opposite of this. It’s even more questionable to contradict yourself in such a way just to push a false agenda about classism. Another contradiction is to use the point of breast milk containing more sugar than formula as a reason not to breastfeed, then later claim the carnation milk she was fed has even more sugar yet she intends to use it for her newborn. All in all, as a writer myself, a very flimsy, polemic and unprofessional article. With the only evidence to actually back up her points being anecdotal, and any real facts or statistics used are being used to back up points irrelevant to her agenda. I understand that there’s a lot of pressure on mothers to breastfeed instead of using formula, when sometimes, simply, that’s just not the right option for them, and they should feel un-pressured to choose which method is best for them. However, this article just reads as a petty, unformulated whine about somebody posing a different opinion to hers. I won’t even venture in to the grammar, if this were a random blog post that wouldn’t matter, but as somebody that supposedly makes a living out of journalism, it’s pretty shameful. Lastly how she states that there is no common sense behind breastfeeding? To use her own words, oh come ON.

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    • I disagree on the pressure front, I breast fed my toddler for two years as I was determined but every obstacle I encountered I was told by many professionals to give a bottle, I think they are so worried about trying to pressure you they have gone the other way now! I say more pressure to breast feed is needed, or encouragement may be a nicer term!

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    • Sadly, my Mother who had me when she was barely 17, feed me on carnation milk from birth. This was at the suggestion of the Midwifes on the Maternity unit where I was born. All my life I have been prone to repeated respiratory and intestinal infections, allergies and inflammation. My immune system is weak and confused. I don’t blame my Mother, she was young and did what see was told was best. Little did she know her Midwife was receiving ‘gifts’ from Nestlé for each new Mum to use their product. I have breastfed my son and am so relieved that he is not prone it the repeated illness that has plagued my life.

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  16. Excellent and well said.please get this put out to a wider audience. So it will dispell the awful myths which surround Breastfeeding.
    I am just away to take over a breastfeeding group with a couple of other mums. And need to put this out to increase the BF Rates . Well done.

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  17. I was born in 1963 and was fed on Carnation. My mum hated the fact that national dried formula clogged up the bottle teats !and was told by her midwife that Carnation was just as good. Otherwise a very good response.

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    • Sadly, my Mother who had me when she was barely 17, feed me on carnation milk from birth. This was at the suggestion of the Midwifes on the Maternity unit where I was born. All my life I have been prone to repeated respiratory and intestinal infections, allergies and inflammation. My immune system is weak and confused. I don’t blame my Mother, she was young and did what see was told was best. Little did she know her Midwife was receiving ‘gifts’ from Nestlé for each new Mum to use their product. I have breastfed my son and am so relieved that he is not prone it the repeated illness that has plagued my life.

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    • I was a carnation milk fed baby and born in the 1960’s. Grateful though that I could breastfeed my 2 boys for their first year. Bottle? What bottle? Went from breast to cup.

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    • I think 1963 is late for a uk carnation baby, Jenny . I’ve got no stats on this at all – just conversations with mothers and grandmothers – so if your experience is more typical than I thought, I could be 10 years out.

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  18. Great response!!!! Perfectly worded. This is the type of information that needs to get out there!! This has become such a sensitive and misunderstood issue. There doesn’t need to be a war, just information, help and support, for every new parent, regardless of feeding decisions.

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  19. Breast milk is not a choice for a baby. …it’s a fundamental survival need which babies totally need to optimise the foundation of health which adults need….formular is a choice. ..invented for those rare situations where Breast milk isn’t available. …until society totally understands the difference between wants and needs then there will be confusion in which everyone will have to pay the costs of the consequences. …It’s not an argument…rather than a presentation about the simple needs of a baby….

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  20. New mums need accurate information. As well as more places to vent their confusion. And that is where qualified lactation educators can help. Loved the talk of “tweaking” the positioning…written with love for all new mums…..

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  21. My sister was born in 1966 and was fed on carnation milk! the health visitor advised my mum to feed her on it a she was a big baby !

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  22. Thanks Sherry, for sharing Heather’s rebuttal; I hope many read it. Shame I don’t have a Mirror log-in, I would have left the link to this article.

    This is an issue where uninformed opinion is very unhelpful. So once again, thanks for taking an evidence based approach.

    #BritMumsBreastfeedingRound-upFeaturedPost

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  23. Great response. Sadly, however, I suspect that the original article was likely not even to be the view of the person that wrote it, which might go some way to explaining the inconsistencies. Newspapers tend to commission particular ‘viewpoints’ to create controversy and raise an audience. So great response, kudos to anyone who complained to a governing body about the original article (which I haven’t and won’t read, on principle), and two fingers up to unprincipled journalism.

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  24. Yes in Australia too karitane nurses urged mothers to feed carnation milk- I was born in 57 and my youngest brother was born in 68 and all six in between were raised on carnation milk. I guess once you’ve established the habit it will stick.
    Mum also routinely offered us gripe water steeped with bay leaves- as we would constantly spew up undigested curds which mum was assured was quite normal.
    As migrants mum, and girls like her, were urged to embrace modernity- breast feeding was for peasants not lucky new Australians.
    So sad.
    We were all chubby children. All of us now have calcium and digestive issues. All girls suffered reproductive issues and three of us have early signs of osteoporosis
    Thankyou Nestlé

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