To those expecting a nice, pleasant little update on the state of my bump, I’m afraid this post is going to disappoint.
Many moons ago, I did a personality test that, quite frankly nailed me. One of the things it said about me is that I am a ‘collector’, not just of things, but of knowledge. This has always stayed with me because it explained to me what I had always done naturally. Whatever I do, however I decide to do it, I can guarantee that I have spent a very long time looking at every available option. My utter determination to have a home birth might seem to some like the wafting of a tree hugging eco chick, but I can assure you, it is a decision based on hundreds of hours reading a large variety of sources and digesting what , to me, is best for my family and for me.
In the battle of the family, no topic is more hotly contested than the subject of how to nourish one’s baby, and I read something today which I wanted to share with you all. First I would like to say up front that I was formula fed from birth because my mum believes that her milk didn’t come in. That in turn has led to me wanting to breast feed my own child, but making cautious backup plans for the “best kind” of formula “just in case”. Basically, setting myself up to fail before I have even started.
I had never really appreciated that fact until I saw the words in this article written down in front of me.
The time and effort I had spent researching formula I could have spent gaining a support structure around me to ensure that I don’t fail in the first place. I am already on the mailing list for the local La Leche League, but they aren’t great until you have had your baby, so they’re on the back burner. That leaves the NCT, who Keith and I are booked in with in September to learn all the things that the NHS should be teaching us, if it had the money.
My own personal experience of Milk Companies very much mirrors the claims in the article. So far I have been signed up for the Cow and Gate Club, and received a soft toy cow from Aptimil along with some helpful information. Neither of which I have solicited. In contrast I have received precisely nothing about breast feeding other than wholehearted advocacy. What chance is there for us as a society in the face of this onslaught of glossy advertising?
Women have been sold the biggest pup in the history of the world if they believe that formula feeding is preferable to breast feeding – and we as a society should hang our heads in shame that we are allowing this to happen.
And the article in question: Well it can be found here but be warned, it does not make easy reading.
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