Poorly chicken

[Egluntyne]

...This... was in today's paper.

 

I don't know what I think.

 

On the one hand........

 

But on the other.........

 

What do others reckon?

[Cinnamon]

It just doesn't seem right to me

I don't know what it is,but I find it all a bit icky

[Snowy]

That you spend too much time reading the paper Egluntine!!

 

(but I'd never come across these interesting stories if it weren't for you - so keep it up! )

 

Seriously though, I agree with the last comment in the article. There may be times when it is a good thing for a childs health, but when it starts to be used as a convenience so 'Mum' can go off and do something else ...

[Egluntyne]

That you spend too much time reading the paper Egluntine!!

 

Just got back from physio and "resting" for an hour as advised. I don't need telling twice!

 

Hence reading the paper from cover to cover.

[Basset]

Hi,

 

I'm a firm believer in breast-feeding and fed my own children until they were 2 years old, which is the minimum time recommended by the World Health Organisation.

 

But, I must admit this article made me feel a bit uncomfortable. It doesn't seem natural to b/feed someone else's baby. What's wrong with expressing some milk if the mother isn't alway's available to feed the baby? I think it's probably just a case that some parents can't be bothered to look after their children and pass the buck to someone else!!!

 

As for the woman in the article not minding when the childminder b/fed her child without asking, it would enrage me if someone had made such a huge assumption with my child.

[Egluntyne]

Hi,

 

I'm a firm believer in breast-feeding and fed my own children until they were 2 years old, which is the minimum time recommended by the World Health Organisation.

 

But, I must admit this article made me feel a bit uncomfortable. It doesn't seem natural to b/feed someone else's baby. What's wrong with expressing some milk if the mother isn't alway's available to feed the baby? I think it's probably just a case that some parents can't be bothered to look after their children and pass the buck to someone else!!!

 

As for the woman in the article not minding when the childminder b/fed her child without asking, it would enrage me if someone had made such a huge assumption with my child.

 

Ditto to all the above.

 

It would be the infection aspect of it all that would worry me too....after all it fell out of practice in the 19th century when doctors realised that syphilis and other horrors such as TB could be passed on...and that is even more of a worry now with HIV.

[Rhapsody]

I breastfed my boys for a year, despite people telling me I should 'move him onto formula' every 5 mins. I would rather my baby have beastmilk than artificial feed so kind of dont have a problem with it. If I left my babies with relatives when they were tiny I always took gallons of expressed milk, couldnt see that kind of arrangement mentioned in the article though.

[WitchHazel]

I had really mixed reactions reading this.

 

The initial story shocked me somewhat, I think it's a damn cheek that the childminder should start breastfeeding without any discussion.

 

But some of the other stories made a lot more sense, so I IMHO it depends on the circumstances. For example the one where the woman in hospital was unable to feed her baby and the baby was refusing formula, thatseemed OK to me. Also, the one where the woman offered to feed her friends underweight baby, that seemed OK under the circumstances.

 

And I can kinda understand the implant women... although it setill seems a bit icky, maybe because they are advertising for it.....in this case I would have thought expressed milk would be less icky

[Jules.]

I breastfed Alexander for 8 months, & Ethan for 33 months- I manged to do so as I stayed off work for 15 months on maternity leave & yes, we had to s"Ooops, word censored!"e by), & now only work 2 days a week. I would have loved to donate my excess milk to a milk bank, but there were none local to me. I'm not sure how I would feel about feeding someone else's child- perhaps so for health reasons, but certainly not for convenience for the mother. This country is very anti-breastfeeding, when it is the most natural thing in the world. We should be like Canada, where I believe women automatically get a year's maternity leave with full pay.

Edited September 7, 2007 by Guest

[bronze]

According to sociologist Rhonda Shaw, who has studied the phenomenon in depth: "We perceive feeding another woman's child to be somehow indecent.

 

"Adult meanings of eroticism get confused with breast-feeding as a sensual activity."

 

She cites a case in Oklahoma where a woman in 2003 was fined £250 and faced a year in jail on a "morals" charge because she breastfed another woman's child without her consent.

 

erm hello No! Just plain dangerous. They've already stated

Anna Burbidge says that anyone considering using cross-nursing should make sure the other mother is screened for TB, hepatitis, HIV, herpes and syphilis, all of which could be carried in breast-milk.

 

 

I find it weird. I have no problem with milk donation especially having seen the benefits of it in NICUS/SCBUS but I find wetnursing a bit weird. Its too intimate with another persons child but then I like to handle the majority of my childrens care anyway.

[The Dogmother]

I was asked to donate milk when I was feeding Rosie, as I had so much. But then I was forced back to work when Rosie was 8 weeks old, so she had expressed milk and formula at nursery and was breastfed at home. It worked for us, and I b/fed her for 6.5 months until she decided to give it up.

 

I think that the childminder's assumption that it would be ok to breastfeed the baby was slightly odd and I wouldn't be happy about it if it were my child. A close friend had a baby at the same time as I had Rosie, she suffered from rampant mastitis and her baby wouldn't feed while she had it; in a mutual arrangement, I gave her my expressed milk so that her baby was still gettting breast milk. We were both happy with the situation, which carried on for a few weeks. But I don't think that I would've fed the baby myself.

[James H]

That you spend too much time reading the paper Egluntine!!

 

(but I'd never come across these interesting stories if it weren't for you - so keep it up! )

 

Seriously though, I agree with the last comment in the article. There may be times when it is a good thing for a childs health, but when it starts to be used as a convenience so 'Mum' can go off and do something else ...

lots of your topics arcticles from the daily mail..

[Cate in NZ]

It's a tough one, we used to use "milk banks" with donated expressed breast milk when I first worked in SCBU but that was a very long time ago now and it had to be stopped because of the risks of HIV etc.

Personally I'd hate anyone else to breast feed any child of mine, but I was lucky enugh to be able to do it myself.

Expressing milk is great if you're feeding yourself regularly and just expressing for the odd feed, but anyone who tries to feed by expressing only will be disappointed because breast feeding is all about demand and supply, and no breast pump, even the very best Daisy's, can demand milk as effectively as a suckling baby, so supply inevitably diminishes and stops.

[bronze]

It's a tough one, we used to use "milk banks" with donated expressed breast milk when I first worked in SCBU but that was a very long time ago now and it had to be stopped because of the risks of HIV etc.

Personally I'd hate anyone else to breast feed any child of mine, but I was lucky enugh to be able to do it myself.

Expressing milk is great if you're feeding yourself regularly and just expressing for the odd feed, but anyone who tries to feed by expressing only will be disappointed because breast feeding is all about demand and supply, and no breast pump, even the very best Daisy's, can demand milk as effectively as a suckling baby, so supply inevitably diminishes and stops.

 

They do still have milk banks, they're just not as common and parents arent informed of them. I have to agree on the purely expressing thing. I purely expressed for almost three months last year and it was a nightmare, no amount of drugs or fennel tea could help me up my supply and after 7 months I had to eventually admit defeat

[fairy&cake]

i was a milk donor too. you have to be screened for HIV when we did it.

 

I was like a blooming [as in blooming mom] cow. I had a Medela electric expressor and got 210mls per 15 mins. No joke!

 

Seth was diagnosed as Lactose Intolerant and we tried everything to help him accept my milk etc.

 

So i stopped i expressed LOADS of milk and gave it to the bank.

 

i only used my Medela expressor for 6 weeks in the end and it cost £800

 

love L xxx

[Shirl]

i was a milk donor too. you have to be screened for HIV when we did it.

 

I was like a blooming [as in blooming mom] cow. I had a Medela electric expressor and got 210mls per 15 mins. No joke!

 

Seth was diagnosed as Lactose Intolerant and we tried everything to help him accept my milk etc.

 

So i stopped i expressed LOADS of milk and gave it to the bank.

 

i only used my Medela expressor for 6 weeks in the end and it cost £800

 

love L xxx

 

 

£800

 

I breastfed DD1 for 32 months by which time I was 6 1/2 months pregnant. DD2 is now nearly 6 months and as odd as it sounds I can't imagine feeding a toddler let alone feeding someone elses child. I think sometimes these things can seem a little odd but when you find yourself in the situation then it all seems quite normal.

[Jules.]

 

 

 

 

I breastfed DD1 for 32 months by which time I was 6 1/2 months pregnant. DD2 is now nearly 6 months and as odd as it sounds I can't imagine feeding a toddler let alone feeding someone elses child. I think sometimes these things can seem a little odd but when you find yourself in the situation then it all seems quite normal.

 

Yes, things like extended breastfeeding do sound a bit odd, but Ethan & I were both quite happy with it. In the end I weaned him as I was fed up with having to hold him for ages after his daily nap. Ethan still likes a skin to skin cuddle.

[Cinnamon]

I loved breastfeeding my girls & did them both for over a year.

I would recommend it to anyone - it is so quick & easy compared to all that sterilizing

 

But if I had walked into a room & found another woman feeding my baby I would have been furious.

 

And I could not have fed someone elses baby either..............

 

Milke donation I have no problem with ,in fact I think its fantastic,but it is a world away from suckling a baby

[The Dogmother]

Rosie decided when she wanted to give up breast feeding and I was devastated - cried for a whole day. A mother at Rosie school used to feed her 4 year old and was often suckling it in the playground when she picked up her older brood - the girls would be running around, then go over to her mother and lift up her top for a feed. I have to say that i wasn't keen on the idea of feeding them that old myself.