Ministry of Nanny

Posted on Tue 13 September 2011 by alex in general

We had our third and final Parent Craft lesson tonight which covered everything from 3rd stage labour to breast feeding and bathing. Most of it was useful stuff and it was nice to be able to ask some questions of the trained midwives. However the section on breast-feeding could do with some work. After asking the class how many people intended to breast-feed (answer: everyone raised hands) they still felt the need to go through the regulation list of all the plus points.

I quite happily accept all the medical evidence that's out there about the benefits of breast-milk over formula. It was also useful to be fore-warned about potential nipple-confusion if introducing expressed bottles too early. No doubt NICE has excellent cost-benefit analyses showing how much money can be saved in the long run if 1% more mothers breast-feed their babies.

However I can understand why some people might feel bullied into breast feeding when presented with such a forceful party line. I can only imagine it also raises the stress levels on mothers if feeding isn't going so well or they stop for some reason. Given that the whole room was already planning on breast-feeding I did think it would have been more useful to launch straight into the practicalities of feeding than continuing to brow-beat the room with the "breast is best" dictate.