Breast or Bottle? Boycotting Nestlé

It's been over five years since my first child was born and although I am a sporadic blogger at best, I find myself surprised that I haven't before put finger to keyboard to compose a piece about my experiences of breastfeeding and my thoughts on the subject.

Some of my male readers may be deciding to abandon their reading of this entry now. I would ask them not to. Some of the issues I'm going to discuss relate to everyone because I'm intending to talk about attitudes to breastfeeding. I realise that, for some, the idea of talking about the natural child-rearing function of breasts rather than their sexual aspect may make them uncomfortable. I realise that some men will prefer not to think about this aspect of child-rearing which is something that they are mostly excluded from. Nevertheless, I would ask you to read on because there are some points that even men need to consider.

I currently have three close friends and one family member who are expecting children at the moment. For the three friends it is their first child. No doubt, over the coming months they will be ploughing their way through mountains of literature on such subjects as their baby's development, and the choices of pain relief during labour. One of the important issues that they will have to consider is the choice of how to feed their baby when he or she arrives - whether to breastfeed or bottlefeed.

The slogan that they may come across is "Breast is Best!" In an ideal situation, breastfeeding is best for baby and mother. Breastmilk alone contains all of the nutrients that a baby needs and the World Health Organisation recommends breastfeeding exclusively (i.e. no solids and no supplements) for the first six months and to continue to offer breastmilk for up to the first two years. A newborn baby received protection through the mother's milk which boosts its immune system. Recent studies comparing breastfeeding and bottlefeeding found that breastfed children did better academically and were better adapted socially. Nutritionists have recently revised their baby weight charts to reflect the weights of breastfed babies which are lower weight than bottlefed babies. They now believe that the healthy weights are the breastfed ones, and the bottlefed babies are more likely to be overweight.

For the mother, too, there are many advantages of breastfeeding. A mother who breastfeeds her baby reduces her own chances of getting breast cancer by a significant percentage. She also regains her shape faster after the birth. Not to mention the fact that one can save around £400 a year by not buying formula milk.

Of course, if it were that simple, one would have to ask why anyone bottle feeds their babies. Let me run down a few of the reasons I've come across:

• breastfeeding hurts - initially, the nipples can get very sore and it takes a while (a few weeks in my experience) for them to toughen up. In this time it can be very painful breastfeeding and, believe me, tempting to pack it in;
• breastfeeding is exhausting - especially in the early days and weeks when you are tired after the pregnancy and tired after the birth, the last thing you need is to wake several times in the night and pump nutrients out of your body into a little child that has a tendency to fall asleep from the comfort of the warm milk and cuddle and needs to be woken so that they feed properly and (hopefully) sleep a little longer between feeds. As the recommendation is not to introduce a bottle, even with breastmilk in, for the first few weeks because the baby may not adjust properly to sucking on the breast, this isn't a task that the father can share in properly at this stage.
• breastfeeding is inconvenient - actually, I don't agree with this. How can it be less inconvenient to make up a formula mix with powder and water, put it in a bottle, heat the bottle in a pan (or if you're out, find a shop willing to give you a cup of hot water that you can stand it in), all the while comforting a squalling and hungry baby, than to find a quiet place to sit, lift up your top slightly (and it is possible to do this discreetly), and put the baby to the breast?

Despite the campaigning of the pro-breastfeeding lobby, there simply isn't enough support for mothers wishing to breastfeed. We are showered with information but it's sometimes difficult to find the relevant bits and sort the wheat from the chaff. For instance: some mothers find that their babies don't seem to get full up on breastmilk, they feel like they are feeding non-stop in the early days. Different babies have different feeding patterns, but there are ways to resolve this issue, other than the simple need to adjust to your baby's feeding rhythm, such as to find out if your baby is very windy - this may make them feel more full but then they'll need to feed again sooner. There's a necessary period of adjustment for mother and baby and each baby is different. My first dragonet fed for nearly an hour at a time, but left three hours between feeds. My second dragonet fed for ten minutes or so at a time, but fed hourly.

Mothers who are concerned that the baby is overly hungry sometimes worry that they are not producing enough milk (breastfeeding experts believe at least 98% of women - even those on nutritionally deficient diets in developing countries such as Bangladesh - can make sufficient milk to feed their babies, given proper advice and support). Often they will supplement the breastmilk with bottle milk to make the baby more full - often before putting them to bed, to help them to sleep through the night. The problem with this is that the baby doesn't suck properly on the breast because of getting confused with the different sucking action needed for a bottle.

Those mothers who find breastfeeding uncomfortable or painful can get help if they go to the right place (such as the NCT) where they will learn about different feeding positions that can prove more comfortable or easier. I'm sorry to say that you have to work at getting this help, however. With my first dragonet, I was incredibly sore in the first few hours, and before being discharged from hospital one midwife had offered to advise me during my next feed. She went off-shift, and when I asked the next midwife for help, her advice was to bottlefeed. I was horrified. (Fortunately I'm very stubborn, so I ignored her!)

I ought to have said this sooner, but I'm not passing judgment on mothers who choose to bottlefeed. I believe that there are many factors that have to be taken into consideration and each mother must do what she feels is best for herself and her baby. What concerns me is that there is not enough professional help and support for women making these decisions.

Which brings me to the developing world. There is an article in today's Guardian about formula milk in BanglaDesh. Formula milk producers (such as Nestlé) have been subtly pushing their product upon mothers in the developing world. This is illegal now so they market the product via health professionals instead. The point is, that many mothers in the developing world are advised to bottlefeed whenever there's a problem, or even if there isn't. The resulting problems for them are very serious. Around 70% of admissions at one hospital are infants, a great many of whom suffer from diarrhoea, which can be fatal in the developing world, and is a result of making up formula milk with dirty water. Almost no breastfed babies suffer from this.

The other consequence of the aggressive marketing of formula milk in the Third World is that familes are being beggared by the costs of buying something that is a poor substitute for breastmilk, which the mothers produce themselves and is therefore free. A family in the article that I have mentioned spends the equivalent of £2 a week on formula milk. They only earn £10 a week.

I'm not going to detail the aggressive marketing techniques of the formula milk manufacturs - read the article yourselves, there's enough detail there to shock. A couple of salient facts are in order, however:

• Save the Children believe that improving breastfeeding rates could cut infant mortality in Bangladesh alone by almost a third - saving the lives of 314 children every day. Globally, the organisation believes, 3,800 lives could be saved each day.
• In the developing world, Save the Children reckons that for every £1 spent in 2006-7 on breastfeeding promotion, £10 was spent by manufacturers on advertising and promoting baby milk and foods.

So what can we do? Firstly, our attitudes towards breastfeeding need to change. I don't care if it makes you uncomfortable to be reminded of the natural function of a woman's breasts, you need to make it easier for women to breastfeed wherever and whenever they need to. If a woman is breastfeeding in a shopping centre or in the corner of a restaurant, don't complain, be supportive.

New fathers, make sure that your wives or partners are getting all the support and encouragement that they need to breastfeed your babies. Sit up with them during the night feeds so that they're not alone. Get up and make them a hot drink. Do whatever it takes just to encourage and support them. Mothers - don't give up! Get help, demand help. It isn't easy but it is possible and, believe me, it's so rewarding in the end and it absolutely does get easier.

Finally, we can all try to call these multinational manufacturers of formula milk to account. Nestlé is not the only culprit, but they are certainly one of the largest and, as the inventor of formula milk, one of the longest offenders. There is an ongoing boycott of Nestlé products and I urge you all to join this boycott and take any opportunity that you can to make a statement about why you are doing this, so that we can spread the word.

Finally, to those of you who are still with me, thank you for reading!