There are no winners in the breast versus bottle debate | Letters

Sirin Kale’s experience during the first eight weeks of breastfeeding was exactly the same as mine; pain, shame and trauma (‘I felt anger. I had traded my sanity for milk’: what happened when I breastfed despite the pain, January 10). Thrush was never brought up, nor was the concern for my own breasts, apart from signs of mastitis, and I spoke to them a lot of from different support providers. It wasn’t until a friend recommended using hydrogel discs and I managed to pump enough to give me a break from feeding that my tears were able to heal and I was able to nurse without being in excruciating pain.

Until breastfeeding guidance is more personalized and new parents are better informed, this will remain an ongoing problem for many mothers. I have investigated the problems surrounding this a co-author of an article for the International Journal of Birth and Parental Education last summer.
Jess Haigh
Leeds

When I gave birth to twins in the early 1990s and tried to breastfeed, it was absolutely unbearable. I felt this was the greatest conspiracy of silence I have ever encountered. By immediately switching to bottle-feeding, I felt like I was letting people down – strangely including other family members and my babies, that was the prevailing social expectation, although I don’t remember my husband or family ever letting me down. pressured to breastfeed. Luckily, a very kind doctor kindly advised me that since I would be the one doing the feeding, the decision was completely up to me. I was very lucky.
Barbara Wallis
Crosby Ravensworth, Cumbria

I was an anesthesiologist for thirty years with a special interest in obstetric anesthesia and analgesia and met many women who had difficulty breastfeeding. I told them that if you lived without clean water or the means to sterilize bottles, and you couldn’t afford formula, breastfeeding was essential. If you lived in 21st century Hertfordshire, that wasn’t the case.

Every week, a newborn was admitted to the hospital with dehydration because breastfeeding had failed. For a new mother to care for her baby, she must also care for herself. A lot of misery is caused by women being forced to breastfeed when they are having a hard time. I was able to breastfeed both of my babies, but I definitely would have fed them formula instead of letting them starve.
Dr. Heather Parry
Watford, Hertfordshire

I hated breastfeeding so after a few months of struggling I just stopped. Simple: no guilt, babies fed and healthy, and no more pain from doing something I hated. What wasn’t to like about it?

The guilt mothers suffer for not breastfeeding is devastating. Luckily, I’m a stubborn so-and-so, and I was 38 when my son was born and 41 when I had my daughter, old enough and confident enough to ignore everyone and decide what was best for me and the babies. . Try it if you want, you might love it. If you don’t, don’t bother. Your children won’t care, they will still be held and fed. Don’t let anyone scare you with stories that ‘natural’ also means better.

I’m a retired researcher, and there are countless “natural things” I wouldn’t want near my children—snake venom and blue-ringed octopus tetrodotoxin, to name just two. We are fortunate to live in a world where we have choices. No one should have to get themselves into trouble over a short period of their child’s hopefully 90 year healthy and happy life.
Dr. Janet Dawson
Bennwil, Switzerland

It is unacceptable that health professionals today have not been taught the simple idea that breastfeeding should never be painful and that if it is, something needs to be put right. Whatever happened to evidence-based breastfeeding care?
Peggy Thomas
Founder of the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers