I’ve written dozens of posts now about breastfeeding. Although I’d urge mum (that can!) to try and breastfeed, I know better than most that it isn’t easy. I lasted 6 weeks with both of my babies and I’m incredibly proud of myself for lasting that long.
With both children I was hit by crippling depression and anxiety. Although I believe every mother has the capacity to breastfeed, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best thing for her or her baby. My mental health really suffered as a result of breastfeeding and yet I put myself under incredible pressure to continue. Panic attacks ensued and I wound up being hospitalised several times. As a result I wasn’t the best mother I could be, and I didn’t enjoy those first precious weeks with Dexter or Heidi.
But Breast is Best… right?
Maybe not. Madeleine Morris and Dr Sasha Howard have now launched a myth-busting book that shows women they are not bad mothers if they can’t or don’t want to breastfeed; Guilt-Free Bottle Feeding - why your formula-fed baby can be happy, healthy and smart.
This isn’t an anti-breastfeeding book, it’s an anti-guilt book
Unfortunately, in the quest to promote breastfeeding, formula and mothers who formula-feed or mix-feed have become demonised… We have all come to believe that ‘good mothers breastfeed, bad mothers bottle feed’. This is not only simply wrong, this ill-founded belief is damaging mothers, and their relationships with their babies, in what should be one of the happiest times of their lives. Madeleine Morris
Half of all British babies will have a bottle of formula before they are a week old and their mothers feel guilty. They feel guilty because every single book, poster and midwife tells them that breastfeeding is the single most important thing they can do for their babies.
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But for some families, breast isn’t best. Some mums don’t produce enough milk, some have post-natal depression, others are juggling two kids already, or need to go back to work, and some mums simply don’t like breastfeeding. Are they bad mothers? No! But they believe themselves to be.
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Guilt-Free Bottle Feeding, written by award winning former BBC presenter Madeleine Morris and paediatrician Dr Sasha Howard resets the conversation around infant feeding, revealing how the benefits of breastfeeding have been oversold to British parents, and showing guilt-wracked new mothers they have not failed their babies by giving them formula.
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With a thorough, yet easy-to-understand analysis of science, parenting sociology and the modern media, Guilt-Free Bottle Feeding provides a balanced, much- needed and long-overdue alternative view to the simplistic message that ‘breast is best’. This practical book proves that despite the huge pressure women feel to breastfeed, it possible to raise perfectly happy, healthy and smart bottle-fed and mixed-fed children.
Breast milk is wonderful stuff… but sometimes breastfeeding doesn’t work out, for a huge number of complex physical and social reasons. We need to show mums they are not failures for giving their babies a bottle. Dr Sasha Howard
Guilt-Free Bottle Feeding:
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Examines over a hundred original medical journal articles to show the benefits of breastfeeding in the developed world are not as clear cut as women are told
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Looks at emerging evidence that the immense pressure to breastfeed is now a contributing factor to post-natal depression
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Shows how sloppy science reporting, ill-informed websites and celebrity culture unfairly demonise bottle feeding, leaving mothers feeling like failures
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Points out the double standards of a medical system which relentlessly pressures mothers to breastfeed, but doesn’t provide them with the support they need
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Calls for an individually tailored ‘feeding plan’, to give mothers a realistic feeding goal rather than the blanket 6-month exclusive breastfeeding target, which 98% of UK mums fail to meet
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Calls for a mother’s physical and mental needs to be valued in the feeding relationship
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Reveals the ‘X-Factor’ of breastfeeding research, and why we may never know the differences between breastfed and formula-fed babies
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Gives a large, detailed guide to choosing a formula, safe bottle preparation and how to bottle feed for maximum health and bonding – information which is shamefully lacking in the NHS.
Told with humour and personal experience yet grounded in years of fastidious research, Guilt-Free Bottle Feeding is a much needed real-world counterpoint to the almost religious promotion of breastfeeding which now dominates medical and parenting discourse.
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As mothers who both breast- and bottle-fed their babies (they met at their NCT class), and decorated professionals in their fields of journalism and paediatrics, Madeleine Morris and Dr Sasha Howard are uniquely placed to provide evidence-based reassurance to mothers they are not failures if they don’t exclusively breastfeed.
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Guilt-Free Bottle Feeding: Why your formula-fed baby can be happy, healthy and smart By Madeleine Morris & Dr Sasha Howard is
available on Amazon for
£7.59 (ISBN: 9781908281777), or in e-book format for
£6.99 (ISBN: 9781908281784)
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*** GIVEAWAY ***
I haven’t read this book yet, but a copy is on its way to me. As someone who staunchly believes that breast isn’t always best and advocates pro-choice when it come to feeding your baby, I’m all for it.
If you’re currently bottlefeeding, pregnant, or just interested in the findings, you can win 1 of 5 copies right here. Just enter via the rafflecopter below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
T&C’s – a.k.a – the boring bit!
- Only 1 option is mandatory (leave me a comment) – the rest only improve your chances of winning so just complete as many as you feel like
- UK entrants only – you must be over 18 too (sorry)
- The winners will be contacted by email and must respond within 1 week of having been emailed (I’ll try all known avenues to contact them) or a new winner will be drawn
- When the giveaway is closed, Rafflecopter will select the winner completely at random
- The winners name will be published on this site
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