Is breast really best?

Yesterday The Times published an article ('Your mother-in-law was right: breastfed babies don't sleep through the night' times2 24/01/13) about the links between breastfeeding and babies sleeping through the night.  According to a recent study, breast-fed babies wake more through the night because they are used to relying on the feed to help them sleep and, as a consequence, are unable to "self-soothe" themselves back to sleep like bottle-fed babies.

Sound quite sensible?  That's what I thought.

So why is it that it's still considered taboo to bottle feed or to admit that we struggle with breastfeeding?  We all know the benefits of breastfeeding - antibodies, mummy-baby bonding etc, and while the NHS recommends breast feeding for at least the first 6 months of life, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is now promoting continuing some form of breastfeeding, along with solids, until up to 2 years of age.

But is it really that simple?  Do we all have the time/patience/ability to sit around all day with baby attached to the breast?  I wanted to debate the idea that breast might not always be best, and share my findings with you, the other mums of the world.

Firstly, to me.

My own experience was quite disheartening.  My little boy was born with a tooth - not as uncommon as it sounds, apparently I had one too.  This meant that he struggled to latch on from the start.  Add to that a panicked, assisted delivery, which resulted in me left in theatre for 90 minutes being stitched up and you've got one mummy and baby who do not want to do the immediate breast-feed bonding.  So we missed out.

Two days later I was still in hospital and still unable to feed him.  The midwife, unhelpfully, told me that I just wasn't producing any milk and should just give up.  However I insisted that I wanted to persevere and so they gave me formula and a syringe to feed him from, as it was apparently the nearest thing to breastfeeding they could suggest.  This was awful - like caring for a poorly kitten.  I spent the time in tears while my little boy was being force-fed like an animal.

Back home I was referred to a breast-feeding counsellor - another totally disheartening experience.  In all fairness, she did get him to latch on to me a couple of times but it was so painful I wasn't able to continue with it once I'd got home.  She told me if I wanted to breast feed I had to spend all day in bed with my little one trying, or at least express 8 times a day for 30 minutes at a time so he could get the breast milk.

Now this may not seem like a lot to some hard-core breastfeeders out there.  But to me, it was torture.  I couldn't see how I could cope with being a new mum, persevering with syringe feeds and finding time to express and practice breastfeeding.  So that's when I made a drastic call: I bought a bottle and some formula.

Bingo!  Suddenly my little boy was feeding like no tomorrow and I was able to grab 5 minutes to sit down and relax.  The pressure had been lifted.

A few weeks later, the hospital recommended that my son have his tooth taken out as it was beginning to cause him ulcers, as well as the previous feeding problems.  After that, we did try breastfeeding again but by then he was so used to the bottle that he couldn't make the transition back to breast.  I managed to continue to express a little a day up until he was three months old and the milk supply just seemed to stop.

So I suppose I would class myself as a reluctant bottle feeder.  It's not how I intended starting off with my baby, but now I'm glad it's a decision I made - for all of our sakes.

And the best advice I can give to other new mums out there?  Trust your instinct.  You know what's best for you and baby.  After all, happy mummy = happy baby.  Or so they say.

So what was it like for other mums out there?  I'll be posting some real-life stories on here about other mums and their experiences with feeding.  Hopefully, if you're going through a hard time you'll find something that resonates with you and realise you're not alone.