Blog – Infant Feeding Alliance

WHO Are They To Talk About Safe Care of Newborns?

‘Are they taunting us?’ That was the response of one IFA member, when she learned the theme of this year’s WHO World Patient Safety Day. I admit that I had to read the theme twice myself to believe it:

‘Safe care for every newborn and every child’.

To those of us negatively impacted by World Health Organization (WHO) guidance on newborn feeding, the idea of a WHO ‘Patient Safety Day’ is galling in itself. This year’s theme stretches credulity.

Formula in Hospital? Let’s Unpack That!

The Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) published a report on the UK formula industry in February. One of the recommendations it made was that formula should be in ‘plain packaging’ if provided to parents in hospital, so as not to influence their brand choice.

The Guardian reported, ‘The watchdog said parents often chose a brand of formula for their baby at a time when they were vulnerable, often in hospital immediately after birth, when they did not have “clear, accurate and impartial information needed to make informed decisions”.’

I was struck by the description of the fraught context in which parents are choosing formula. I felt the discussion needed more context about what is actually going on here. I wrote the following comment on X, based on my experience and the experiences we hear about every day at IFA.

Denial, Gaslighting and Deflection: Not NICE At All!

Last year, we submitted evidence, questions and comments to a consultation on new Maternal and Child Nutrition guidelines from NICE.

The new guidelines were published last month. However, we were just as interested to read NICE’s responses to our submissions…

In this blog, which started life as a thread on X, we review the replies NICE made to us. Denial, gaslighting and deflection?

Read our analysis and then you decide: Are we being gaslit, or just oversensitive?

Infant Feeding, Obesity and the Disappearing Parliamentary Committee

Three weeks ago, a House of Lords committee published a report about obesity, diet and the role of the food industry with the polemical title ‘Recipe for health: a plan to fix our broken food system’. In its section on infant feeding, it made the fundamental error that formula feeding causes obesity and that promoting breastfeeding is needed to prevent childhood obesity.

The committee, it turned out, had only heard about infant feeding from witnesses from anti-industry and breastfeeding promotion organisations, who all gave the same line and were not interrogated by the committee. The evidence they provided to support their claims was not scrutinised, and had it been, different conclusions should have been reached.

So, just over two weeks after the publication of the report, we wrote to the committee to explain their mistakes around infant feeding. This was their dispiriting reply:

I’m Telling You, It IS Your Choice!

As often happens when we tweet about infant feeding policy, one of our members recently received a dismissive reply. The commenter argued that ‘no one can stop a mum giving their baby formula’ and said this was all just a matter of ‘parental choice’.

But in the current context, is how we feed our babies a straightforward choice? And is it fair to say that mums are free to give their babies formula? We felt that a thread was needed! We have turned it into a blog here.

Tongue-tie Surgery: Solving Breastfeeding Problems or Wounding Newborns Unnecessarily?

A surgical procedure (frenotomy) to correct tongue-tie in newborns is presented to many new parents as the solution to breastfeeding problems, but is it? The long awaited results of a trial of tongue-tie surgery, the FROSTIEE trial, were quietly published last year with little fanfare. We discuss the findings here. But first, let’s recap.

I am a Doctor and I Didn’t Know Exclusive Breastfeeding Could Harm My Baby

As a public health doctor, I always just assumed ‘breast is best’. I wasn’t surprised that during my pregnancy I was flooded with information about the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding and directed to multiple sources of breastfeeding support. I was shocked then, when my five-day-old daughter was readmitted to hospital with serious health issues due to feeding difficulties that could have been avoided with formula milk.

What We Told the Birth Trauma Inquiry

Earlier this year, we submitted to the Birth Trauma Inquiry. The inquiry published its report this month.

We focused on the role of exclusive breastfeeding promotion in our members’ distressing, even traumatic, experiences. We shared experiences around three areas: postnatal care and rooming-in; inhumane breastfeeding advice; and avoidable infant complications.

We highlighted a lack of evidence that exclusive breastfeeding promotion practices and the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative are safe or tolerated by patients. We questioned why they have been allowed to dictate the care of vulnerable patients and foster a culture of total disregard for women’s postnatal needs. This is what we wrote:

Women’s Feelings Are Not The Problem – The Policy Is!

This paper, ‘Perceived pressure to breastfeed negatively impacts postpartum mental health outcomes over time’, was sent to me by someone I love and respect. They thought that as a clinical psychologist, I would be impressed by it. Having discussed with them why I see this as yet another another example of psychology gaslighting women, I thought I’d share my thoughts here too.

Formula for Ending Infant Feeding Judgement or for Generating More?

Last week, the CEO of Mumsnet wrote an article in the Metro claming to discuss ways in which women are judged for their infant feeding decisions. In the article, Justine Roberts backed the newspaper’s ‘Formula for Change’ campaign.