We Say a Farewell and Seasons Greetings to All

At the end of this year, we said farewell to Dr Heather Ryan. Heather is going to work for Nestlé and has left IFA, since she will now have a conflict of interest. We wish her very well in her new role and we thank her for her contributions to our work.

We wish all of our members, followers and friends seasons greetings and best wishes for the new year. We hope that 2022 will see a renewed focus on compassion, autonomy and safety in infant feeding policy and practice. We will continue to shine a light on harmful effects of current infant feeding policy and practice on UK families. Onwards and upwards!

Whose Guilt is it Anyway?

Roll up, roll up! This evening we review another paper looking at guilt and shame in infant feeding by researchers at Liverpool University.

The paper starts, as most papers in this field do, with a recitation of the WHO creed that breastfeeding has, like, a million health benefits, and six months of exclusive breastfeeding is recommended and then breastfeeding for two years alongside other foods… Fear not: this paper will commit no heresy!

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RCM Ignores Feedback and the Evidence

Last week, the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) was accused of two crimes, when it published new guidance on safer sleeping.

Crime 1: Making no mention of women or mothers in these guidelines. Is RCM guilty of this crime? No. The guidance mentions the word ‘women’ or ‘woman’ four times and the word ‘mother’ or ‘mothers’ twice. Despite this, RCM confessed to the crime, apologised profusely, took the guidance down and are revising the language used.

Continue reading “RCM Ignores Feedback and the Evidence”