‘Leave my tits alone’ and ‘stop mansplaining’: those are some of criticisms levelled at Jamie Oliver after he said something needs to be done about the fact that less than 1% of babies in the UK are breastfed until their first birthday.
Of course the knee-jerk reaction has been that he’s directly lambasting new mums and suggesting they can’t be bothered to whip out a boob instead of mixing up some formula. Which actually isn’t what he said at all.
I think Jamie Oliver’s right, breastfeeding IS a problem if less than 1% of babies in the UK are breastfed until they’re one, and I don’t think you have to look very far to see what the problem is either.
It’s not because mums aren’t breastfeeding – for whatever reason – it’s because many women have already returned to work by the time their baby is one. I can categorically say that if I didn’t work from home there is absolutely no way I would have been able to exclusively breastfeed both of mine for 12 months.
The reality is that for many mums who return to work breastfeeding means sitting on closed toilet seats to pump milk (you know you’re perfectly welcome to use the conference room on the top floor, but you don’t want to make a fuss), conscious while you’re expressing that your colleagues are all working hard and this is your third ‘break’ of the day.
The anxiety of this knowledge (you’re sure everyone’s thinking it, even though they haven’t said anything) means your milk isn’t coming in as quickly as it might have done if you were a bit more relaxed, and you’re ‘break’ is therefore longer than it might have been.
When you finally make it back to the office to put your milk in the fridge alongside forgotten ham salads and half-empty jars with contents of questionable age, you spend the afternoon hoping nobody accidentally takes it out and leaves it on the side, rendering all your efforts useless.
Then if you’re really unlucky, because you missed a pumping session on Wednesday lunchtime owing a really important meeting, you’ll wake up on Saturday morning with a thumping headache and fever – the first tell-tale signs of a dose of mastitis all because you didn’t empty your boobs properly.
I’ve been there, done it and got the t-shirt when I’ve worked in-house for clients and publications. It’s the reason why I’m not currently working in-house for anyone, and won’t until I’ve stopped breastfeeding Little B.
Until something is done to change issues like these which are currently facing working mums who’d like to breastfeed then that 1% statistic isn’t going to change.
So if Jamie Oliver, who has successfully revolutionised school meals and campaigned for a sugar tax, wants to stand on his soap box and shine a light on it, I don’t think that’s such a bad idea.
What do you think?
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I completely agree! I had to go back to work when A was 10 months and I will have to with baby #2 as well and as a tiny office, there’s nowhere for me to pump. I couldn’t even do it in the toilet as we only have the one so it would take too long and be far too stressful (and loud which would make me anxious). There definitely needs to be more to help Mum’s in the workplace continue breastfeeding. Thanks for linking up to #MarvMondays. Kaye xo
I used to worry about the noise too but everyone got used to it and in the end no-one batted an eyelid…but that’s not the point!
I agree, I’ve been so lucky to be at home with both and ending breastfeeding on our terms. I wouldn’t have been able to continue at work not just the time but the logistics of carrying it round on the tube xx #TwinklyTuesday
I always used to worry about the journey home from central London and whether the milk would still be ok – too much stress!
I love this post. I want to leave my husband and run away to Alicante with it. When have you ever read a JD or work contract that stated that there was space provided for breastfeeding or pumping? Separate mini fridge for milk please, seriously Argos – sixty quid. Stop telling women what to do and then not supporting them to do it! #MarvMondays
Quite! Very well said! I used to put a post it note on my milk in the work fridge so no-one took it out. Funnily enough there was never anything else on that shelf when I went to get it at the end of the day…
Fab post lovely. I was such a lucky girl to have a long may leave meaning I could feed for 10 months. More needs to be done for working mums. I’m also generally shocked at the statistics of uk feeding, it can’t all be due to working…why do we fail when other countries succeed? I want to write this but fear may get lynched! Xx #twinklytuesday
I haven’t been lynched…yet!! It can’t all be down to working mums – that’s just one of a myriad of issues. Like the fact is took 10 days to have Little B’s tongue tie snipped. That nearly broke me (and my boobs)!!
This is an angle I’ve never thought about before (since I was unable to BF this never crossed my mind) but it’s such a good point! Thanks for raising this topic
#twinklytuesday
It’s an issue I’ve thought about a lot hence the rant!!
I agree it IS a problem. And I think we need to be able to voice that without people getting offended by it – in fact that’s going to be my next blog post because I think we are so easily offended by things regarding our parenting that we become defensive and then blast other people simply for doing something different. I think it all stems from insecurity – if we all felt secure and content with our choices we wouldn’t want to blast others in the way some people do. What I do think is that Jamie Oliver was a bit naive to suggest it’s “easy” and “convenient” when it’s not for so so many women – on so many levels – not just physically. Lovely read hun
Ooo I’m going to look out for your blog post – sounds like a goodie!x
Completely agree! Women need support in breastfeeding and if employers could get on board and help with it properly then maybe there is a chance they could breastfeed for longer. #Marvmondays
I have to say I’ve always had supportive employers, yet the whole process of expressing in an office environment was so stressful…
I think it is a problem but I think from what I’m seeing around me it’s more of a problem getting started with breastfeeding than with carrying on. If you don’t get vital support in the beginning then it is nigh on impossible to overcome any problems you may have. Even with support you have to have a will of iron to get through it. Once it is established and becomes almost second nature it’s not so bad but I’m sure those early weeks put a lot of people off. Well done J for speaking up though because it is a shocking statistic!
That’s very true – Little B had tongue tie when he was born and it was 10 days before we could get it sorted out. I don’t know what I’d have done without the midwives to help me…
Completely agree with this, my mummy went back to work when I was 7 months old, tried to pump at work and failed miserably
it wasn’t the right environment for her and she felt anxious. A lot needs to change in our culture for breastfeeding to thrive once again! #TwinklyTuesday xx
I always felt anxious when I was pumping at work – probably because we were always on a newspaper deadline and time was of the essence. Not the right environment at all!!
You make a good argue meant. I plan to breastfeed my daughter until she’s 1, but only because I plan to take the full 12 months maternity leave I’m allowed. If I had to go back earlier, I would have quit for sure – I never had much success with pumping and wouldn’t have been able to express enough milk for her. #TwinklyTuesday
That should be ‘argument’ – stupid autocorrect! Sigh.
Always happens to me too!
That’s the other thing – you never get as much milk out when you pump as the baby manages to. Why is that?!!
Totally agree! Great post! I couldn’t breastfeed my son for long, but if I have another child I will be trying everything to breastfeed for as long as I can! #abitofeverything
Fingers crossed for you – I LOVE breastfeeding and know I will have to stop soon, but don’t want to!!
I’ve got a post drafted on the same topic thanks to Mr Oliver. It really is personal choice and it’s frustrating enough midwives tellng us what to do, let alone a male chef!! Back off Jamie! #abitofeverything
I’ll look out for your post!
I am actually glad to see someone to come to Jamies defence. I don’t think he meant to attack all the mums who have tried and cried and perhaps didn’t succeed in feeding their babies. I think he is speaking about those mothers for whom breastfeeding isn’t an option because they just don’t want to. Because they couldn’t be bothered. Because they aren’t aware of the benefits or for whom its an intrusion into their bodies or whatever. I think he is doing a good thing and if 1% are being breasted this is a huge problem. I agree with you and thanks for sharing this.
If you look at what he said I don’t think he was blaming mums at all – that’s just how people have interpreted it. He was only really stating facts and like you say, 1% is a problem…
Bless him, I really don’t think he realised what he was getting into or maybe, how different his personal situation is to many others. OTH, he should have learned to think twice before opening his mouth by now!
I think you’re right and he didn’t really realise what he was saying – I bet his PR team have been working overtime this week!!
I like the slant of your post, I am not jumping on any band wagons. I think we do need to look at why mums aren’t breast feeding but without the mummy bashing and guilt. Better systems need to be put in place to support especially like you said when mums return to work. there is no way I could have worked and continued breast feeding so I had to stop at 6 months. Sad really!!! I loved breast feeding my son but wasn’t supported enough to continue.
A lot of mums are in the same boat and gave up breastfeeding when they went back to work which is so sad, especially if you loved it! But all we can do is our best x
I’ve never really thought about the working issue as a reason for mums to stop breastfeeding so, yes that is a brilliant point well raised. Employers need to work with mums that are planning on returning to work and want to carry on breastfeeding. I was lucky that I gave up my job and worked freelance from home which allowed me to carry on until 9 months. #TwinklyTuesday
The only reason I’ve been able to do extended breastfeeding is because I also left my job and went freelance, working from home. I just can’t see how exclusively breastfeeding and working full time could have worked for me…
beautifully put and I thunk Jamie was trying to be ore encouraging and not strongly opinionated – he was fighting women’s corner who wanted to feed for longer – not telling everyone they had to. So many people aren’t in a situation to feed for 12 months even if they wanted to #twinklytuesday
I do think Jamie’s comments have been blown out of all proportion – I get what he was trying to say and I really do think it would be a good issue for him to tackle x
This is a very interesting way of looking at the issue. I didn’t realise the statistic was as low as 1%.I think support at work definitely needs to be improved. I’m lucky to be a sahm so I never had to worry, I breastfed for 10 months and part is me is gutted I didn’t stick it out for the extra 2. I am sure many women stop due to stress and anxiety of pumping at work, I definitely wouldn’t enjoy expressing in a toilet xx #abitofeverything
I didn’t realise the statistic was actually that low either. I know there are probably lots of factors at play but I think the work issue is quite at important one which could be improvedx
I also didnt know it was at 1%. I am currently breastfeeding my 6 week old and I know i will have to stop at 6 months due to having to go back to work for money reasons. if the government paid us statutory maternity pay up till 12 months im sure there would be more mothers breastfeeding their babies until they are 1 xx
#abitofeverything
I think you’re right – although that said statutory maternity pay wouldn’t have been enough to for me to stay on maternity leave. Even so there’s an awful lot more that could be done to encourage and help mums to breastfeed for longer.
I completely, completely agree!!
Though I don’t live in the UK, I’m sure the statistics are very similar here in the US where maternity leave is nearly non existent. It really is heartbreaking and I, too, am one of the lucky ones who is able to stay home with my son who turns 1 next week, and is EBF. It makes me sad that more importance is not placed on the family, mothers, or infants in today’s society. Great post.
I know I’m really fortunate to be able to work from home and still breastfeed – there’s no way I’d be able to pump 5 days a week in my line of work (which can be unpredictable) if I worked elsewhere. Hats off to anyone who does!
I think it goes far beyond just how hard it is to pump at work. The truth is breastfeeding is stigmatized in society. Breastfeeding in public is legal in most places, but people tend to make mom’s who do it feel uncomfortable. I spent many of my older sons sports games, breast feeding my younger son in a port-a-potty to avoid dirty looks. Another issue is that mothers are not given sufficient help to be able to successfully breastfeed. My oldest refused to latch on. I worked at the hospital at the time and was allowed to borrow a hospital grade pump and I pumped for 12 months. Those pumps are super expensive and there is no way I could have exclusively pumped for a year without it. I got lucky. The cold hard truth is that breastfeeding is hard and painful at first and without help and encouragement it is easy to give up. Mr. Oliver’s comments do nothing more than add fuel to the breast milk vs. formula wars. The only way to increase that 1% is by mothers becoming a support system for each other instead of judging each other.
I have to say I’ve always felt 100% comfortable breastfeeding in public and have only had encouraging smiles and comments – perhaps I just haven’t noticed dirty looks! You’re right – pumps are expensive and to pump efficiently you do really need an electric one too. It sounds like you did a good job with your boys x
I was never so lucky with breastfeeding. I was only able to do a few days due to my kidney disease, but I fully agree with your post. It wasn’t for me and I have been working, but I’m glad it’s worked for you. Thanks for linking up #abitofeverything
Everyone’s situation and experience differs – all we can do is our best x
I think the same problem exists in many countries, not just in the UK, and maybe more so. I’m not sure I know anyone here in Mexico who has breastfed their child for a whole year. I think I was a lucky baby as my mum was able to breastfeed me for a year, but when it was my turn I just wasn’t given any support at all, starting with the hospital where as soon as my daughter was born, she was whisked away and given formula as her first feed without my even being told. In fact, I wanted and had planned to exclusively breastfeed, but I was pressured into giving her formula too (being told “your milk isn’t enough”, “your milk doesn’t fill her up”, “the baby’s going to lose weight”, etc by uninformed and ignorant people), so that after two or three months she preferred the bottle and rejected breastfeeding. So by the time I started work when she was almost 5 months old, my breastfeeding days were long gone and I felt guilty about not being able to give my daughter what I had. #TwinklyTuesday
That’s such a shame – I can’t believe they took your baby away and gave formula without even asking or telling you! You shouldn’t feel guilty as you did your best xxx
The comment above made me really sad. Breastfeeding was really important to me so I would have been devastated if someone had given my baby formula without my permission. I was lucky that I did manage to continue breastfeeding after I went back to work, but I was lucky as my son was nearly 9 months old by then. If I had gone back any sooner, it would have been a problem. #effitfriday
That comment made me really sad too – and outraged. I would have been furious. Well done for breastfeeding after going back to work – I bet that was no mean feat!
I totally agree with you. I went back to work when Zach was ten months and knew that pumping wouldn’t be easy and therefore thought it was easier to just get him onto formula by then. What actually happened was that Zach became an absolute feeding monster at the age of 5 months whereby he required feeding every two hours day and night and I ended up absolutely exhausted by it. It was this that made me put him onto formula by the time he was 6 months old – I weaned him onto it over a month long period. Had he have not been a monster feeder I would have carried on up until the time it was near to me going back to work. When I went for my recent booking in appointment with the midwife and they asked me how I’d fed Zach and I told them he was breastfed until 6 months, I literally got congratulated and I was absolutely shocked that they were so happy with me when I felt like at the time I was a massive failure for putting him onto formula. I’d actually done really well because as Jamie pointed out, not many people even get as far as I did. Obviously there are people that just cannot breastfeed and I do think the problem with comments like Jamie’s is that it can be very isolating and make you feel really guilty for something that should come so naturally to women. But we all know how good breast milk is for our babies. Even if we only manage for 5 weeks or 5 months, it all still counts. God, sorry I just totally wrote what could be a whole blog post! Thanks so much for linking up with #TwinklyTuesday
You should blog about it too! Little B is now 16 months and I’m always met with amazement that he’s been exclusively breastfed for so long. The only reason it’s been possible is because I’m self employed and work from home…
[…] done about the fact that less than 1% of babies in the UK are breastfed until their first birthday: Jamie Oliver’s right, breastfeeding IS a problem – confessions of a crummy mummy. Okee, hij formuleerde het wat onhandig door borstvoeding makkelijk te noemen, maar wat hij wilde […]
This is a very valid point you have raised which again I think, points back to why some mums were so outraged when he said breastfeeding is easy. I agree that breastfeeding should be supported but it should be done from an understanding of what women go through in trying to breastfeed.
Jamie may be right in highlighting the issue but he needs to be more sensitive as to how he can help support women in breastfeeding. I breastfed all my children, till they were 2-3 years old and I still found the whole breastfeeding journey a challenge. It really makes me wonder if he can really understand what breastfeeding mothers go through and what sort of support they really need when he made that remark.
You have highlighted a very important point about working mothers and if he can make people take notice of that issue then yes, that will be great. Very thought provoking post!
I think he probably didn’t mean his comments to sound so off the cuff. I’d LIKE to think that as a father of four breast fed babies (I believe they were all breast fed) he has a good idea of the challenges breast feeding mums face…
I really, really love this. I also think changing attitudes to public breastfeeding – or at least helping women feel more comfortable with it would be a good thing to do. I felt a bit sad about how everyone got angry at Jamie Oliver, he maybe didn’t phrase it that well but I think there needs to be more support for the people who DO choose to breastfeed. That’s not to make anyone who chooses not to or can’t feel bad, it’s just that so many people start breastfeeding and then stop for a multitude of reasons that, potentially, if they had better resources or support they would have been able to continue. I don’t think people who encourage or support breastfeeding should always be made to feel as if they are causing offence to the mothers who choose not to or can’t breastfeed when they are just trying to have a discussion about it! Seems like nobody can speak out in support of breastfeeding without being criticised.
Breastfeeding definitely feels like a taboo subject sometimes and I think too many people are scared to say what they really think. But like you say, we really should be able to have an open discussion about it…