A NEW mother has called for compassion after she was called lazy and told she was poisoning her child while buying baby formula at a Bendigo supermarket.
Sheri Osmond was shopping with her three-week-old son, Dacre, at the weekend when she was approached by a woman she estimated was in her 60s.
“I was just looking at the formula and it wasn’t until I sort of picked it up, put it in my trolley and started walking off that she had a go at me down the aisle,” she said.
Ms Osmond recalled being told she was ‘such a lazy mother’ and that ‘everyone can breastfeed’.
“There’s no excuse. You’re poisoning your child with that formula,” she remembered the woman saying.
“I was in shock. I was like, who says that to, clearly, a new mother?”
She said several onlookers told the woman to ‘back off’ and made it known her comments were not appropriate.
“I just burst into tears and walked off,” Ms Osmond said.
She said one of the women who had come to her defence chased after her to find out if she was okay.
“I was just a mess,” Ms Osmond said.
Her best efforts to breastfeed have, so far, been unsuccessful.
The new mother said she was being advised by lactation consultants and was taking medication to stimulate her milk supply.
Ms Osmond said the struggle to breastfeed had been mentally draining.
“I’m a firm believer that breast is best, but fed is better. When you can’t [breastfeed], you feed your child by any means you can,” she said.
Dacre was born a few weeks earlier than expected.
“He was jaundiced so I had to feed him so often but I just couldn’t, so it was formula,” Ms Osmond said.
He is Ms Osmond’s first child, after a number of pregnancies.
She agreed to share her story in the hope it would encourage people to think twice about how, or if, they commented on another person’s parenting decisions.
“You don’t know what that person’s going through,” she said.
Food for thought
A BENDIGO mother’s experiences with breastfeeding have started a conversation about infant and maternal health.
Bendigo Health lactation consultant and midwife Rebecca Keating said mothers couldn’t always exclusively breastfeed, for a range of reasons.
“She shouldn’t feel bad, in any way,” she said. “Every mother’s feeding journey is different.”
She was hopeful people within the community could be open minded and supportive, and encouraged mothers to consult lactation consultants and maternal and child health nurses with any questions about breastfeeding.
”There are definitely challenges that come up in the first six-weeks [after birth],” Ms Keating said.
She said mothers could make as many appointments with a lactation consultant as needed within those first six weeks.
After then, Ms Keating said maternal and child health nurses were the best source of support.
She said most women who gave birth at Bendigo Health, especially new mothers, were keen to give breastfeeding a go.
The hospital runs classes, even before birth, to help women learn more about breastfeeding.
Ms Keating said there were many benefits to breastfeeding, for both the baby and its mother.
They ranged from the antibodies contained in milk to a readily available, sterile food supply.
City of Greater Bendigo maternal and child health clinical coordinator Helen Lees said the service dealt with queries about breastfeeding, and feeding of babies in general, as part of every key age and stage consultation.
“New mothers often experience issues with breastfeeding and the role of the maternal and child health nurse is to provide information and support to every mother in relation to this, referring to other supports as required,” she said.
“The Maternal and Child Health Nurse has a role to promote breastfeeding however they support the family in whatever choice they make about how they feed their baby.”
Ms Lees said every family received information about breastfeeding in the Maternal and Child Health home visit pack written by the Royal Children’s Hospital.
“Information is also provided about where families can seek further assistance with breastfeeding,” she said.
“In Bendigo, the two hospitals also provide support for breastfeeding which is provided to the families on discharge, including how they can make an appointment with the lactation clinic.”
Other resources include the Australian Breastfeeding Association’s breastfeeding helpline – 1800 mum 2 mum (1800 686 268) – and support groups.
Week to celebrate breastfeeding
This week is World Breastfeeding Week, an event celebrating and promoting breastfeeding.
Speaking on behalf of the Public Health Association of Australia, Associate Professor Lisa Amir breastfeeding was critical to providing babies with optimum nutrition in early life and was closely linked to infant and maternal health.
Australian and World Health Organization guidelines recommend exclusive breastfeeding of infants in the first six months of life.
However, Associate Professor Amir said only 15 to 25 per cent of Australian mothers were meeting this recommendation.
“The vast majority of Australian mothers (over 90 per cent) initiate breastfeeding after birth, but many of them stop within the first six months,” she said.
“While breastfeeding is not always possible, it’s vitally important that new mothers who can breastfeed receive better support and education to do so”.
Emma D'Agostino
Covering general news and Bendigo council.
Covering general news and Bendigo council.
