NCT daftness

I had the third of my NCT ante-natal classes today, and some of the advice given was so bizarre that one of the other girls and I had to resort to mouthing "it's rubbish" at each other. Admittedly the NCT puts itself in an odd position: it is intended, as an organisation, to promote choice, but it has also chosen to support the WHO recommendations about breast-feeding and bottle feeding, which means they won't give you any information on bottle feeding. Not that I was planning to bottle feed - I managed to breastfeed Isabel for a year, and plan to do the same with Pumpkin. But that's not the point.

Anyway, the advice which struck me as rubbish, and I clearly wasn't alone, was that the baby must have a primary food provider - in other words, if you're not breast-feeding then don't let anyone else give the baby a bottle as it will damage the nascent bond which is being formed. The evidence for this was a study which found that when children are faced with being separated from their mothers to go to nursery or playgroup, then those who had had a primary food provider were quite happy to toddle off and also happy to be reunited with their mothers at the end of the session, while those who had not had a primary food provider resisted the separation, and also cried when reunited. Isabel behaved in completely the opposite way to this - she was breastfed, but also enormously clingy - perhaps she's the exception which proves the rule. One girl asked whether it might not be nice for the dad to give the baby a bottle occasionally, but was told that this would not be the right thing to do at all.

This Saturday, Husbandio and I have a six hour class from 10am-4pm which he is most unwilling to attend. There's a three line whip in place on this event (I've paid for the course, so we're bloomin' well going!) and all of the other girls are really nice so it'll be good to meet their other halves and I think it'll be a fun day. But both Husbandio and I will definitely be taking all information provided with several vats of salt.