Should women be advised officially then that formula feeding from birth as an active choice is beneficial for mother and baby as it is protective against PND?
That's a classic straw man argument. It's clearly not what anyone is saying or would say. However, when a woman is clearly struggling terribly to feed her baby breastmilk, and all she hears is, "you mustn't give up now, Mum! You're doing so well... and here's a nice long rendition of all the reasons breast milk is so much better... have you watched this DVD?" rather than, "how are you coping? Is it very exhausting, expressing all that milk and looking after a tiny baby...?" A friend was even told by a health visitor that her only role was, "to feed that baby!" Mastitis be damned, apparently.
There should be balance. At the moment, there is huge pressure to breastfeed, and almost no acknowledgement that they may be costs to the mother to balance, with an equal lack of good quality support unless you can afford a lactation consultant, and know someone who can recommend one who knows what she's doing. Of course breastfeeding is the natural and most beneficial form of infant feeding, and when it works, it's blessedly easy and convenient for the mother, too. But there is almost total silence on the psychological toll problematic breastfeeding relationships can exact, and that's wrong, too. There should be honesty, as well as improved support.
Breast is the biological norm, and should be the social norm as well. But it is not, in fact, always best, and IMO that should be noted, and appropriate recognition paid to when a woman and her baby would be better off with formula. That could be for psychological reasons, for medical reasons, or because the woman has a professional role where she simply can't take full leave to feed, for whatever reason. And we are lucky, then, to have formula available to us.