StrictlyBoogying, yes that's my point! Women/babies who have problems with bf are often given little or no help getting those problems resolved. Counsellors aren't available to come out until a week next Tuesday, you can get advice over the phone if you're lucky which is unhelpful for all but the most trivial of problems and due to our ff culture, our own mothers and grandmother know fuck all about bf and can offer no advice or support. Furthermore, there is nothing worse than a starving, crying, fretful baby who won't latch on properly when you are on your own at 3am except for your DH who is saying FFS, give him a bottle.
So you see I wasn't being patronising, far from it, just stating a reality that bf is often hellishly difficult (I speak from experience) but problems can be overcome WITH THE RIGHT SUPPORT and a return to a BF culture. There seems to be this attitude amongst HCPs that if bf doesn't work out immediately, then the baby should be bottle fed end of story, whereas in reality, the baby could have been given formula just once or twice whilst the mother and baby were given assistance and support to overcome the difficulties.
What happens in poorer countries where women have no access to formula? You don't hear of thousands of babies starving to death because their mothers couldn't bf them. You hear story after story on mn of women who say they "had to" give up bf because they didn't have enough milk/baby wouldn't latch on/milk wasn't good enough etc etc. Are we really that biologically inferior that we cannot perform this most natural act? Of course we aren't but this is what our ff culture and certain multinational companies who manufacture formula would have us believe.
And I'm patronising noone here except perhaps myself as I "gave in" to my own self doubt regarding my ability to bf twice and ended up giving both my sons some formula.