Its odd that some women seem to find breastfeeding is pushed down their throats, whilst other women have HCP who tell them that there are no benefits to breastfeeding after 6 months, or who tell them that they will need to top up with formula because (pick one) 1. their baby is too small 2. their baby is too big etc.
I am pregnant with my first baby (so no, I'm not happily breastfeeding yet, and I do worry about how difficult I might find it) and I certainly haven't had breastfeeding pushed down my throat.
As part of a pack of antenatal stuff early on I recieved a booklet on breastfeeding with a dvd (amongst other information like healthy eating in pregnancy, what classes the MU run, stuff about a managed versus physiological 3rd stage etc). After that, I was told at one antenatal appointment about the benefits of breastfeeding (this seemed to be a tick box exercise).
I've attended two antenatal parent education classes so far, and feeding the baby has barely been mentioned. The odd '... give you the opportunity for skin to skin. For mums who are breast feeding, it is a good time to put the baby to your breast as he/she begins to root around'. Nothing has been assumed or lectured at all. We have been invited to an 'infant feeding class' - I would imagine that given they have gone with this name, that breast feeding and formula feeding will be talked about and we'll be shown how to do both. I might be wrong, maybe they will tell us what horrid mothers we'll be if we don't breastfeed, but given the tone of things so far, I doubt it.
And I'm recieving my antenatal care from a small 'baby friendly' low-risk MLU that has 70% of their births in the pool. So I can't imagine how naturalistic a unit would need to be in order to push breastfeeding to the exclusion of all else.
These threads seem to go in circles. As I have said on other threads, this is about the unethical marketing techniques of companies that are trying to increase artificial feeding rates as well as promote brand loyalty. It is not about the individual circumstances of mothers who find themselves unable to breastfeed or who are unwilling to do so for whatever reason.
Aptimil is trying to piggy-back off of the 'breast is best' message to suggest that their powdered milk product is closer to breastfeeding and therefore superior to other (extremely similar) powdered milks. Some of which are owned by the same company.
Its like washing up powders, do you really know the difference between different powders (other than the scent which you can make your own judgement on)? Or are they all very similar products, branded to appeal to different segments of the market at different price points? This is the lack of real factual information that advertising provides, and what a baby eats is much more important than which washing powder you use.
I have not seen a breast feeding activist claim that there is no place for formula milk or that it is not a lifesaving development. Of course its good to have alternatives for mothers who cannot or will not breastfeed. The problem is that the marketing tactics of artifical milk manufacturers undermine women's confidence in their ability to breastfeed, their desire to do so and the support available to those who do want to breastfeed (where women are told on day 2 that they don't have enough milk, or that they must feed to a schedule that damages their milk production).
Past tactics have included formula companies offering a free design service to maternity units in America. They designed the facilities delibrately to seperate mother and baby so that breastfeeding was as inconvient for the staff as possible, and tried to stop new mums from establishing their supply. They wanted a bigger market for their products, so they created it. Commercial companies are driven forward by one motive, profit. It is the job of people to set ethical boundaries with regulation and ensure they stick to them.
Of course if I find that my baby and I are unable to breastfeed then we will use artificial milk and be grateful that it exists. That doesn't mean that everything that the companies that make them do is ethical.
Seriously if you haven't read 'The Politics of Breastfeeding' and you do genuinely want to understand why people feel strongly about the marketing tactics of artificial milk companies. Its not because they hate women or want to make them feel awful about struggling with breastfeeding or them making a choice that its not for them. Its certainly not because they are smug about breastfeeding. They just want women given every support possible to breastfeed because of the risks associated with not breastfeeding.
We're talking about this issue at the level of society, not passing judgement on the choices or struggles of individuals.