Zippity what's your take on 'socioeconomics and all that jazz'?
Privileged women are now far more likely to ebf.
From my perspective having had disastrous experiences with bf but having doggedly stuck at it irregardless til ds1 was 2 and ds2 1 (in both cases supply drying up when pregnant again) I think people who don't get why people ff are unlikely to have struggled.
With ds1 I had the usual misinformation and lack of support from HCPs, tongue tie etc... he had various periods of supplementation because of severe failure tothrive.
With ds2 I 'wisely' decided HCPs were not helping after a fortnight of every single one giving me different information and decided I would go it alone, do biological nurturing and skin to skin and cosleep and let him feed, feed, feed.
I was 'reclaiming' the womanly art of bfing.
At 20 weeks he was on point of hospitalisation and I had significant PND and I began supplementing. I was literally lying in bed feeding with him three whole days a week listening to relaxation tapes and expressing to stimulate supply when he was sleeping and feeling increasingly desperate and confused as to why nothing was working to increase his weight.
Bfing may be natural but in much the same way that I am glad I have ventolin for my asthma and might havr died in another lifetime, it's good that there are other ways to feed babies.
I can't imagine having done it all with financial strain and maybe no partner and no community support. Though I am far from sure I should have kept at it in my own circumstances and I will not be continuing ebf withthis baby in the event of no weight gain.