at hunker
It's a disgrace if any antenatal classes or indeed midwives are recommending specific brands. They have no way of doing this properly.
There are no independent comparisons between different brands of formula in the UK, and indeed, some of them are made by the same companies, who aim to segment as well as expand the market, as with any other consumer product....Aptamil is posh milk, and SMA is chav milk, as far as I can tell, from what I can see of the marketing and pricing strategies. Note this is not what I think of the contents, just what I can infer of the marketing intentions from the commercial activity surrounding them.
All the formula milks highjack the imagery and the marketing 'feel' of breastfeeding and breastmilk in some way, and all of them are promoted very heavily to healthcare professionals....many of whom are easily persuaded to use a diary, a pen, a post-it note, a calendar or some other cheap trinket with branded colours and logos on it. Many of them fall hook line and sinker for the spurious scientific claims as well, as we see on this thread.
It works, too, as the MORI poll showed that over a third of mothers believed that formula milk was the same or very close to breastmilk.