"There are many benefits of FF too - sorry if you don't like this."
What - for babies?
Every breastfeeding mum thinks about the things you mention - nobody is going to argue that being able to hand your baby over to someone else so you can get some kip is sometimes going to seem like a very good idea.
My way of looking at is was this: going short of sleep comes with the territory of early parenting. It doesn't last for ever, my baby was likely to be sleeping through in a few months, it's not going to kill me and women since the dawn of time have done it in far more difficult circumstances than most of us in this country live in. My baby on the other hand has got to live in their body for their entire life, and the benefits of breastfeeding last long into adulthood.
"The main reason I chose to FF from birth! No sleepless nights for me for several days after the birth as DH did all the night feeds . The benefits to me and the baby of that sleep....well I don't think I can quantify it!"
How exactly does your baby benefit from you getting a full night's sleep? I mean the majority of mums are up at night at the beginning. Nature designed things this way. I would think that the vast majority of us manage to provide good, kind, loving care to our babies without the benefit of uninterrupted night's sleep in the first few days, wouldn't you? I appreciate that really appalling sleep deprivation if it goes on and on could cause pnd and affect your relationship with your baby, but most breastfeeding mums don't have this.
Personally speaking my sleep was great when I was breastfeeding my babies - I might have fed them a couple of times a night but as they slept so close to me and I could feed them lying down I don't think I ever had any real problems with lack of sleep that many bottlefeeding mums get - the ones who have to get out of bed to make a feed up and then sit upright and wide awake while their baby feeds.
"And regarding your point'best health outcome,as several people have pointed out on this thread 'best psychological outcome' is crucial too....and that ultimately depends on the individual mother."
Yes - but interestingly PND is more common in women who ff. Breastfeeding has a protective mechanism against stress and anxiety - that's what all the oxytocin and prolactin do. Yes - severe bf problems CAN sometimes lead to PND, but bf problems don't generally become severe if a mum is given appropriate and sensitive help. And I know many women who've struggled with bf who haven't experienced depression.
What I'm trying to say is that the whole 'happy mummy,happy baby' rationale for ff (which, in the absence of communicable diseases is the ONLY benefit of ff I can currently think of) has become a sort of truism which bandied around in very casual way without anyone really thinking about what it means.
And I can't imagine people using this sort of rationale for any other aspect of parenting. Imagine if you said you were going to give your child ready meals every night because you don't like cooking, and if you cooked unwillingly for your child it'd make you stressed, and you'd end up damaging your relationship with them, which would disadvantage them more than giving them ready meals every night!
BTW - I'm not discounting the effects of a difficult birth on breastfeeding and your health in the early days of breastfeeding - I've been there myself with a PPH, forceps birth, postnatal infections etc. It is hard - no denying it, but most of us who opt to do it cope fine and our babies thrive - and it only lasts a short time.