"there are women who give birth who are very vulnerable for many different reasons. some of them need to be shown how to do these things. "
Yes - which is why ALL bottlefeeding mothers are supposed to be shown one to one how to safely make up a feed by a midwife before they're discharged from hospital after their baby is born. All hospitals will have an infant feeding policy which states that this should happen. The fact that it sometimes doesn't happen is down to staffing issues on postnatal wards, and I agree - it's very bad and dangerous.
That doesn't mean it's a good idea for parents to be shown how to make up bottlefeeds in antenatal classes. The evidence shows that parents shown how to make up bottlefeeds in groups prior to the birth of their baby simply don't retain the information accurately enough to make it safe. And if they've done it once they may think they're on top of it when in fact they're not. Better that they be shown how to do it one to one. Also - there's such low confidence about breastfeeding generally among mothers - teaching bottlefeeding as part of a normal antenatal curriculum for first time mums would undermine this even more.
Out of interest - those of you who think that bottlefeeding should be taught in antenatal classes, apart from teaching how to make up feeds safely what WOULD you teach in a bottlefeeding class? There's so little sound evidence based information on bottlefeeding - what exactly would you include in the sessions?
I can also see that given the limited resources we've got there's also a very good reason for concentrating on breastfeeding - and that's because compared to bottlefeeding, there's very little shared expertise and knowledge among women and healthvisitors/midwives themselves within the community. If you want to bottlefeed then you'll bottlefeed. Not necessarily without difficulty, but you will be able to do it. Not so for breastfeeding.
If midwives tell women they 'can't' talk to them about bottlefeeding because it's 'against hospital policy' they're basically talking our their arses - it's not true. Infant feeding policies at baby friendly hospitals DO NOT ban discussion of bottlefeeding - they simply ban formal teaching of bottlefeeding to mothers antenatally. Midwives who say 'we're not allowed to talk about it' are just haven't actually bothered to read their trusts infant feeding policy properly and so have misinterpreted it. Unfortunately this issue is so misunderstood and it's doing a lot of damage at grass roots level - it prejudices women against the promotion of breastfeeding.
Personally I think women SHOULD be taught about bottlefeeding if they express a wish to know.
I think women should be told everything that is currently known about formula (and what we don't yet know) and making up feeds which could coherently communicated within, say, a two hour session. I suspect that it might shake many people out of their complacency about infant feeding.
"But that is ok. Babies don't vote. they don't pay taxes and they don't work or write letters to MP's. If they die or end up permanently disabled because they got dodgy health advice from a tin, leaflet or 'careline'" This is true. They do deserve better.