I haven't read all the other posts but I would just like to highlight another reason why a woman can give up b/f, in case it hasn't already been mentioned.
I do believe our whole society doesn't support b/f in an adequate way. As women, growing up and onwards, our breasts are presented to us in a predominatly sexual way, with a brief reference to them being used to feed babies in sex education classes and that's about it. Television, magazines bilboards - you name it, breasts are not shown in any other way than to represent sex or attractiveness. And therefore not only women are brainwashed in this manner, so are men.
Of course if you have grown up in a family where b/f is normal, positive and open, then it may go some way to counteracting the culture around you, but many people have not, as previous generations bottle fed as a matter of course and it is only fairly recently that b/f has become the most popular choice for mums to take - in theory at least.
So all that in consideration, a woman becomes pregnant; she is told that b/f is the best thing you can do for your baby, and of course, every mother wants the best for their child. She has the baby; suddenly her breasts are no longer 'sexual objects' but they are quite the opposite! She might be absolutely fine with that, it is of course an incredible thing a womens body can do, and feeding your baby can be an amazingly joyful experience.
But then she has to cope with the outside world. Oh dear, many have forgotton what breasts are for out there!
And her self esteem, as that seems to be (dubiously!) linked to how attractive/sexy you feel, is going to take a battering if she is experiencing leaky and/or painful breasts/nipples.
And while most partners are very supportive and lovely - some don't understand how the whole mechanics of b/f work and therefore make things harder whilst not meaning too, either with comments or suggestions that are completely unhelpful. (Some don't really listen when a women tries to inform them too!)
Then there is b/f in public; a women must feel comfortable doing this in order for b/f to work well, otherwise she is pretty much tied to the house, and if that is the case she can become very depressed, very quickly and it is impractical to say the least.
The first few weeks, of course, staying at home and establishing b/f properly is fine, but once and if that happens, then she has to tackle the outside world and peoples attitudes - not to mention the worry of 'covering up' properly so not to offend anyone. ( oh puhleeze!)
I b/f my ds for 5 weeks and stopped because of many combined, common problems that I wont go into here - what I have posted above being one of them. I felt guilty for years, and wanted no more children for years too. It took about 7 years to truely get 'over it' hence a 8 and a half year age gap between my ds and dd!
Again I really wanted to b/f dd but when it came to it I was terrified of all the problems that can occur, public feeding and the thought of not bonding with my dd as a result (something which happened with my ds, I developed bad pnd and we are still not very close, sadly)that I decided to give up at the hospital after about 24 hours. I am so glad I did. Not because I dislike b/f, but it was such a relieve to just enjoy my baby without having to worry at all about feeding her.
That is my experience, many brave and wonderful women can overcome this if this is how they feel, it is perfectly possible and please don't be put off reading this. Everyone has different bodies/babies/partners/experiences etc, so we must do what we can to change the society we live in. But whatever you do, don't regret or feel guilty for f/f if that is what you chose to do, children grow up very quickly, love and enjoy them while you still have them.