None of my dses thrived on my milk - it seems that I produce only skim, whereas other women make gold top! Ds2 was even admitted to hospital as 'failure to thrive' and only regained his birthweight at 7 weeks old when I started giving him formula.
I can see Ruby's point that, as it was a necessity, perhaps someone in my position shouldn't have to pay for their formula - though happily I was in a position to do so, and mightn't have taken advantage of that opportunity.
But for all formula feeding mothers to have to get prescriptions for formula just isn't practical, imo. What about those surgeries where you can wait a week or more for an appointment? And what about the extra workload for doctors and receptionists processing repeat prescriptions?
I also agree with Scarletti - not managing to breastfeed can be very traumatic, so someone starting a thread like this should be very aware of that fact and should tread very carefully.
Ruby, I'm afraid that your first post did come across as rather judgemental of people who don't breastfeed, for whatever reason. I don't for one moment think that this was your intention, but you perhaps need to acknowledge that you have unwittingly hurt and offended some people.
I had Post Natal Depression after each birth, and attribute that in large part to my failure to breastfeed (though in hindsight it is clear that I already had had depression as a teenager, so the tendency was there and the breastfeeding issue cannot be totally to blame). That failure has haunted me ever since, and is a factor in my ongoing depression.
It's very hard not to take threads like this personally given my history, and I am sure this is the same for other women, hence the plea for a little more tact and diplomacy in this area.