@CallmeHendricks
It really wasn't "the done thing at the time." That may have been your mother's experience but it really wasn't across the board.
For many years there was the "breast is best" mantra, possibly when formula milk wasn't quite as nutritious and good as it is now. There was definitely a drive to breast feed if at all possible but those new mothers who couldn't, for whatever reason, found it quite intimidating.
There was definitely a time when mothers were encouraged to bottle feed. Look up National Dried Milk, baby milk produced to encourage bottle feeding, it was for economic reasons. Gave mothers freedom etc actually it was to encourage all young fit women to return to work, while the men were at war. The government ran nurseries to look after babies to enable women to work, which were later closed in the 50s.
That had repercussions for the following generations. Women will naturally listen to and trust their mum.
The "breast is best" came later in the 80s and 90s when they were trying to do what's best for babies rather than the economy.
Except Breast feeding isn't easy, the middle and upper classes used night nurses for that reason
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And so much knowledge is lost, nobody mentions that babies will cluster feed, nobody mentions they'll only go a couple of hours, nobody mentions hormones being highest in the night, all things that mums are left to find out the hard way.
There are also social demographics at play too, middle classes were more likely to breast feed as it was the done thing in their circles, working classes probably lost more knowledge and experiences.