I didn't say breastfeeding was so much better, in fact I pointed out that I was one of the mum's who couldn't breastfeed. I explained that my deep concern was that if I couldn't have fed my baby she would have died if we had been in a different place (or time). Which was of course a very silly worry of mine considering that we were well into the second half of the 20th Century! Fear, maybe due in some part to raging hormones, but also due to my depression, led to my very destructive thoughts. I have explained that that left me feeling distraught. My GP was very close to sending me to a mother and baby mental health facility - after I had taken a paracetamol overdose, and had my stomach pumped. So I am not going to apologise to you, that for me personally being able to breastfeed my child was very important. It had nothing whatsoever to do with how anyone else wanted to, or had to, feed their baby.
When I was a student nurse I became good friends with another nurse who was also a mother of young children, she said that she could have never breastfed her babies because the very thought of it made her feel ill, she hated the thought of it. Yet despite our very personal contrasting views we did not judge each other, neither of us argued about it, or tried to make the other one change our own individual view's. I know that I really liked and respected her, I hope she felt the same way about me.
If I hadn't had access to Formula because I hadn't been lucky enough to be born into a country where despite the fact that at the time when I had my firstborn, my husband and I were living just above what was considered to be the poverty line in our country at that time, my firstborn might have actually died. Instead she thrived and has children of her own now, because I was able to give her Fórmula milk.
If, in my 2nd post, the one you are referring to, I hadn't been trying to not write too long an essay, I might have mentioned that the position for breastfeeding a baby, and bottle feeding a young baby, is almost exactly the same, so you still get your baby gazing contently into your eyes, and what is even better with bottle feeding is that Dad, and Grandparents can also bond with their Dear Child/Grandchild. Also, Dad can hopefully do some of the nightfeeds when appropriate, or at least maybe let mum catch up on some much needed sleep during the day if possible.
But I still might have not mentioned it, because I had forgotten that even in this day and age not everyone realises that in wealthy countries bottle feeding can even overtake the health benefits of feeding a young baby, because it can help lesson the mum's load if even by a little bit, and can greatly help quicken the bond between the baby and it's Dad. However, being quite an avid reader of Mumsnet, I should have remembered that being critically judgemental of others is still alive and kicking, and indeed thriving!
Please don't come back at me now @PabloandGustheGreySquirrels, for not going into all the other benefits of either bottle feeding or breastfeeding, or start laying into me because I have no real idea of what being peniless is like, or of being a single mother without the opportunity of any help from a baby's Dad, or know what it is like to be the only adult in your Dear Baby's life. I cannot and will not accept nasty judgement for not ever having been a single mum with no other adult support. As it happens, after my second child was born, my then husband did leave me, but I was still extremely lucky to have the support of my parents. After a few years I met my present husband, and so far 🤞🙏 he has been able to put up with me, and that was a long time ago now ...