
Why there is even a discussion about the benefits of breastfeeding vs bottle feeding, I’ll never know. As long as the babies get fed, it’s really none of our business how mums choose to feed their children.
But not everyone is as reasonable. We have breastfeeding mums being shamed, bottle feeding mums being shamed and it can all get pretty silly.
FEED THE BABY. End of conversation.
I was a victim of breastfeeding pressure, as are many mums. I was then bottle shamed, then shamed for public breastfeeding and so on and so forth. After having my first child, the judgement affected me. By the time I had my second and third, I no longer cared what anyone else thought of my choices.
I was doing what was best for my baby, what was best for me, and anyone who had a problem with it could get stuffed. Pun intended.
We’ve spoken to seven mums who couldn’t or wouldn’t breastfeed. These are their stories.

Mum 1:
"My obstetrician, father and husband all urged me to breastfeed my son, even though it hurt, even though I had mastitis, even though I cried while doing it. My mental and physical health wasn't considered as important as the health benefits my baby would gain from being breastfed. When my little baby proceeded to vomit up every single painful drop, woke up after an hour-and-a-half for another feed and failed to put on much weight after several weeks, I knew something was horrible wrong. I gave in to my instincts and bought formula late one night. I made the bottle and fed my baby. He kept every drop down and slept for seven hours. We found out years later that he had deadly food allergies and the proteins in my breast milk were causing a reaction."