It sometimes feels like we women are our own worst enemies. If we outwardly voice that we want breastfeeding to be supported more, and more education being given about it, then there is the perception that we're taking our own sisters' rights away if they have to formula feed. Or that we make them feel guilty. And yet, our breastfeeding rates are horrendously low, so as much as Mia may say that the msg that 'breast is best' has infiltrated our consciousness, that actually isn't translating into significant increases in breastfed children at age 6 months.

I agree that we should be kinder to each other, but I think that being kinder does not mean we don't do the things that need to be done to make breastfeeding, especially breastfeeding beyond infancy, the thing that is tried first and foremost. That saying 'just give your baby a bottle for a little bit' is NOT the first thing that comes out of dr's mouths, as it has happened for years.

If a woman choses FF because that's what she wants, for whatever reason, she owns that decision and no one should have an issue with it, and if they do, well tough, because no one can know her reasons for it, nor should it be anyone else's business. But when a woman wants to breastfeed and cannot get the right info, the right support or the right msg to ensure she has every chance to build a strong and lasting bfing relationship with her child, then there still remains a problem. And from the stats of women who bf in Australia, there obviously is a problem still.

So this shouldn't be about who FFs and who BFs, but how the system is not helping the women who really want to BF. That is the gap that still is not being bridged, and is something that BFing associations are trying to bridge, albeit not always in ways that make their desired outcomes clear to anyone else, as I imagine is the case in Mia's ham-fisted example.

I say do what's best for your family and own that decision. And don't derive guilt from those of us who say that there should be more support and education for women so that more children are bf'ed for longer. That's a whole different fight that is not about your individual choices.