This is where the formula companies get their foothold in our society (as opposed to less developed countries where their foothold comes from promoting artificial milk as a 'superior' option because they believe it makes their babies smarter than human milk ) - in the fragmentation of our communities where mothers DON'T have networks to tap into and come to believe that someone else's milk will be diseased or something. When you're in a network, the nature of it is that you know the people in it and some idea of their lifestyles. We have suspicions of people when we don't know them very well and have very little to do with them. Wetnurses were and are women in the community very well known to other women, they weren't found in the classifieds.
Salma Hayek's Mexican grandmother would have been known to her community when she fed other people's babies. My mum speaks of women in her town (it was like a repressed memory and first came out when I fed my niece, when my sister took longer out on her boat with my dad than anticipated and her DD got hungry!) who fed other people's babies and they were known for providing this service...for free!! Yet even these communities nowadays are experiencing westernisation (US culture has been permeating for a while and now they have these hideous free trade agreements that mean corporates bring their capitalist, individualist culture and advertising with them) and the fragmentation that turns women inwards and more vulnerable to the idea that formula is more trustworthy than someone else's milk (or, sadly, that formula is more trustworthy than BM at all, even when there is nothing wrong with their ability to lactate except their new prejudices about modern society etc). I'm using Central America and Mexico as examples because until increased recent westernisation, they weren't even a dairy-reliant culture and would never have fed cow's milk or cow milk-based substances to their children or themselves the way they do now when there are lactation issues. This also seems to apply to Asian societies - milk is a big allergen because of the millenia of non-dairy diets being suddenly changed by western milk-obsessions, and now they are increasingly relying on it as standard, let alone in times of dire need for the babies' health.
Anyway, just an example of how breastfeeding and attitudes about EBM IS political (small 'p' ), whether you choose to see it or not - in our society, breastfeeding and feeding EBM largely is not just something that happens, it's occurence for an individual depends on a whole series and combination of events, exposures and situations before it's even your turn to 'make the choice' - and affects that 'choice', ultimately.
This thread has discussed the merits of EBM when formula is available, and that's what I've responded to here and what I've limited my discussion to. I'm not going to get drawn into FF under non-supply/non-special needs conditions, or outside of discussion about formula companies exploiting underdeveloped societies with their advertising.
And I do agree, EBM is no substitute for feeding from the breast - that physical stimulation is vital for specific neural stimulation in the brain that doesn't occur in bottle-fed babies (EBM or AM). It IS the next best thing, though, if you're in a jam and have access to it