Okay,

I was waiting for things to settle down a bit before posting. I read the article and naive old me didn't know about the kind of tactics Nestle use! I can't imagine the pressure these poor women are under, not believing in themselves.

From my own experience, I had my first 3 children without any family around. I BFed Ariani to 9 months, then weaned her onto a cup; Shay to 5 and a 1/2 months, then FFed him, and Zaki to 18 months, so I've both FFed and BFed. Yet now I have Charlie I'm constantly being told by my mum, who moved to Oz 3 years ago, that I'm starving my baby and should comp feed him. I ignore her for the most part, or point out that Charlie's putting on weight really well, but she doesn't believe me and constantly harps on it. This is because she never BF and neither did my sister, as in Singapore it was 'fashionable' to bottlefeed, with the Govt doing nothing to encourage BFing. There are no parenting rooms there, public BFing is a big no-no, and you were considered 'cheap' to not buy formula for your baby, as BFing was the poor man's alternative, for those who 'couldn't afford to buy the very best for their child'. Things are changing now, but this was the atmosphere of misinformation that used to be out there.

I shudder to think how much the pressure to bottlefeed would have affected me as a new mum, instead of an experienced mum of 4. I can stand up to my mum and follow my own course, but my sister caved and bottlefed all her 3 kids, coz my mum said she had 'blind' nipples (Mind you she leaked milk during engorgement so not sure how 'blind' her nipples were)

I sent bits of this article to my mum but she's very conditioned into thinking that BF is somehow deficient. I personally think that for people like her, a shock tactic or two wouldn't go astray. When you put the article into the context where they're trying to target people who have strong ingrained ideas against BFing, it has a place.