Hi congratulations on becoming a Mum.
I'm sure they'll be some FFing mums along soon.
I have to say although I'm going to try BFing, I do think there's a massive amount of pressure on mums to make BFing work. I thought maybe it was me that was touchy because there's was and still is a chance I may not be able to BF.
However whilst pregnant I led a discussion event on improving maternity care at a local hospital. The Public Health people were talking about needing to spend more on breast feeding support. The majority of Obstetric consultants and Midwifes were adamant this was a bad idea (I would go as far as to say all in attendance but some were quiet, although not one spoke up in disagreement) . The basic premise was they were sick of seeing women hysterical and even becoming depressed because BFing hadn't worked, and they felt a failure because of all the pressure that was put on them.
The comment from one MW was how come I have to run a weekly drop in club with free lunch provided to support BFing mothers even if they're doing fine, yet if a mother ends up FFing and has issues with reflux, colic, weaning etc..there's no support group for her, surely we should just have a support group for all new mothers no matter what their issue is and support them all equally. There were lots of nods of agreement.
It all got a bit heated, but one of the consultants also started ranting about how come legally shops can't put discounts on formula for under 6 months old, or even let mothers have points (Tesco, Boots etc..) when they buy formula, when even cigarettes get points and alcohol gets discounted. Surely nationally we were reinforcing the image that mothers who didn't BF were terrible.
I have to say I hadn't thought about it in so much depth before, but it does seem a massive amount of pressure at a time when women are vulnerable anyway. We all know te benefits of BFing but sometimes it just doesn't work.