Janet, I can tell you my personal take on telling mothers the hazards of
formula.  There are no real "advantages" of formula for babies relative to
bf, so I do indeed tell them right off what a bunch of the disadvantages are.

However, relative to FAILING to bf, there are some advantages.   And it is
true that cultural, iatrogenic, etc factors are going to grossly jack up the
number of dyad who fail successfully to bf.   And moms reach me not seeing
those factors, but "knowing" in the culture that plenty of dyads "can't" bf.

So after I give the spiel that others might call guilt-inducing, I specify a
few situations in which formula might be the least-bad option.   Eg, Some
fraction of mothers who have had major surgery or breast trauma in the past
make less than a full supply, and they may at some point need to supplement,
for which formula may be the best option available to them.   Babies with
galactosemia (1 in 60,000!!) may not be able to bf more than a tiny amount if
at all, so that the risk of formula to them may, aberrantly, be less than the
risk of human milk.  And, if something -- like bad help in the hospital, or
major baby anatomical trouble at the beginning -- has seriously compromised
the milk supply, occasionally the risk of supplementing with formula briefly
and judiciously under an expert's care while you get the milk supply back up
may -- like the risks of taking many dangerous but life-saving medications --
be less than the risks of not doing so.  Etc.

I know not everybody agrees with this -- some people think it is implicit
permission to default to formula.   But I think that for those of us in the
US there is ALREADY implicit permission to default to formula, for everybody.
 What this approach is meant to do is to say, "Yeah, that implicit permission
is correct in a tiny number of cases:  do you fit them?"

I have posted before about my husband, who just didn't believe that "human
milk is best for all babies" until he learned about galactosemia.  Somehow
realizing that the metabolic disorder that made it not best was a) real but
b) incredibly rare made it intuitively believable that all the rest of 'em
should be on mom's own.

Elisheva Urbas, NYC
once more pushing for giving moms the most info -- as long as it is accurate
and not in a manipulative style --

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