I really hate the presentation of breastfeeding as something that might be
good for babies but requires great heroism and self-sacrifice on the part of
mothers, while bottlefeeding is for the "only human" among us.

I was once interviewing a public health nurse who is involved in
breastfeeding promotion, and she started talking to me about my own
children. When I said they had all been breastfed, she asked me what formula
I used. Thinking she must have misheard me, I repeated that they were
breastfed. She responded with, yes, but when you gave them bottles did you
use iron-fortified or regular formula? NO, I explained again, they were
breastfed and never had formula, ever. Oh, she asked, did I give them
expressed breastmilk?

Once more I explained that they were breastfed and none of them ever had
bottles.

There was a long pause and then she said, "Well, you're brave."

Brave???? In what way does it take courage to simply breastfeed  your
babies? And what message is this nurse giving to the women she works with in
the breastfeeding program? It is clearly almost impossible for her to
imagine that babies can be fed without bottles.

Teresa Pitman
Guelph, Ontario

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