I was the youngest of my family, all the rest of whom had been born in the 50s or 40s and had been breastfed, as was I. (I say that because at the time I was born, fotmula feeding was beginning to be the norm in Ireland). So I never saw anyone being breastfed when I was a child. However I remembe two comments from my childhood. There was a piece on the radio about LLL and how they supported breastfeeding mothers, and my dad said that was wonderful, a great thing to do. (It wasn't LLL I joined later as a mother, but NCT in the UK, and, later, Cuidiú, when I returned to Ireland).

When my sister had a baby I saw her bf as she carefully watched the clock to get the 10 minutes a side. (Mothers had to have PhDs in maths back then), so I saw plenty of bf before I had my own.

However the best comment belongs to my mother. As a teenage in the 70s I had read an article about bottle feeding in the papers, and obviously it was the normal thing to do. I asked my mother about when she bottlefed me, and she said she hadn't. Now I found that very weird, and asked her why any mother would do such a strange thing. 
Her response? "The cat won't drink it!"  
I had no comeback.

Eithne Murray
Carlow, Ireland

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