This is my observation from my online work as an LC. I read and answer
about 600 breastfeeding questions a month, and have for the past several years.

The effect that bottle use has on many mothers (more than I can say, but it
stands out in my memory) is that mothers who use bottles frequently often
become disillusioned with their own normal breastmilk flow rate. They see
that their babies take a LOT of milk with bottles, (maybe much more than
they would NORMALly take at breast). Babies who are presented with a bottle
and who NORMALly like to suck a lot cannot help but take a LOT of milk in
via bottle...as they satisfy their sucking needs.

This then begins the chink in the wall of confidence, breaking it down,
slowly but surely. The mom looks at her baby guzzling down milk. Maybe 6
oz. Maybe 8 oz. Maybe more, at a clip. She thinks "I've not got enough to
satisfy my baby...." when in fact, the baby may not need all that milk by
bottle, but cannot escape it.

The mother starts to worry, and starts to see overfeeding as the norm. She
then begins to supplement, and the perceived supply issue becomes a real
one.   A slippery slope down towards the end of breastfeeding.

They think that their breasts should be a faucet, the way that a bottle
nipple is, and do not understand the dynamics of this interplay until it is
explained.

I have read that Peter Hartmann sees that many babies take somewhere around
25 oz of milk per day (yes, per day!) at breast...from after 10 lb or so,
until they begin solids in the middle of the first year. I may have the
exact timing details wrong here, as the study is not in front of me.

Some mothers have babies who are taking 6 oz of milk every 2 hours while at
a caregiver's for their day's work. (24 oz) in only 9 hours.!   They see
this as the norm, and think that their bodies cannot keep up in any way.

As they go along, and pump once or twice during the day, they see their
supplies woefully decrease, and the slide down the slope gains momentum.

Just my observation. Kathleen

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