Since you asked:

What inspired me to counsel women on breastfeeding isn't really surprising:
the more I learned about the benefits, the more I felt compelled to share
and educate other people. I say people, because I talk a lot to fathers and
get them to encourage their wives to nurse.

I went to public school and a state college. In all my schooling, including
human sexuality college courses, I rarely heard anything about
breastfeeding. I remember first realizing that breasts were for babies
sometime during elementary school. I asked my mom if she breastfed me and my
sister and brother. She said yes. I vaguely remember asking her about it. I
don't remember hearing about it at all through school, but then again as a
teenager the last thing on my mind was having kids and dealing with them (I
didn't particularly like baby-sitting).

After getting married and deciding to start a family, I read tons of
parenting books. The more I read about what is in milk (*live* cells!) the
more I couldn't believe that formula could be legally sold! I became
surprised that anyone would formula feed, but then I realized that most
people succumbed to formula advertisers and didn't really know what they
were doing (that is, they had never read or been told about breastfeeding
benefits).

I don't suppose I'm too much different from everyone else in this regard.
--Kelly