Norma Ritter asks the question to us here "why did you choose to
breastfeed".  I think that one of the largest influences on my decision to
breastfeed was my mother.  There are three childers in my family born in
1947, 1950 amd 1954 (me).  My mother breastfed my sister (the oldest) for 6
weeks and then stoppeed because she she was topping my sister up witht the
formula she was sent home from the hospital with.  My mother was desperate
to have a happy baby so she weaned.  Some how, pre-La Leche League, my
mother seemed to understand that the formula and bottles were what destroyed
her first breastfeeding experience and she never gave my brother or myself
any of those bottles.   My brother was breastfed 10 months and I was
breastfed 6 months.  My mother was always very proud of breasfeeding us.  We
were all healthier than my cousins and my mother was quick to point out that
we were healthier because we were breastfed.   I also have memories of
hearing her on the phone telling friends "oh no, don't use the formula they
sent you home with- it will get the baby all messed up"!!

So, even thouugh I have a lifetime of mother/daughter conflict to work
through, my mother did give give me a clear impression of the value of
breastfeeding.  My mother "taught" me the instinct, La Leche League
sustained me in areas where my mother couldn't

Interestingly (ans sadly) my sister didn't breastfeed her kids born in 1968
and 1970.

Nancy Sherwood mother of 5 breastfed children.  Still nursing after all
these years!