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I so wanted to be a proud mammal! I have always believed that breastfeeding is - medically and practically - preferable. When I was pregnant with my first child I fully intended to breastfeed. I also had seen my sister breastfeeding exclusively until her child was 18 months and saw all the advantages.

My daughter was full term but born by a caesarean section and my milk never 'came in'. I have breast fed exclusively for 3 or 4 days and each of these days she spent about 16-18 hours on my breast. Due to lack of servants at home I have switched to mixed feeding and I mix-fed until my daughter was 5 months old when the whole process came to some kind of natural end (she got bored?).

My son was born through via natural vaginal delivery 5 years later and was exclusiely breast fed on demand for 4 weeks. In these 4 weeks he went from the 50th percentile in weight to the 9th percentile: his weight never returned to his birth weight. I was feding on demand. I fed for about 2 hours at a time. He latched perfectly and sucked. I drunk all this water. I ate high fat diet. I rested all the time. I was happy and he was a contended baby (when he wasn't feeding). And yet, he was just surviving. When I started supplementing, his weight shot up. he slept through the night at 6 weeks (and since). He was mixed fed until about 4 months old.

Despite that, I still strongly believe that breastfeeding is the best way to feed and that every woman should consider giving it a good go. I have tried to summarise the benefits and disadvantages as I see them as well as my main points of advice.

GENERAL ADVICE

1) I would advise one thing: do what you feel is best for you and your baby. From the medical point of view, the human breast milk is ideal for human babies. But in real-life circumstances the best option might be be breast, expressing, mix feeding, and sometimes bottle.

2) Don't let others, especially affected Breast Feeding Advisors give you guilt trips under the guise of giving you support and help. After all millions of bonny babies have been raised on formula and it provides a perfectly good substitute for breastmilk.

3) Try to find a reliable source of information (ONE midwife, a paediatrician, your mother) and stick to it, pretty much ignoring what others say. It's never a question of life and death (unless you live in subsaharan Africa but then you wouldn't be reading this text) even though it might seem so at the time.

4) If you feel strongly about breastfeeding, definitely DO persevere

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