What was your personal reason for your feeding choice?

[G8P4]

Lactivists, I’m interested. Think back to before the birth of your first baby, when you thought about how you were going to feed him or her. What made you decide which way you were going to feed your baby? Why did you decide to breastfeed? (or to artificially feed, if that’s what you did chose the first time around?) What was the main factor, the main reason, that determined your initial feeding choice?

[TigerTail]

Because I'm a mammal & had been through 7th grade biology. That's not even snark.

[<<>>]

My mom BF my youngest brother, so thats what I saw and thought was normal.....
AND dh's aunt BF and he knew it was best for baby and encouraged me to....
So I tried it, I assumed that I wouldn't have any problems, (I didn't)
Although the lack of passion for BF is why I weaned her at 6m and put her on formula....
I have the passion now, and my 21m old ds is still going strong...

[Kleine Hexe]

I didn't think about it at all until I filled out a form at the OB's office. One of the questions asked me how I would feed my baby...breast, formula, or both. I circled both because in my mind they were the same to me. I didn't know that breastfeeding was better. I thought formula was just as good.

Then I started reading prenatal books and magazines. That's when I learned that breastfeeding is better and I decided that's what I wanted to try. People made negative comments to me during the pg and it made me angry and determined to breastfeed just to show them I could. I had difficulty for the first two months and with each comment of formula pushing I became more determined to prove everyone wrong. I did. I've been nursing for 6 years straight now.

[julie128]

It's the culture around here. It didn't occur to me to ff. Why would I if I didn't have to? I had originally planned to nurse for a year, but as I was nursing, I read all kinds of good bf information, including from Mothering and MDC, and kept revising that upward.

[E&Gmommy]

I breastfeed because I'm lazy lol Seriously, with my first we had bottles and formula from the babyshower and I never used them. My boobs were working just fine and it was so much easier than using a bottle. I was only 17 so I really didn't know anything about the benifits of bf until a bit later.

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

I'm not sure there was a councious choice. For my whole life I've been interested in doing things the most natural way possible. I cook from scratch, grow a lot of my own food. Pick wild food and herbs when avaliable. I like to spin and weave my own fabric and so on. Breastfeeding was sort of an extension of that. It's what me and baby were designed for. It's the most natural thing to do and in my mind natural almost always = best. I trust that Mother Nature knew what She was doing.

[mamasophy]

I always knew I would - it's the culture here. I thought it odd that one of my sisters ff (I was 15 then). Even though my mom ff, i figured they didn't know better in the 50s and 60s. So it was always a given. what I didn't know was that it needed to be learned!

[dimibella]

I knew it was the best choice for my child, plain and simple.

[mntnmom]

It never occured to me to ff w/out a really good reason. Plus, we'd made the decision for me to sahm, and bm is free!!

[Beccah+twins+1]

My mother bf all 3 children, me (the youngest) until I was 17 months. I grew up hearing stories of how much my mother loved nursing us, and how I would walk up to her and unbutton her shirt

My entire life I assumed I would bf children. I never even knew much about formula. Of course I knew MANY babies got bottles, but I guess it wasn't even until high school that I even thought about what was in the bottles. I played with toy bottles as a young child but still, from the time I even gave any thought to having children of my own I knew I would breastfeed. I never once entertained the idea of doing anything other than that and it killed me when my dds had to have formula. Thankfully ds has not had so much as a drop of formula and is still nursing strong at almost 14 months.

[tamagotchi]

I was breastfed until age 2 or so. Breastfeeding just seemed like the default to me.

Also, I've bottlefed kittens before and it was a lot of work. Why give yourself extra work if you don't have to?

[angelcat]

well, because breast is best. I think you'd have to live under a rock not to know that nowadays. The hospital pushes it, prenatal classes do, most people i knew nursed. It was no brainer. I didn't even buy bottles.

Unfortunately, I learned not everyone can do it, and around 10 days had to accept the fact that formula was better than starving the baby.

Next time, I'd again plan to nurse. On a practical level, I HATE mixing formula & washing bottles. I knew that before I had Rachel, too. Nursing is WAY WAY WAY more convenient if it works. I also really like the way bm changes as baby grows, changes in hot weather etc.

[stacey2061]

well, back then i didn't think formula was such a big deal, but i wanted to go the cheap and natural route, so i told myself i'd give it a go, with a goal of 1 year. shortly before ds' was born, however, i started to actually learn about bf and became determined to succeed. i'm so glad i learned what i did before ds was born because the first 4 months were HARD, and i probably would have quit otherwise

[Rico'sAlice]

Don't have to really think back, as I am still awaiting the birth of my first.
But thinking back to before I started deliberately learning/thinking about these things I still always knew I would breastfeed. It never occured to me that I wouldn't. The factors influencing that assumption were:

1) Everyone in my family breastfeeds. (And definitely remember nursing my dolls, even though some of them came with bottles.)
2) Formula costs money.
3) I hate doing dishes.

[eclipse]

It didn't really occur to me not to. I didn't expect to breastfeed as long as I did, but it didn't make sense to me to buy something that my body made for free.

[MrsRitchie]

My mom nursed all three of us. I grew up never really thinking about it. When I got pregnant, I knew I would BF. I didn't really even think to let DH know, and when we did talk about it he was surprised! "Why do you want to BF??" (He's come around, don't worry.)
I also agree with the PP who said,
1. I'm too lazy to fix formula
2. I'm too cheap to buy formula

[mothragirl]

i didn't decide. breastfeeding is how you feed babies unless you're unable to.

[Ruthla]

Quite simply, I couldn't imagine NOT nursing my baby. I could imagine using an SNS or similar to supplement if necessary, but the thought of not nursing, or not NIP was completely foreign to me. You have a baby, you nurse. Baby gets hungry, you nurse wherever you are. What could be simpler?

I grew up "nursing" all my dolls and stuffed animals (after first "giving birth" to them.) Almost all the babies I personally knew while growing up were BF, with the exception of an adopted cousin. Her mother made every effort to make FF as close as possible to BF- all bottles in Mommy's or Daddy's arms, no toddling around with the bottle, no propped bottles, etc. This just reinforced the idea that BF is the norm and bottlefeeding is a substitute.

[annakiss]

Everyone I knew growing up breastfed. Close friends of my mom's did Child Led Weaning, so I knew kids who were still nursing at age 6. I weaned myself at age 3. It's just what we did, though my mom did both with my younger sisters when she went back to work. I was familiar with bottles, but just knew i would breastfeed, the same way I knew I would homebirth. It's just what people in my family's circle did.

My son was born with a cleft lip & palate and that meant that he had to be bottlefed, but I did pump for a long time. I would never choose bottlefeeding after that experience. DS2 is still nursing.