Breastfeeding

NOTICE: This is not a commentary on whether or not you should breastfeed but rather my experience.  It is not meant to sway people's options in anyway.

From the moment I had my son, I felt a lot of pressure from medical professionals to breast feed.  After many failed attempts, I met with a lactation consultant who told me, your child is never going to latch and handed my a pump to use.  Despite my best efforts in the hospital pumping was not working.  My mother kept saying to me, give your baby some formula to which I would say they are telling us that we have to breast feed him.  On the second day in the hospital, I had a very hungry very cranky baby.  My mother brought some formula and gave it to my son, he immediately latched to the bottle and began eating.  He was so happy.  A nurse came into the room and both my husband and myself felt the need to hide the formula.  Why did we feel that way, we were feeding our child the best way we knew how and yet we felt ashamed for formula feeding.

Leaving the hospital my son had lost significant weight, so much so that we had to take him to the pediatrician the next morning.  While the nurse at the pediatrician's office gave us paperwork and a list of supplements for us to purchase to aid in milk production, she also handed me a bag full of formula.  She encouraged me to use the supplements and continue to pump she also told me that we were good parents.  Our child needed to eat and focusing on where that food came from wasn't as important. 

After weeks of diligently pumping and the majority of the bottles being comprised of formula, I eventually abandoned breastfeeding as a whole.  My son grew very well on formula and reached all of his developmental milestones very early, but it still bothers me that I have to get these disapproving looks whenever I mention my child having formula.  

Now that I am pregnant again, many people comment to me about how I need to try and breastfeed again.  To them I say why? It was not a good fit for me or my child, the latching issue was with me not the baby and pumping wasn't very successful.  Why stress out myself, husband, toddler and new baby when they can receive formula.  Everyone always says "breast is best" but aren't those people the same people who are looking down on me for formula feeding?