Breast feeding is healthy for your baby, and able mothers should at least try it.

//Having a baby is a beautifull,and bonding with your infant directly after it's birth is crucial. // Not arguing , it is beautiful and amazing. However there are other ways to bond with your child. Skin to skin bonding , singing to your child, talking to you child, holding you child, looking at your child. My daughter and I are very bonded and she was not breast fed. Breastfeeding is good , but not for everyone. //Breast feeding inables you to be very close to your new child and give him or her affection every time they eat. A new borns eye's allow them to see only to the mothers face while breast feeding!// A mother can bond while feeding a child with a bottle as well ... Also when breast feeding the baby often doesn't bond with the father as quickly . A father then doesn't get to hold his newborn as much and often feels inadequate and left out. My aunt just brestfed her 7th child after bottlefeeding the rest and her husband felt he didnt get to be as close when she was a newborn and often felt leftout. //It takes patience, and a little bit of pain sometimes, but being a mother your job doesn't stop when tht baby is born, it just begins! Parenthood means sacrifice and your body is not yours any more. Sacrificing things you would like to do, such as drink alcohol, smoke, or drugs aren't healthy for you anyway. It would be selfish to decide to bottle feed just based upon the mothers wish to break free from her new little "bondage". // Just because a mother chooses not to breastfeed her baby , does not make her selfish. There are other reasons mothers choose not to breastfeed their child besides they want to drink or smoke! Some women can't , some develop thrush which is beyond painful and often times makes it impossible to breastfeed, some mother need help from other family members as they have other young children. If you have 3 or 4 children under 5 , maybe breastfeeding isn't possible. Some mothers have no choice but to go back to work and just can't continue to pump. The list goes on and on. Some babies don't gain enough weight and have to be put on formula. //Breast milk (starting off as colostrum) has antibodies,fat,vitamins,and minerals that your baby needs. Unlike formula there's no air (which cuts down on gas), and your body actually formulates and changes the milk as the baby grows to give them everything there body needs. Formula does NOT do that. Formula can also lead to constipation, stomache aches, makes poop smell bad (YES, breast fed babies do not have smelly poop) it's expensive, and if not used properly unsanitary.// Maternity nurses often advocate breast feeding , however most pediatricians don't. They say its best to do what is right for you and your child.My daughter was fed by formula and had no problems with gas and no problems with stomach aches. My cousin is breastfed and is often constipated and if you believe a baby that breastfed has poop that doesnt smell , you are mistaken. The diaper I changed the other day smelt horrible ... so unfortunately I think you are always at risk for smelly diapers regardless as to what your baby drinks. Formula can be expensive , but some women can afford it and don't mind paying for it. That is their choice and their money. There also is WIC , a program that helps mother and infants from low to middle incomes . You do not need to be LOw income to recieve help from them. They give mothers checks good for formula at any local grocery store , or if you are breastfeeding they will give these checks/vouchers for whole milk, Peanut butter etc. Also its is a mothers responsibility to make sure the formula is sanitary, just as it is a mothers responsibility to make sure her breast milk is sanitary (ie from smoking , alcohol etc.) Also my daughter was formula fed and she was hardly ever sick when she was a baby. I know breastfed kids that have been sick ... Some kids are healthier as babies , some aren't. It always depends. //Babies need nurturing, eye contact, fondling and to be held and suction (breast feeding takes longer than bottle feeding, and this could eliminate pacifiers). Breastfeeding insures that a baby gets all of these things. Forget about geting together bottles every time you go out. Just take a blanket and you can feed so descretly sometimes my own husband doesn't know I'm doing it. Breast feeding is good for a mother and a babies developments, and should be tried and embraced.// Some Babies that are breastfed take pacifiers , just as some some babies that are formula fed take pacifiers. Thats just because certain babies are different. Some women do not feel comfortable breastfeeding in public. That should be their choice. Maybe you find it can be discreet , but not everyone feels that way. As much as it should be breastfeeding in public places is not always accepted and that puts some women off and thats their choice. You can not say that babies that are not breastfed don't receive nurturing. My daughter and I have been bonded since the day she was born. We also have always made eye contact ..whether she was drinking her bottle , Some women do not mind getting bottles together to go out. It shouls be a personal decision based on whats best for each mother and child.