My Breastfeeding Story

I figured now would be as good a time as any to tell my breastfeeding story and why I loathe the very idea of infant formula.

S was born in October 2010, on his due date no less, weighing an ounce short of 9 pounds.  I had always known I wanted to breastfeed, even as a little girl although I was formula fed myself.  I think it was more my childlike fascination with boobs rather than understanding that it was the best thing I could do for my future baby.  So when I found out I was pregnant (having been diagnosed with PCOS a few months previously), my husband and I were stunned and thrilled and scared.  Only one of us was working and although I was looking for work, it became impossible to get a job once I found out I was pregnant.  So the pregnancy itself, although it progressed smoothly, was a very emotionally stressful one. 

I never once doubted for a second that I would breastfeed, even though I bought me a big ol' tin o' Cow 'n Gate "just in case".  I had read through every single page of What to Expect When You're Expecting and I just knew it would be breastfeeding for us.  So my handsome little angel arrived right on time and was popped straight on to the breast.  I was one of the lucky ones who had actually researched breastfeeding beforehand and was familiar with how to get him to latch (along with help from my midwives) and voila!  He was on, he was nursing, he was a champ from the get go.  However, after several hours of constantly nursing, I was dog-tired and asked for a top-up *sigh*.  So he had a quarter of a bottle of Aptamil and he was out like a light.  He slept for 5 hours and although I hadn't slept for about 36 hours, I only slept for 3.  So when he woke up he was popped on again and we continued nursing.  I *think* he had another top up before we left although I can't be certain as I was pretty exhausted and still a bit out of it from the pethodine.  Anyway, before we left to go home he had his first bath and one of the midwives snuck me a couple of little bottles of Aptamil and off we went. 

We arrived home and we nursed and nursed and topped up and nursed and nursed and one more top up and then my milk came in!!  Hooray!!  My boobs looked a-m-a-z-i-n-g...  I have always been rather lacking in the breast department so when my milk came in I was positively thrilled!  My breasts were enormous and what was better, they had milk in them!  My son was a little champ at nursing by the time my milk came in and although my nipples were quite tender, they were not nearly as sore as I was expecting them to be.  I developed a few small blood blisters but I could get past the pain.  I think the reason why we were so successful at breastfeeding was because I was confident in my body's ability to nourish my child.  I didn't 'think' he wasn't 'getting enough', I didn't let the pain at the beginning of every feed daunt me, I had luckily researched sufficiently to know that everything I was doing was right.  When my milk came in and seeing how huge my breasts got, and seeing how much I leaked when I touched him or heard him cry, I never stopped for one second to think that he might not be getting enough.  And I was right, by day ten he had put on over a lb.  I was so extremely (and rightfully) proud of myself that I had done this, I had nourished my baby, it was my body that had kept him alive.  Needless to say, the formula was thrown away :) 

Fast forward to when my son was about to turn 3 months old, he was a chubby, happy, healthy little chap (and a heartbreaker to boot, I'm still shocked my husband and I have produced such a beautiful child) and we were all about to immigrate back to Africa to live with my parents while we could get our feet under us.  Boy, what a mistake that was.  So we landed at Harare International Airport after travelling overnight with a baby who slept all the way and not five freaking minutes after getting off the plane, was my mother talking about 'toughening' my son up to cigarette smoke o.O  I remember thinking at the time "F*ck".  So we said nicely to my parents that we don't smoke around S.  A few days after arriving my milk supply plummeted.  My son was constantly feeding, he had a horrible nappy rash, I had my parents whinging and whining about going to buy him formula and I was just stressing out.  So off to the doctor we went and I was prescribed a mild anti-depressant that boosts milk supply and off we went.  All was well.  Fast forward 2 weeks and my husband and I are in Cape Town with his family and my husband has just read me something on the dangers to children from cigarette smoke.  I phone my mother and ask her if she would not smoke in the house while S was around.  Yowza did I get an earful about how it was her house and she would do whatever she wanted.  Nice grandmother. 

Fast forward a month and we are back home with my parents.  My mother starts in on me about starting solids.  He was 4 months old.  I told her he wouldn't be starting solids until he was 6 months old.  "I will NOT let that child starve!!  All he's had is the sh*t that comes out of your chest!  Give him formula, he's not fat enough!"  ...

Yeah.  This is where my research journey began.  I eventually started my son on porridge at 5 and a half months old, but boy did I get filthy looks if he didn't have 3 meals a day!  He was also given formula on the odd occasion on the advice of the 'health visitor'.  So here I was, moved to a country I thought I loved, husband and baby in tow, and listening to all this 'advice' that did NOT sit right with me at all.  So I started researching.  It took me a loooooooooong time to get to the risks of infant formula and when I did, I immediately stopped giving him the odd cup and stopped putting it in his porridge.  I felt awful that I had allowed myself to be pressured into giving that stuff to him just so my mother could feel better.  I still feel incredible anger towards my mother for pretty much ruining the first year of my child's life.  I was supposed to be enjoying him, not constantly listening to how fat I was and what a bad mother I was. 

So, is my vendetta against the infant formula corporations because of how I was 'forced' to use formula?  Maybe.  I think though that I'm pretty pissed because I didn't KNOW how awful infant formula really is.  And that I was told it was acceptable.  There are already so many contaminants in our environment, why should my son have to be exposed to more if it is wholly unnecessary????  Why should he have to have his chances of cancer increased even more???  So yes, I think I partly hate infant formula because of the way it was shoved in my face, but I think I hate it more because it is so vilely corrupted.  The people that sell me that shite don't care about my baby.  They don't care that it could kill him.  They only care about the profits they make for their shareholders and that is why I want them to display health warnings on their labels.  So mothers actually know what they are contaminating their children with and more likely to be determined to succeed and flourish with breastfeeding.

Do you REALLY want what's best for your baby???

After coming across the blog/facebook page The Fearless Formula Feeder some months ago, I think for the sake of my sanity I wholly ignored the blog/page.  But today I decided to take a look.  All I can say is WOW.  On the front, the woman appears to support whatever feeding method an individual chooses, be it breast or formula.  But when I dug a little deeper, it seems that this woman has some seeeerious issues.  She has links to some very shaky articles on why breast isn't really best and seems to truly think that formula is an acceptable alternative.  Safe, healthy even.  So this is for The Fearless Formula Feeder and her readers because to be honest, I am sick to death of hearing how these people 'want the best for their babies'.  Really???  Read on...

Infant formula contains the following contaminants:-
Aluminium - Linked to mental retardation in infants, learning disorders, hyperactivity and colic.
Cadmium - Linked to bone disease, respiratory infections, kidney dysfunction and is a carcinogen (carcinogens promote cancer growth)
MSG - Linked to obesity and diabetes
Phytoestrogens - Linked to early onset of puberty in girls and decreased testosterone production in boys (soy formula is the very worst culprit in this regard but some degree of phytoestrogens can be found in ALL infant formulas)
Phosphates - Linked to cardiovascular disease, speeding up of aging process and renal disease.
Pthalates - Linked to asthma, allergies, liver and testes damage and cardiovascular disease.
Bisphenol-A (BPA) - Linked to obesity, neurological issues, cancer and sexual organ complications.

Not to mention a host of bacteria that cause a host of gastrointestinal problems as well as viral meningitis etc.

DHA and ARA (which are found in breastmilk in a digestible, natural form that help with gut flora) which infant formula companies so proudly display on their products, are derived from plants.  The DHA in infant formula is derived from fermented microalgae (!) called Cryptecodiunium cohnii and ARA is derived from soil fungi (!!) called Mortierelle alpina.  These two organisms are quite new to the food chain so the long term effects of their use are not yet known.  What is known is that they are a very very poor representation of the DHA and ARA found in human breastmilk.  Now, wait for the BIGGIE...  The oils for DHA and ARA are extracted with a solvent called hexane which is a petroleum-refining by-product and a known neurotoxin and air pollutant.  So basically, infant formula = petrol *yum*  Also, the safety of these two plant derived forms of DHA and ARA have not been adequately tested for safety.  In many cases, they were only tested on rats.  I *think* it's safe to say that we are quite different from mere rats...

Infant formula (as you can see) carries some very worrying contaminants (lets not forget the pesticides from the grass the cows eat, the fumes from the tractors they breathe in and the anti-biotics and hormones the cows are injected with to produce more milk) and only now are their effects starting to be realised.  I think it is safe to say that infant formula is the greatest experiment carried out on human beings.  

The consumption of infant formula is linked to the following diseases and/or health complications:-

Diarrhoea; Meningitis; Ear infections; Blood infections; Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (cot death); Diabetes; Childhood cancers; Obesity; High blood cholesterol; Asthma; Reduced effectiveness of vaccinations; Reduced effectiveness of organ transplants; Candidiasis; Enteroviruses; Gastroenteritis; Giardia; Haemophilus Influenza; Necrotizing Enterocolitis; Pneumococcal Disease; Respiratory Infections (general); Respiratory Infections (protective effect against exposure to tobacco smoke); Respiratory Syncytial Virus; Salmonellosis; Sepsis in Preterm Infants; Urinary Tract Infections; Anemia and Iron Deficiency; Autoimmune Thyroid Disease; Constipation and Anal Fissures; Cryptorchidism (undescended testicle); Gastroesophageal Reflex; Inguinal Hernia; Lactose Malabsorption; Morbidity and Mortality; Plagiocephaly; Pyloric Stenosis; Wheezing and Asthma; More pain during medical procedures; Impaired jaw and teeth development; Allergies; Eczema; Reduced Development and Intelligence; Bedwetting; Reduced Brainstem, Cognitive, and Motor Development; Reduced IQ; Reduced Gastrointestinal and Immune Development; Hormone imbalance; Reduced Neurological, Psychomotor and Social Development; Disturbed Sleep Cycles and Arousal; Reduced Speech and Language Development; Reduced Thymus Development; Autism; Appendicitis; Poor Bone mass; Cardiovascular Disease (Atherosclerosis, Cholesterol Concentration); Celiac Disease; Helicobacter pylori infection; Haemophilus Influenzae; Meningitis; Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Crohn's Disease, Ulcerative Colitis); Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA); Poor Mental Health; Menopause (timing of); Multiple Sclerosis; Reduced Oral and Dental Health; Reduced Protection against toxins (environmental contaminants, chemicals, heavy metals); Schizophrenia; Reduced Stress Resilience and Tonsillitis.

Again, *yum*. 

So Fearless Formula Feeder, you and your readers laugh in the face of danger eh?  Please, for the love of whatever/whoever you believe in, stop telling us all that you 'want what's best' for your babies because, clearly, you don't...

Taking on the big wigs...

So in between trying to raise a happy, healthy and well adjusted toddler as well as trying to complete my teaching diploma, I have decided to take on the infant formula corporations.  This, I'm sure you can imagine, is no mean feat.  I have started my quest here on Facebook (of course) as well as having contacted the International Baby Food Action Network (who I am waiting to find out whether or not will support my campaign).  I am also trying to find a lawyer experienced in international courts who will be kind enough to help me.  It's all a waiting game (and if you knew me, you'd know how much I HATE waiting!). 

This is my plan...
1.  Try and gather as many supporters on Facebook as possible.
2.  Post as many links to as many studies as I can that prove infant formula is an extremely harmful substance.
3.  Liase with international bodies on the campaign to have infant formula corporations the world over display a health warning on their labels.
4.  Speak to a lawyer about a whole bunch of legal stuff.
5.  Start a petition to gather as many signatures as possible to present to whoever I need to present it to to make the change.
6.  Take the infant formula corporations to court and force them by way of VERY heavy fines to display health warning's on their labels.
7.  Change the world and save babies lives.

I would like to put down my thoughts on all 'the legal stuff' but don't want the formula companies to know what I'm up to just yet.  I mean, with only 101 likes on Facebook they can hardly take me seriously just yet but that is why it is imperative for me to gain as much support as necessary to bring them 'down'. 

Do I judge mothers who formula feed?  I judge mothers who choose not to breastfeed, without arming themselves with the information that is so readily available out there to show them how dangerous infant formula is.  I judge mothers who think that breastfeeding is 'creepy' and 'gross'.  I judge mothers who say their breasts are for their 'husbands' and not their babies.  Unfortunately, these mothers that I judge, are just people who have fallen into the formula trap as I like to call it.  Should I blame them for falling into the trap?  No, in all honesty I'm not sure I can blame them.  But I do think that in this information age, they should take advantage of all the information that's out there and use it and not trust well-meaning (though mis-informed) family members. 

Although I understand and accept that formula has saved *some* babies lives, it has probably killed many more babies.  In fact, I KNOW it has killed many more babies.  Babies that have grown up and died of obesity, diabetes, cancer, etc etc etc.  People just don't get how important infant nutrition is; they don't get how the way a baby is fed as a baby, reaches through into the rest of their lives.  Couple that with bad genes and you have a recipe for disaster (nutrition alters genes, see here {ok I know it's the Daily Fail but still..}).  Look at it like this, you're fed junk food (read formula) as a baby and you're quite big because of that, your chances are now higher for being obese as your metabolism slows down in adulthood, thus, your genes have changed so you now carry the 'obese gene'.  You procreate, you have a baby, you feed it junk food (read formula), your baby is big, except, instead of slimming out during childhood like you did and then gaining weight in adulthood finally becoming obese, your child grows.. and grows.. and grows.. and never slims out, because now, in addition to carrying the 'obese gene', it's been fed formula so it's genes have been altered to be 'morbidly obese genes'.  And so the vicious cycle continues.  Not *all* formula fed babies, become obese, I accept that.  But just because they aren't obese, does not mean that they don't carry the altered gene that is now the 'obese gene'.  Or, if they're really luck, they come from a really good gene pool and they will be generations of formula feeders who NEVER become obese (but develop diabetes, cancer, meningitis etc).  Who knows.  Genetics are a tricky thing.  But you can be sure that being fed formula as a baby, means a lifetime of health issues for yourself, your children, your grandchildren and so on.  I come from a line of formula feeders, but ever since I was a little girl, I knew I would breastfeed.  I didn't think as a 7 year old "I'm going to breastfeed", instead I was fascinated with it and put puppies to my flat chest (lol!) or dollies or whatever.  When I became pregnant with my son, THAT was when I said, I am going to try and breastfeed.  And so I have done.  And still going strong at 19 months. 

So, take a look at the page, spread the word, and above all, RESEARCH the dangers of infant formula before you have a baby.  Don't forget, if you formula feed because of whatever medication you were on when your child was a baby that meant you couldn't breastfeed, you could always relactate now that you're off the medication and express milk for your baby to drink from a cup :) (or if they are still really young, relactate and teach them to latch again).

Let's fight back!

I have posed questions both to Aptamil and Cow & Gate asking why they don't display the health risks of using their products on their tins/cartons as cigarette companies have to do.  I have also asked why they don't print ALL of the ingredients on their tins/cartons.  Suffice it to say that I have subsequently been blocked from both Aptamil and Cow & Gate pages on facebook.  Whether this is due to the questions I was asking or because of the arguments that ensued from righteous (albeit rather ignorant) mothers, or both. 

I have since taken steps in obtaining both UK health statistics and global health statistics on the use of infant formula as well as approaching someone about starting an international petition to have the law changed so that formula companies HAVE to print the risks of using their products on their tins.  This could take YEARS to accomplish but if it saves just one baby's life, surely it is a very worthy cause? 

In the wise words of the Alpha Parent, "breastfeeding should be EVERY baby's human right". 

We need to educate those mothers that are too blinded by the cunning marketing web that has been spun around them.  We need to re-educate the health professionals who offer formula as an easy alternative all too often.  We need to impress upon mothers that they need to do their own research instead of just believing everything they hear.  The government needs to spend more on breastfeeding and limit the amount that is spent advertising on formula.  Unfortunately, I think there is a link somehow between governments and the formula companies, whether the formula companies sponsor politicians, or the government makes a hell of a profit on VAT income from the sale of formula I'm not sure.  It could be both. 

KNOWLEDGE is FREEDOM.  We are all pulled into marketing traps every day of our lives.  60 years ago Camel cigarettes were advertised as the 'healthy' option of cigarettes.  If such an advert displayed on our television screens these days, complaints would be made by the thousands to Ofcom et al.  The same approach needs to be taken with formula.  We need to be horrified that formula is marketed as 'healthy' or as an 'acceptable alternative' to breast milk. 

The sad truth is that we are victimised and our health is compromised by formula.  We are subjecting our babies to suffering from the day they are born to the day they die.  It's not fair.  We need to fight back!  We need to prove to these people that we CAN think for ourselves, that we are HUMAN beings, not lab rats!  No one can deny that formula has saved children's lives, but it was created for the sole use in cases of maternal death or physical inability to breastfeed.  The formula companies got greedy so they sexualised breasts and made us doubt our own abilities as mothers.  Why do women buy into the biggest lie, but not only that, the biggest lie run by MEN. 

What have we been fooled into doing to our children????

So after a long long think and much debating and arguing I have come to one conclusion.  The formula industry is as evil and twisted and corrupt as the tobacco industry.  They play a psychological money game with those in the health profession and in 3rd world countries they aggressively target mothers to use their products.  AT WHAT COST???  At the cost of millions of little lives every year. 

By no means am I having a rant about mothers choosing to formula feed.  No no no.  Mothers are led to believe by advertising and misplaced advice from health professionals that formula is just as good as breast milk.  I've heard of so many stories of mothers who have been to see their family GP and being told that there are 'no nutritional benefits to breast milk after 6 months old'.  W-T-F????  I wonder, does anyone know WHY they say this?  I do.  After reading an article from the Archives of Disease in Childhood, I know EXACTLY why these GP's say such things.  Here is an extract from the Archives of Disease in Childhood which is an offshoot of the American National Library of medicine.

"It is now known that the use of infant formula instead of breast milk is one of the most important causes of preventable mortality in infancy world wide.^1,2,3 However, there is growing evidence that this is not just an issue for poorer countries. Research in the United Kingdom has shown associations with increased morbidity,^4,5 reduced later intelligence quotient (IQ),⁶ and increased risk of adult ill health,⁷ and a recent paper from the United States showed an association with excess infant mortality.⁸ This places the use of infant formula high among the avoidable risks to health to which children in the United Kingdom are exposed. Yet in the United Kingdom, breast feeding rates are stagnant, after encouraging rises in recent decades, and there is a clear social class disparity, which means that children in the poorest families, already facing multiple adversities, predominantly start life without the protective benefits of breast milk.⁹ Globally, breast feeding is also under threat, with signs of reverses in rates of exclusive breast feeding in many countries.<sup>10"

So from this we can see that despite the governments breastfeeding campaign mothers are not getting the proper support and information on breastfeeding.  The government spent £729 011 on advertising breastfeeding in 2006/7 whereas the formula companies spent a staggering £7 626 847 in 2006/7 a 36% increase on the previous year.  Who can blame mothers for choosing to formula feed when they are bombarded by more advertising on formula than they are on breastfeeding?  We also have to take in the emotive factors that formula companies create with their consumers.  "Their product kept my baby alive, I'll keep using it rather than try breastfeeding the next one".  Only 2% of mothers aren't physically able to breastfeed according to WHO and the NHS.  Mothers come up with all sorts of excuses about why they 'couldn't' breastfeed, not realising that with the help of a proper breastfeeding peer counsellor that they could have had a long and happy breastfeeding relationship with their child.  Let us not forget about the sexualisation of breasts in Western society.  Thanks to.... The formula companies!!  Early advertisements of formula included images of breasts that successfully alienated the breast as the natural form of nutrition.  Let us look at another excerpt from the above article.</sup>

"Infant formula manufacturers have a duty to their shareholders to maximise sales of their products, which by definition means minimising exposure of infants to breast milk. Hence while publicly stating their commitment to breast feeding, as required by law, IFMCs are, in fact profiting from the failure of breast feeding. With growing knowledge of the hazards of infant formula, manufacturers need to seek ever more sophisticated ways of promoting their products as scientific and safe. Any link with paediatricians or other health professional is thus likely to enhance their products' credibility and sales. IFMCs are therefore happy to provide funds from their advertising budgets to achieve this. There are three main ways by which IFMCs forge these links with paediatricians: through educational activities, support of a department or organisation, and funding of research.

Sponsorship of an educational event promotes a company and its products at a number of levels. The firm's name is linked to that of the institution on widely distributed publicity, those attending the course receive material such as pens bearing the firm's logo, and all involved will then tend to have subtly enhanced respect for that company and their products. When companies fund clinical activity or support health related organisations, this also conveys an impression of the company as being “health giving” even if their products may cause net harm to children's health.

Research into formula milks, although ostensibly necessary, in fact serves an important role in promoting the use of infant formula, as the results are then used to enhance the impression of their “equivalence” to breast feeding, once compounds present in breast milk, such as “pre‐biotics”, are added. Every supposed enhancement of an infant formula, which EU law only requires be tested in trials of equivalence to other formulas, can then be advertised as making the formula “even closer to breast milk” even though there is no evidence that any such enhancements have actually increased the safety of formula. Paediatricians also tend to attach great significance to the role of IFMCs in developing specialist formulas, which may be useful for a tiny number of infants, without necessarily recognising that far more infants suffer because they were deprived of the protective benefits of breast milk by the use of that company's products."

 

Hmmm...  A stunning insight into the corrupt psychological games that the formula industry plays on the government and pediatric science...  What does this mean?  It means that the afore mentioned GP will tell you that your breast milk is not enough for your child after the age of 6 months so they should be fed an artificial, substandard, potentially harmful alternative instead?  Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight...  Thanks I'll stick to breastfeeding my 18 month old child rather than risk his health with a product that has the potential to kill him at the age of 40.  Lets look at another extract.

 

"If breast feeding, with all its benefits, is to be established as a majority activity, we paediatricians must learn to recognise the elaborate web woven around us by formula manufacturers, which currently ensures our goodwill and support for a product that we may acknowledge, but would mostly not wish to actively promote. Fifty years ago nearly everyone, including doctors, smoked and it was perceived to be a necessary and inescapable part of our culture. Now it is unimaginable that we would smoke in front of our patients or accept gifts from cigarette manufacturers. It is time for a similar shift to take place with respect to formula milk. Just because many mothers currently choose to bottle feed their infants and a tiny number of infants cannot be breast fed, it does not mean we should be seen to be endorsing a product that causes net damage to the health of children. The time has come for paediatricians to recognise the influence of IFMCs, shake off their silken chains, and become truly uncompromised advocates for breast feeding and against the hazards of formula milk."

 

Well at least SOMEONE knows something funny is going on right?  But the problem is, how to inform the public?  Mothers are very defensive about what choices they make when it comes to feeding their children.  They don't WANT to know that they are feeding their child something that can cause child/adulthood cancer, diabetes, obesity, gastroentiritis, SIDS, respiratory illness, asthma, eczema etc etc etc. 

 

Our responsibilities, not just as parents, but as human beings, is to expose this industry for what it really is.  A corrupt, power-hungry, money making scheme that kills millions of babies every year.  There need to be drastic changes in the medical profession and government attitudes towards infant formula.  Midwives need to stop offering gift vouchers to those who can give out the most samples of formula in a day (yes!  they do that!), doctors and scientists need to stop accepting 'funding' from these formula companies and need to study and promote breastfeeding more, laws should be changed with regards to infant formula. 

 

My aim, my GLOBAL aim, is to have a law passed that formula companies display the health risks associated with the use of their products on their tins so that mothers can make an INFORMED decision at point of sale.  Do I contact someone to help me breastfeed or do I buy this stuff and risk my child's health, both now and later on in life?

An Article EVERY mum and mum to be should read!

Hello everyone, sorry for the lengthy silence.  I have a 15 month old so a lot of running around to do!  I recently came across this article that I think is fantastic!  Please please have a read before considering formula...

Johann Hari: There is a smart drug – it's called breast milk

Imagine if today, scientists discovered a drug that could save 13 per cent of all the babies who currently die. Now imagine that drug also made your baby cleverer – and dramatically slashed her chances of developing heart disease, diabetes, leukaemia, asthma or obesity as an adult. Oh: and imagine it was free.

The "drug" exists. It is called breast milk. Yet in the developed world, we often stigmatise women who give it to their babies as "creepy". In the developing world, we allow corporations to tug babies from their mother's nipple, and put them on to powders that bring more profit – and more death.

I come at this from a strange perspective. My mother breastfed me until I was nearly three; she only stopped the day I wrote her a note saying I expected to be breastfed that afternoon. Today, whenever I have a success, she clutches her breasts and exclaims: "It's thanks to these!" Whenever my bottle-fed brother and sister have a failing in life, she howls: "Think what you could have been if I'd given you the tit." (Whenever she gets a bit too self-congratulatory, I remind her she also smoked 40 cigarettes a day. "Ach," she says, "it's stressful having a little bastard suckin' at you all the time.")

It's the best thing you can do for your baby – without it I'd be even fatter and more disease-ridden. It's good for you too, significantly reducing a mother's risk of osteoporosis and cancer of the ovary. Yet my mum was made to feel like a flasher. She was glared at in public places, and asked to leave restaurants, parks and even buses. Unsurprisingly, Britain today has the worst record on breastfeeding in the developed world, after Belgium. Some 24 per cent of our babies never taste breast milk at all – and by six weeks, a majority have shifted entirely to formula.

Why? Why do we hobble our babies, and our country? Let's rule out some of the more glib explanations. The number of women who physically can't breastfeed with the right support is negligibly small: the World Health Organisation (WHO) puts it at 1 per cent. Nor is it because women prefer the "liberation" of the bottle. A Department of Health study found that 90 per cent of mothers who stopped feeding at six weeks said they wanted to carry on, while 40 per cent of those who stopped at six months felt the same.

The most primal reason belongs to an old, old story: women are conditioned to find their own bodies disgusting, except when they can be used to entice men. A get-your-tits-out-for-the-lads culture doesn't want you to get your tits out for your baby: they're for titillation, not nurture. This week, one of the Government's best ministers – Harriet Harman – has succeeded in peeling this back, by including the legal right to breastfeed your baby in public into the new Equalities Bill.

But the biggest reason most women give for reluctantly pushing their baby on to the bottle is their need to return to work. How do we change that? For clues, look at the country where breastfeeding rates are still 90 per cent at six months: Norway. They give mothers a year off with 80 per cent pay, and give state employees breastfeeding breaks when they do come back. Yes, this costs businesses some money up front – but it saves a fortune further down the line, because you have a cleverer workforce that pays more tax and puts less pressure on the health service. If British babies were breastfed at Norwegian rates for just three months, the NHS would save £50m annually in the treatment of one disease alone – gastroenteritis.

That leaves another dark explanation for the fall-off: the role of unchecked corporate power. There is no profit to be made from a mother's milk, so at the turn of the last century corporations tried to find a way to divert babies from nestling at their mother's breast to Nestlé-ing at the corporate teat. They invented "baby formula" and marketed it as the classier, cleaner alternative. Cow & Gate powder was sold with a crown on the tin, bragging the Windsor children used it. (Look how that turned out.)

Gradually, in the democratic world, the corporations were restrained from making the most blatantly bogus claims about breast milk – but they keep slipping the leash. In Britain, they are banned from marketing baby formula to those younger than six months old. But instead they market "follow-up formulas" for older kids with exactly the same logo, covered with claims that it is "closer than ever to breast milk".

This has produced a situation of startling public ignorance, where a third of mums think baby formula is "as good" or even "better" than breast milk. The poorest women know least and shift to formula first – adding another milky layer of inequality to our island. This dodgy marketing needs to be banned today.

But this breast-con swells to a 52DD scandal in the developing world. I recently visited Bangladesh, where mothers are routinely told to abandon their healthy breast milk and spend great swaths of their income on formula. I think of all the dead and dying babies I saw, and wonder how many could have been saved by a substance that was there, free, all along. WHO calculates that 1.3 million babies die every year because they are not breastfed. That's a World Trade Centre-full a day.

Nestlé are still the most notorious offenders, controlling a near-majority of the world market. In Botswana, Nestlé has distributed a pamphlet claiming if you give your baby its "acidified" formula, "diarrhoea and its side effects are counteracted". In reality, babies who use this rather than breast milk are more likely to contract diarrhoea – and die. Public health campaigns can hardly fight back: the corporation's annual marketing budget is bigger than the entire annual budget of the world's 28 poorest countries.

Nestlé says they consistently promote breastfeeding as the first, best option – but in 1999, a British Advertising Standards Authority studied the evidence and ruled they had to remove from their advertising the claim they sold their formula "ethically and responsibly". It is only tight, binding international regulation – here, and abroad – that will tame corporations from milking the poorest with misinformation. To join the campaign to make it happen, visit www.babymilkaction.org.

And yet, for all the evidence, it still seems like an implausible story. Can a powder mix of misogyny and unregulated corporate power really induce women against their will to harm their own children? It does, baby, every day. These are still shockingly powerful forces. Now suck on that – or fight back.

Cover it up!

If breastfeeding offends you, put a blanket over YOUR head.  The attitude of modern society when it comes to breastfeeding really annoys me and I'm sure it annoys many mom's out there who do it and have received negative comments.  On our second day out of hospital I was walking around town with a blanket over my shoulder and over little one (only because it was drizzling and very cold out) and we went to my husband's work place to introduce our new addition.  On arrival, I whipped off the blanket in front of everyone so they could have a look at him even though he was nursing.  They all fell completely in love and ooohed and aaahed at him nursing.  It was fantastic.  The only person who has ever made me feel uncomfortable feeding is my mother.  She didn't want me to do it in front of her and if I did I had to "cover up".  This attitude annoyed me to the point of rage. 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with feeding in public and to any new mom's out there who are nervous about doing it, don't be.  When you're feeding you either have to pull your top up so no one sees anything anyway, or you have to pull your top down, in which case if you're uncomfortable, by all means cover up.  But don't be pressured into thinking you have to.  I'm not remotely modest (probably because I was poked and prodded at so much during pregnancy, the birth, after the birth and during my PCOS tests) and am proud to be a non-modest nurser!  It's the most natural and beautiful thing in the world and should be looked on with fondness and admiration. 

Happy feeding!  :-) xxx