The dilemma of breastmilk feeding.

Today, feeding expressed milk, usually by bottle, is being ‘normalised’. This mode of infant feeding has shifted from something needed in relatively few circumstances to the norm, with personal, family, industrial relations, and women’s rights implications. We have seen the feeding of infants with artificial baby milks develop from its rightful place as an option required in only a limited range of circumstances, to being seen as a life choice or even a necessity, helped by the power of marketing. The definitions below (Box 1) provide a basis for the discussion which follows (Thorley 2010).