Ok, so I haven't posted for ages, (pesky old real life getting in the way!) and this is a bit of a place holder. I intend to expand on it.
I've been reading the Fearless Formula Feeder recently - to try to understand the other side. Half the time I roll my eyes at misunderstandings of what's actually being said by lactavists (as I'm sure she would.at our interpretations of her words!) But one thing that struck me is the way we think about statistics.
We KNOW that 'only' around 2% of people cannot breastfeed. This is not a miniscule number. 1 in 50. The chances are HUGE that at least one formula feeding woman you know had a problem that LITERALLY meant she couldn't breastfeed. Now add in the problems that, yes, may have been solvable with support and a lot of effort - but here's the kicker. Yes, breastfeeding is normal, healthy, ideal and worth it once difficulties are conquered. But so is learning to bake your own bread, run marathons, and a huge number of other things - and no one individual has the time, energy or inclination to do ALL of these things.
From wiki:
Red hair occurs naturally on approximately 1–2% of the human population
Around 2-3% of people self-identify as homosexual.
Around 2% of people have green eyes.
Red hair is the obvious one - you almost certainly know of people with red hair, because it's a popular hair dye choice. You ALSO almost certainly know people with naturally red hair.
It's not common, but 2% isn't actually that rare.
Just bear it in mind.
I have 157 friends on Facebook. At least 2 of them have naturally red hair. At least 1 of them is openly homosexual. (Probably more in both cases, those are the ones I could think of off the top of my head.) I don't know the details of all of the formula feeders stories - but I do know that percentage wise, the chances are good that AT LEAST one of them is in the 2% who couldn't have breastfed no matter what the circumstances.
Be kind. Be aware. Yes, breastfeeding is great if you can do it, and yes, any one individual is MORE LIKELY to be in the 98% who can. But 2% is not a small number of individuals.
