Based on my own experience, I'm delighted the 'breast is best' campaign may be ditched.
I was in hospital for two weeks after my twins were born six weeks prematurely. At 5lb and 5lb 1/2 oz, they needed to be fed on the dot at two hourly intervals. They were also too prem to have developed a sucking reflex, and were initially tube fed. Struggling to latch on one baby, while his furious twin cried, then playing swapsies, surrounded by those blasted 'breast is best' posters was one experience that still haunts me. I knew breast was best, I just really didn't need to see posters with endless smug couples to hammer home that message.
Six weeks later my super sensible health visitor asked how I was getting on with feeding my boys. Out poured a story of industrial sized breast pumps, doomed attempts to latch on, extreme sleeplessness and guilt, guilt, guilt.
'Do you feel ready to give up?' she asked pleasantly. With her blessing, I ran to the local chemist and bought buckets of formula - and have never looked back. It's worth adding that my older daughter was breast-fed for six months, and I was (retospectively) irritatingly evangelical about the joy and ease of breast feeding.
But my contrasting experiences taught me that breast is not necessarily best.
What is best for baby and mother is that you have time to bond and enjoy your newborn.
What do you think?