Back in great-grandma's day, everybody breast-fed except the well to do . . . Mr. Anthony Trollope, an excellent Victorian novelist, made one of his many snide remarks about titled ladies who refused to feed their babies but farmed the job out to a wet nurse who might be drunken or incapable or both.
All that changed around WWII. Bottle feeding became the norm for most. Only the well-educated and/or fairly well to do, who had the time to read magazine articles and join the La Leche League, returned to breast-feeding. Their children had all the other advantages that obtain to the well to do and well-educated - a good start in life, good nutrition, good education, etc. Naturally their IQs would tend to be higher than average.
With the internet now available to almost anybody who can read, you're going to see breast-feeding spreading much more widely, and the income correlation will probably disappear.
My mom was a La Leche League member and a true believer --on the other hand, I breast fed just because it was so darned easy - nothing to sterilize, nothing to mix, and you never forget the container with the milk in it!
I don't even bother with the "intelligence" argument for breastfeeding. There are so many other measurable benefits from breastfeeding - stronger immune systems, less frequency of allergies, less likely to be overweight, etc. And the best part - it's free and the diapers are much easier to handle than formula fed babies.
Not that I look down on people who use formula. It's a personal decision for everyone.
I just wish breastfeeding wasn't looked at as almost taboo by so many people. On another forum I use, one woman actually said she didn't want to breastfeed her baby because it was "gross."
Breastfeeding my daughter for 5 1/2 months now.
ROFLMSS!!!!!
A friend of mine and I had our babies a week apart..........I planned all along to breastfeed, and she had no intentions of doing so because it would be a problem once she went back to work when her maternity leave was over, and besides, she was tired of drinking non-alcoholic beer.
Poor gal, my daughter was was born on a Thursday evening and I was back to work on Monday morning while my daughter was nursing.......of course I was self-employed.
I found her attitude to be really bizarre, as she is a MAJOR liberal....to the point I'm surprised she even talks to me, let alone invites me to her home. I guess 30+ years of friendship will do that!!!! And this reminds me, I haven't spoken to her in awhile, I need to give her a call........maybe next week.
I came to loathe the LaLeche League .... they tried a guilt trip on you if you didn't or couldn't breastfeed. I agree it's probably best if you CAN do it, but laying a guilt trip on a new mother who can't, for whatever reason, wasn't unlike the feminists who attack stay-at-home mothers.