For the first 4-6 months of life a baby needs only milk as food or drink. This can be either the mother’s breast milk or formula milk. The first few months of your baby's life is a very important time in your baby's development. It is really worth taking time during pregnancy to think about how you might feed him or her.
Making your mind up...
Lots of research shows that the mother’s breast milk is the best food for a baby. Breast feeding provides a lot of health benefits to the baby and to the mum. Even breast-feeding for a few weeks helps your baby's long-term health.
Many people do not even consider breast-feeding because they do not know very much about it, or don't often see other women breast-feeding. Some women are very sure they are going to breast-feed their baby, while others are very clear they will bottle-feed.Whether you breast or bottle feed is a very personal choice. Give yourself the chance to find out some information about both ways of feeding. The more you know the more able you will be to consider what is best for you. It might help to:
Talk to the staff at the ante-natal clinic, or your doctor, they will be happy to explain the differences between bottle and breast-feeding.
Ask other young mums you know how they found breast or bottle feeding.
there are breast-feeding support groups in many areas, ask at your clinic, local library or health centre. These groups are happy for mums to-be to visit.
Consider giving breast-feeding a go first. It is easier to go from breast-feeding to bottle-feeding rather than the other way around.
For more information go to Breastfeeding and Bottle-feeding