Before the birth of her first child seven years ago, 41-year-old Maja had planned to breastfeed. "I knew it would reduce the risk of infection and illness," explained this doctor specializing in oncogenetics. But nothing went according to plan: her milk came in slowly, and she was advised to supplement with infant formula. On leaving the maternity ward, Maja and her partner consulted the breastfeeding unit at Halmstad hospital in southern Sweden. They were told to stop bottle-feeding. "It was horrible. Our son was screaming, he even lost weight." After a week, the young parents resigned themselves to reintroducing formula milk alternating with breast milk, despite the injunctions of the health staff, who were very pro-exclusive breastfeeding and not always kind in their remarks.
The difficulties were repeated when their second son, now 14 months old, was born. But Maja was calmer, "I could see that everything was going well with the first one, that he was developing properly." Before the birth, her partner confessed to her that he would like to bottle-feed from time to time, even if breastfeeding was working: "He had enjoyed those moments with our eldest," said Maja, who once again resorted to mixed feeding.
She is far from being an exception. Whether by choice or because breastfeeding doesn't get off to a good start, more and more Swedish women are combining breast and bottle feeding. This trend is worrying health authorities in Sweden, who point out that the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exclusive breastfeeding for six months. In 2022, the Swedish Food Safety Authority even launched a five-year national strategy to increase exclusive breastfeeding, presented as "the optimal food for the baby," "beneficial for women's health, notably by reducing the risk of breast cancer" and "advantageous for the environment." The use of infant formula was only mentioned as an obstacle to breastfeeding.
The bottle as a 'measure of equality'
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