Are bottle feeding moms demonized?

A couple of weeks ago I posted this story to my facebook page, a rant about how breastfeeding moms are given a tough go about feeding in public, or continuing to feed past one year and several other issues. It sparked a conversation between my friend Carli and I about our experiences with breastfeeding and she pointed out that bottle feeding moms are judged perhaps not as overtly, but just as much.

So here's my confession, I'm a judger. I didn't realize it until this conversation but it's true. I like to think that I believe everyone has the right to feed their baby any way they want. But then I realized that every time I find out that someone bottle feeds, I ask the question "why." And in that simple word is the judgement; the belief that they must have some justification for choosing to bottle feed and that they should share that justification with me.

So far, everyone I've asked has had a reason that made sense to me, such as not being able to produce milk. I have not yet met a person who simply said "because I didn't feel like breast feeding" and if I'm going to be honest I have to say that if I met that person, I would probably judge them. In fact, I would probably decide based on that statement alone that our values were too different for us to be friends. Talk about being a judgy mom!

No one has ever asked my why I breast feed my daughter. In fact I've never had anything but positive interactions about my choice to feed her that way. And my automatic reaction to bottle feeding moms makes me wonder if maybe the tide has turned. Are we now making it harder on those who choose bottle feeding?