From the beginning

Babies have been nourished by breast milk since the beginning of time, but in the early 20th Century women began to work outside the home and were encouraged by the medical profession to use artificial substitutes.

By the mid-1930’s breastfeeding women were a minority and by the post-World War II baby boom (1946-1956) breastfeeding rates at hospital discharge were as low as 25%. In the 1950’s when a group called the La Leche League International (LLLI) was formed a breastfeeding revolution began. Women slowly but surely became more educated and informed and made their choice to return to breastfeeding, so that by the early 1980’s 62% of women were breastfeeding in hospital after giving birth and 27% at 6 months.  

In 1964 the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA) was established (as the Nursing Mothers Association) as a support network for mothers who wished to feed their infants, with an emphasis on creating awareness of the importance of human milk. Today this non-profit organization has approximately 1300 breastfeeding counsellors across the country.  

Throughout the 20th Century companies producing artificial substitutes and the scientific community involved believed they could improve something that nature’s provided as the perfect source of nutrition for human babies. To this day there has been no credible or rational scientific evidence to prove the superiority of artificial formulas.