The sanctimonious letter from Liz Hawker encapsulates perfectly why so many women find the process of pregnancy and childbirth so much more stressful than they inherently are, or are maybe even put off altogether. Make you own choice Ms Hawker and enjoy your sense of superiority and smugness, but leave other women alone. And beware that word 'statistically'; as with drugs education, when the experience doesn't match the rhetoric, people start mistrusting the so-called experts rather than the evidence of their own eyes. A bottle-fed baby, I have never had any of the ailments Ms Hawker lists, and have taken antibiotics only once in my life. O my sister's three breast-fed children, however, two have eczema, one has been hospitalised with a chest infection and all are prey to constant low-level illness and are put on courses of antibiotics every couple of months. So much for the breast in their case!

Anna Carter, Birmingham, UK

As mere male I have a limited right to comment, I did however find the discussion on the BBC Midday news illuminating. Roughly paraphrased the message of the the pro-breast activist was:- "We are all for informed choice; advertisements are propaganda and should be banned; we will give you the facts on which to make a decision"! It was of course implicit that her pressure group should receive funding from the taxpayer to promote their message!

Mike Bibby, St ALbans, England -not EU

Ms Carlyle - Perhaps those mothers wanted to breastfeed, perhaps they didn't my hunch would be that on a balance of probabilities these women were probably more likely to want to breastfeed, given that they come from a group that typically has fairly high rates of breasfeeding initiation. At least they could have changed their minds at a later date if that hadn't been the case. If the nurses had mistakenly encouraged them to bottlefeed then chances are both them and their babies would be stuck with that choice - wanted or not. As for your experience - had you had better support from health care professionals and a better understanding of how breastfeeding works yourself you would have known that sore nipples are a sign of a poorly attached baby. Skilled help may have resulted in you avoiding this problem in the first place, or have helped you overcome it if prevention hadn't been possible. I feel sorry for you that your experience of breastfeeding was so unnecessarily negative.

Sharon Quinn, London,

The NCT does NOT tell women what they SHOULD do . The NCT provides good quality, evidenced based information on the benefits of breastfeeding for mothers who wish to breastfeed and flags up deficiencies in NHS postnatal care that makesboth breast and bottlefeeding so challenging for many new mothers. Nobody forces women to read the leaflets or attend breastfeeding classes. Most new mums want to breastfeed; unfortunately the levels of ignorance among health professionals and among women themselves as to how breastfeeding works have made the choice to breastfeed unattainable for many. The NCT promote women's right to imparticial information, and to proper support with breastfeeding; if they're silenced through accusations of bullying then women and babies will be the losers. Women who want to bottlefeed shouldn't try to restrict the rights of the rest of us to this crucial information, just because it makes them feel guilty about their choice not to breastfeed.

Sharon Quinn, London,

The primary purpose of the NCT is in supporting mothers with their Breasfeeding. I know as fact that the training they go through is very involved and one of the main things they are trained to do is avoid judging at all costs, more facilitate the mother to work out the solution for themselves. They re not able to give advice re Bottle feeding because they would be contravening the WHO code of practice, so it is not a case of being "will not" they simply " can not". It is left to Formula Manufacturers to tell the mothers to be and needless to say they will always extoll how good there products are.
I strongly believe it is the parents choice to be made but it is becoming increasingly difficult in making an well informed one. NCT are there to help but find it difficult given the amount of garbage put about by anecdotal, ill informed stories in the media.

Nigel Bull, Ferndown, UK

31 years ago, I had my daughter in the local NHS hospital. I tried breast feeding and you could hear the drumming of our heels on the floor as the babies latched on. No kidding: it was painful at first. We also had with us a Mrs. Patel ( numbers 1 and 2). When the nurses came round they would ask "breast or bottle?" to which both the Mrs Patels would say "yes." It didn't take me long to figure out, by their unhappy expressions that breast, which was what the nurses wanted was what they had to put up with. Never mind why they wanted the bottle, their right to choose was denied them through a simple lack of understanding. I went home with baby and breast fed for 6 weeks - I had to return to work. I developed sore and cracked nipples, my sister - in -law tried to guide me through expressing my milk. My husband adored the baby and I had no trouble with jealousy on his part. It just simply hurt! It was with great relief that I stopped breast feeding and could share the task of caring for he

Carlyle Braden, Croydon, U.K