ABSTRACT
This would seem a reasonable supposition from several points of view. Purely on economic grounds bottle feeding is something of a luxury, since its cost includes not only the price of the food itselfl but also the provision of bottles and teats and their frequent replacement; nor is fuel a negligible item, for all milk and water must be boiled, and containers too must be sterilized-either by boiling, or by the use of a chemical sterilizant which will cost about 1 Od a week. These are all necessities; the price can of course become considerably higher if one includes such refinements as the thermometers, funnels, bottlemuffs and electric warmers for night feeding which some mothers consider indispensable. Breast feeding, in contrast, need cost nothing at all, provided that the mother is already having a reasonable diet. Apart from the question of expense, middle-class mothers are more likely to have the basic equipment-extra saucepans, refrigerator, hot water on tap-which makes the preparation of feeds a less arduous business. Finally, it might well be supposed that middle-class women, being more conscious of a desire for emancipation from the purely domestic role, would tend to resort to artificial feeding almost as a matter of principle; from a practical point of view alone, middle-class women are likely to have more of their interests and social contacts outside the home and family circle, and they might therefore be expected to be less willing than the working-class mother to allow themselves to be tied down by breast feeding.
