I live in the UK and I personally never felt shamed when FF. Actually, many of the responses I got from older family members were about how great it was that she would take a bottle (leaving aside the fact that she struggled to feed even from a bottle until about 5 months), because their children hadn't done so as easily when they were small (and I think they wished they had because formula was seen as being healthier and safer and more high tech than breastfeeding by many in those years). The only pressure or shame I experienced was for wanting to breastfeed and by health care providers. My midwives and health visitor and a few nurses I had to deal with were very negative and unsupportive of me breastfeeding. My daughter had latch and weight gain issues the first couple months and whenever I tried to breastfeed or get support from them for breastfeeding all I got is how I should use formula. I even had one midwife take offense to my desire to continue breastfeeding because "her three kids were formula fed and it was good enough for them" (as she threw some formula samples at me and left without helping me latch my daughter).
But I would say, not so much geographic, but I have seen negativity directed at others who FF (not me personally) in some natural parenting forums/meet ups/groups. I think there is a perception among some folks who found breastfeeding easy that those who don't BF or don't BF as long as them that it was because they didn't want to or because they didn't believe that BF was better and healthier. My daughter was BF for 10 weeks and then FF after that and I totally believe that breastmilk is ideal and healthier for babies than formula. And I absolutely wanted to BF her and know all the facts about it and we tried really hard despite her being unwell and losing weight and me being unwell and trying to express despite being sick, but my body just didn't respond to the combination of her poor latch plus trying to express (I struggle to make much milk through expressing) and then just being sick on and off for a month. I do very much consider myself someone who is a big proponent of natural birth and natural parenting, so I tend to be unusual in the sense that I FF longer than I BF in those circles. And while I haven't experienced any shaming myself (directed at me), I do see some of the discourse around formula feeding being distorted or misinformed in some of those circles, as in just not understanding that not all people who FF did so from birth as a choice because they don't know about the benefits of breastmilk (which seems to be what a lot of people think). I think actually the diversity of people's reasons for and experiences of FF is much more complex than that, which is why it's a shame that the discourse is so black and white (you either FF or you BF, but what about people who BF for 3 months and switched to formula or for 10 months and then switched to FF?). But I've generally found people in my life and who I have encountered out there in the world haven't made a big deal out of it one way or the other (and many of my close friends have BF their children 2+ years). Generally, everyone has been pretty supportive.
xx
