@robinrocks It's just easier and more convenient if your baby is able to feed directly from the boob. No need to pump (I personally hated pumping), no need to plan your outings knowing how long you'll be out and how much milk you need to bring or if you will need to pump while you are out no need to worry about safe storage of milk either for baby to drink or that you've pumped, no need to figure at the logistics around freezing/thawing or needing to serve it at baby's preferred temperature. No need to worry about of its a quick few sucks for comfort or a "full feed". Milk always fresh and available from the boob and no wastage if bub starts a bottle but doesn't finish it. Nothing to wash up (i mean do wash your boobs how you normally do when you shower but no bottles or pump parts).
My first baby breastfed and never took a bottle. She breastfed for 3.5 years. It really was as easy as us both being in the same place at the same time and once she was good at latching I just had to hold her in the vicinity of my boob. When she started childcare at 10 months I'd have to pump to relieve my boobs but sh wouldn't drink it, she had solids and water during the day and breastfed at night. Daycare was good enough to mix the pumped milk into her cereal so it didn't all go to waste. My supply regulated at I could stop pumping after a little while.
My second baby had more issues feeding. He did take bottles which was great because he had a tongue tie that was discovered at birth but we had to wait a week ro get it cut and my nipples got absolutely shredded. When they healed up i would mostly breastfeed but pump 1 bottle a day so my husband could feed him while I did bedtime with my older one. He developed bottle preference which was annoying because of all the reasons I mentioned above. When he also started refusing bottles I let my supply drop because what's the point of pumping if it isn't being drunk? Then I got told he wasn't getting enough milk for his age (he was eating a lot of solids but he was below 5th centile for length and weight). I had another child and being stuck pumping all the time to try and produce the required volume of milk that he would refuse to drink (he was diagnosed with oral aversion) was destroying my mental health. I found feeding directly from the breast (which he would only do when sleepy) and bottles of formula much, much easier than pumping milk. Did you know that you can take a bottle of water and dry powder and throw them in a bag no need to keep them cold and just mix them together? And because I didn't spend time hooked up to a pump to produce every last drop of the bottle contents I didn't care if he didn't drink it all. And if he did drink it all and wanted more I didn't agonise over making another bottle. Plenty more powder in the tin, plenty more tins at the shop, takes 2 seconds to grab a tin of formula while grocery shopping, takes 2 seconds to scoop formula into a bottle compared to at least half an hour hooked up to a pump to produce a single feed. He stopped breastfeeding before naps, then he was only breastfeeding in the middle of the night. Then he started sleeping through the night which was awesome but he wasn't breastfeeding at all. He was having cow's milk instead of formula in his bottles at bedtime but I managed to give him one pouch of breastmilk a day until 18 months thanks to milk I'd frozen so it wouldn't be wasted when i was trying to increas my supply. I wish I could have breastfed him as long as my first but I wasn't willing to keep him on bottles nor to pump to provide him with breastmilk.
Feed your baby however works for your family. Bottles didn't work at all for my first baby but worked great for my second. Pumping didn't work for me because of the amount of work it required (I might have felt differently if my babies actually drank pumped milk but they didn't and I really, really hated being hooked up to the pump as well as washing the damn thing up, I'd rather be spending time with my kids I also nrver got the hang of hping out and aboutvwhile pumping/ feeding pumped milk on the go. For some reason IDGAF breastfeedingin pumping but was really uncomfortablepumping in public). There are pros and cons to all ways of feeding your baby and what's a pro and what's a con vary person to person.