Breastfeeding should be compulsory, says model

SUPERMODEL Gisele Bundchen wants mothers to be forced to breastfeed for the first six months of their baby's life.

The Brazilian catwalk star, 30, who lives in the United States, said there should be a law preventing mothers from using formula milk.

She told Harper's Bazaar magazine: "I think breastfeeding really helped (me keep me figure].

"Some people here (in the US] think they don't have to breastfeed, and I think, 'Are you going to give chemical food to your child when they are so little?'

"I think there should be a worldwide law, in my opinion, that mothers should breastfeed their babies for six months."

Her comments came after British TV and stage star Denise Van Outen said she gave up breastfeeding her daughter Betsy after less than a month because she did not want photographers to take pictures of her doing so.

Bundchen, the world's highest-paid supermodel, had a natural home birth in December, meditating throughout her eight-hour labour.

The model, who is married to American football star Tom Brady, was modelling swimwear just six weeks after giving birth to her first child, Benjamin Rein.