My experience:
When I had my baby in November, I planned to give breastfeeding a go. Everybody kept telling me not to expect too much and not to worry if I found I couldn't do it ,but after pushing through the pain for a few weeks my daughter and I got the hang of it.
Breastfeeding is so natural, but when you first start it feels anything but - how can something that people have been doing since time began hurt so much and be so difficult!!!
I decided I would breastfeed exclusively for 6 months and when my daughter reached 5 months I decided (as I would be going back to work soon) it was about time to slowly wean her onto bottles and formula. I felt so guilty about putting formula into my babies body for some reason???? I really wanted to choose the best for her. But which to choose?
I remembered my time on the maternity ward back in November, the bottle fed babies were all given SMA so I assumed that must be the best one and off I went and purchased a tin. I wanted to do it at my baby's own pace but after a few days of trying I became frustrated that she couldn't seem to latch onto the bottle and the little bit of milk that did come out she would just spit back out. This went on for a couple of weeks. I spoke to my health visitor who reassured me that bottlefeeding is a new skill for her to learn and that with persistance she would finally get the hang of it........ about 3 weeks went by and she still was having none of it!!!! A couple of friends, who are mums themselves, suggested I try a different formula. One said her baby hadn't liked SMA either.
Back to the drawing board then - what should I try next? I spoke to another mum. She had had trouble with her milk supply so had been advised to give her baby top ups with Aptamil first milk. I had never heard of it before but she told me it was the closest to breastmilk. I decided to give it a try........ call it coincidence, call it what you will but the first time I gave Elise Aptamil she drank most of the feed (I had only managed to get her to drink about 30ml of SMA maximum!)!!! I was amazed. I didn't want to count my chickens yet though. Sure enough, next day she did the same again - Aptamil was a hit! In the following weeks I slowly replaced breastfeeds with formula feeds until she is now only having one breastfeed a day.

What is available?
Along with this first infant milk you can also get formula for hungrier babies, follow on milk for 6 months+ and growing up milk. You can get pre-prepared cartons too which is also very usefull.