International Breastfeeding week August 1 -7, 2007
Breastfeeding has been one of the more wonderful, practical, mystical, enjoyable, and even holy parts of my life. I have been so blessed to be able to breastfeed all of my six children for over a year for a cumulative total of at least 12 years.
I think the seed was planted in my mind early to breastfeed. My mother always spoke of how she had to quit breastfeeding my sister and me because she did not have enough milk. Apparently while on the very rural ranch in Northern New Mexico, I “almost starved to death” because of my mother’s inability to provide enough nourishment through breastfeeding. I know that always saddened her and upon hearing the stories I was determined that I would be successful.
It wasn’t quite that easy. My first born was exhausted after the long labor and Cesarean delivery. He could not latch on. The solution of the hospital staff where I delivered him was to give him that glucose water in a bottle. My son then became the poster child for nipple confusion. But my determination spurred me to ask around and I soon found an elderly nurse volunteer in the nursery who had breastfed ten children and she would come to my room and help me whenever she could. I soon got him latched at the hospital when she was there, but once we got home it was a different story. A wonderful La Leche League leader came to my house and she had me throw away all of the nipple guards that the hospital had given me and helped me to get the baby to latch on. He ended up nursing directly from me for hours that afternoon and we had a good nursing relationship for years.
A few years and a few babies later, I listened to my mother’s stories with a more educated ear. I am convinced that my mother probably could have nursed both of us, but her caregivers had her on a bottle-baby schedule, so naturally she did not produce enough to meet our needs. There was no one to tell her any differently and so she failed. I told her that once, but after decades of blaming herself I’m not sure she bought into my explanation.
We have come a long way since the 1950s! At least now the option of breast/bottle is at least on the table and the research supporting breastfeeding is massive.
And still women waver. I have my own theories as to why. Some women think that breastfeeding is going to be extraordinarily difficult. I admit there have been challenges. My first one was a challenge as I mentioned above. My first daughter who was born by emergency C-section as a homebirth transfer was also a challenge. The challenge there was the NURSING STAFF. I sometimes felt that as punishment for trying a homebirth they deliberately kept my baby from me and forced me to walk unassisted down to the intensive care nursery to hold her and nurse her. I felt they were cruel. But I stuck with that too and we nursed for a few years as well.
My latest baby was also a challenge. She was not opening her jaw enough and as a result one of my nipples became severely sore and eroded. But by this time, having a bit of experience myself, I pumped on that side and nursed on the other and after that side healed up in a few days she finally got the hang of it. I also discovered Neosporin with analgesic which was a godsend then, and has been very helpful for scrapes and scratches ever since!
So yea, the first few days or weeks can be extremely difficult. But the payoff is huge!!! I never had to worry about dirty bottles or nipples. I never had to get up at 2:00 a.m. to heat a bottle either. I am convinced that I had a lot more sleep by just pulling baby over to me and letting her nurse while I slept. I lost weight from the 300 extra calories my body was using to make milk. My uterus contracted more quickly and I felt more at peace instead of panicked when my baby needed me. I never wondered if my baby liked me. I knew that my babies loved me. They strained to see me whenever they heard my voice because they knew they were going to be held, loved, and nursed with the only food they had ever known.
I think too breasts have become hypersexualized. Our culture doesn’t consider a breast to be beautiful unless it is artificially inflated to look almost like two water balloon missiles. The only part of the breast that is taboo for public display is apparently the nipple, although that’s allowed to be shown via outline or if at least some material covers it. The irony of course is that a lot of women who have had implants now have insensate nipples, but oh well… the price we pay for beauty I guess. Having a baby or a toddler nursing from a breast gets confused with the sexual message associated with breasts.
And yea, there’s a selfish component as well. Decades of telling women they can have it all has left a big imprint. Why should any woman be tied to a nursing kid 24/7 when it’s so easy to open a can of formula and let someone else do it. Or, “I want to enjoy my baby.” I’d like to enjoy all of my kids while they’re children and adolescents. But parenting is hard work and there are bigger challenges ahead in life than getting a baby started on the breast. It’s making the effort to meet those challenges that brings some of the some of the biggest paybacks, and the most satisfaction later. By meeting those challenges during infancy a parent will be better able to meet the bigger obstacles down the road.
One of my breastfeeding heroes, is Cecily from And I Wasted All that Birth Control. Cec and I don’t agree on much. She’s a Democrat, pro-choice, liberal, and I’m not. But I’ve been following her blog for a couple of years now and was along for the ride during her pregnancy and emergency C-section for an abrupted placenta and then the recovery. Despite all of the obstacles through in her path, Cecily hung in there and successfully nursed her baby, even when she worked outside of the home. I just think she deserves a lot of kudos for that and Cecily, I applaud you.
Oh, and national breastfeeding week would not be complete with out this blast from the past (one of my all-time favorite posts) of an appreciative Bill Luse on breastfeeding.
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