Breastfeeding – another subject we need to teach our homeschooled daughters

A new crop of babies has been born from among my young Facebook friends. These are mostly young, formerly-homeschooled ladies who are Calvin’s age and slightly younger.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, that it seemed clear from what these young women were going through that they knew next to nothing about giving birth, except what their doctors and the medical community had taught them.  Several freaked out when they passed their due dates, demanded their pitocin and epidurals and were happy to accept the eyedrops and shots for their new borns. A couple of them even went along with repeat cesareans because they had already been sectioned before, so why not?

But as I’ve been reading along it has become clear that breastfeeding hasn’t exactly caught on with this group either. Which is surprising because showing off lots of decolletage, even in maternity wedding dresses (or maybe especially in maternity wedding dresses)is all the rage on Facebook.

So naturally, since  these gals have been showing off the goods for the world to see for quite a while now, I  kinda thought stories of ample milk supplies would follow – instead I’m reading stories of bottles and formula and midnight feedings.

I’m sort of wondering how did we renegade, rebellious, free-spiriting homeschooling moms fail to pass on these simple things to our homeschooled daughters?

Of course I can’t guarantee that this won’t happen to my daughter, but I started thinking that perhaps what my girls need (and probably what I should have learned in high school) was a fundamental understanding of the importance of breastfeeding and how breastfeeding works.

This would include things like:

• Best food for baby.
• Gives the baby natural immunities. 
• Important for baby’s oral development and brain function.
• Decreased obesity in childhood and adulthood.
• Burns extra baby fat calories for mom. 
• Helps to reduce future breast cancer risk for mom.

I would also include things some scientific information like the demand and supply reaction of the mammary gland and the pituitary and psychological bonding of the infant and mother. This is the kind of information that a girl could learn and really think about while she is forming her opinions on such matters in high school, instead of waiting until a baby is actually on the way 10 (or 2) years later! Come to think of it, it wouldn’t be bad for my sons (future fathers and uncles) to know some of these things too!

I’m also thinking this might be the easier curriculum to write first!