Gingerert

The more info out there about breastfeeding, the better.

AND... to those who say some babies can't breastfeed, I say this: My Little O was born five weeks early with numerous health conditions, including a cleft palate, poor suck/swallow/breathe reflex, and GERD (which still blights him). Since the day he was born he has been tube fed and receives nothing by mouth.

I pumped for him and he received only breast milk for the first month of his life. After that my supply dwindled and his reflux got worse, so we switched to a prescription-only formula mixed with breast milk, and then just formula.

My point of all this is: babies should always receive breast milk, even if they can't feed directly. There is absolutely no excuse on earth good enough.

So there.

Karrie72

Breastfeeding is amazing...I fed all three of mine for two years each which wasn't the plan btw. But it made me feel like I was doing something great and I'm basically lazy so no bottles to wash plus the weight falls off. I ate like a horse yet was always skinny... I also made great friends through LLL and did the counselor training. It was a god send to me as a young Mum with no family around to advise me. I think at the time (late 90's) that the states was more progressive than the UK. None of my English friends nursed for more than a few weeks. I miss those days of having a wee one...

tamms_1965

I loved all the "side effects" too

N1cky

These posts are exactly what I mean by making some Mums feel like a failure.

When I was pregnant I lived in the country, the anti-natal classes were all about breast feeding and how you should feed for the first 4 months. All the wonderful benefits for child and Mum were layed out, health benefits, bonding....

I had a perfectly normal baby, but she wouldn't feed, she would either scream constantly or sleep. I was kept in hospital for 2 nights just so they could monitor her feeding, a breast feeding 'expert' came in to monitor, and declared everything that I should be doing was being done...

If I expressed milk and gave it to her in a bottle she would feed fine, but to stop my milk drying up I had to feed her. All the midwives kept telling me was how important it ws that I feed her myself otherwise she would have asthma/eczema/eating problems....

After 3 weeks of constant tears at every feeding time (from both of us) the doctor finally said enough was enough, my baby was losing weight not gaining, and we were both extremely unhappy. I continued to express for as long as I had milk, and still continued to try and feed her.

I still feel like I failed her as a Mum by not being able to feed her, I know the benefits of it are huge, but I also know I was on the verge of becoming extremely depressed and will always be grateful to the doctor who finally gave me a hug and told me I had done all I could.

Mummy in the foothills

I think the crying that the doll does would drive me batty, I hate noisy toys. The breastfeeding part I couldn't care less about, there were lots of little kids at the LLL meetings in the 80's and 90's who would "breastfeed" their regular dolls, you don't need a special doll for kids to imitate what they see their Mum doing.
No worse than those horrible dolls with a bottle who make sucky noises.

Mummy in the foothills

Well done, I don't think I could have done it if I'd had to just pump, I'd have given up I know I would.

Mummy in the foothills

Don't let anyone make you feel like a failure, you have a healthy happy child and thats what matters. Babies need food, you give it to them however you have too, whether thats by breast or bottle, breastmilk or formula.
I have one totally bottle fed baby ( the youngest) I got dirty looks for pulling out a bottle when she was tiny, what do I care what anyone else thinks.
You do right by your own children, it's all anyone can do.

Gingerert

Ah, but the point is that you tried! You did all you damn well could to give your baby breast milk, and when it went pear-shaped there was a legitimate reason to stop. Post-partum depression is no joke.

It's not like you set out to feed your baby formula before she was born. THAT is where modern society goes wrong. You still gave her breast milk, which is waaaay more than a lot of babies get. You did well, Mama. Don't feel guilty or like you've failed. It's the ones who think it's gross, or weird, who are the failures.

Sarah

Honest question here... I'm wondering how come milk would dry up if it was expressed/pumped but it would keep coming if the baby fed from the breast directly?

Gingerert

A baby's suck is much more efficient than a breast pump, for one thing. You just can't imitate it with technology.

The other reason is that babies cry when they are hungry, which stimulates what's known as the let down reflex in their Mama. It tells the body to release milk, ready for a feed. If you don't have a baby near you when you pump, to smell, hear, touch, etc, then your body has a harder time producing milk.

The more you feed, the more milk is created. It's a natural cycle that's hard to imitate artificially, which is why some Mamas find their supply dries up when their babies can't feed directly. It's a big problem for mothers of preemies, especially.

tamms_1965

What they said.

Squirrel

Slightly OT, but wouldn't cow produce milk fior longer in that case if they were allowed to keep their calves with them longer, instead of just being milked by a machine?

tamms_1965

Dairy cows are "selected" over the decades for milk production....best genes for milk are passed on. This doesn't happen with people.

Sally Redux

Coming back to the original post about the feed-in and its usefulness, I think what can happen nowadays is that feeding a baby becomes a complicated set of choices all bound up with stuff like the sexualization of the breast, how will I cope going back to work etc etc. In societies where breastfeeding is seen as totally normal I don't think the same pressures come to bear on women who will therefore feel a lot more relaxed about the whole thing, see other women doing it all the time, share info etc. This is not specifically about you but a general point I have seen many times.

Squirrel

I had heard that mothers had been arrested for breast feeding in some states, is that true?