Let me Breathe…I mean let me feed.
Breastfeeding is when you feed your baby breast milk, usually directly from your breast. It’s also called nursing. Making the decision to breastfeed is a personal matter. It’s also one that’s likely to draw opinions from friends and family.
Breastfeeding provides unmatched health benefits for babies and mothers. It is the clinical gold standard for infant feeding and nutrition, with breast milk uniquely tailored to meet the health needs of a growing baby. We must do more to create supportive and safe environments for mothers who choose to breastfeed.
Dr. Ruth Petersen, director of CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends breastfeeding as the sole source of nutrition for your baby for about 6 months and can be continued for as long as both mother and baby desire it. The following articles help explain how breastfeeding not only provides excellent nutrition, but also sets baby up for healthy growth and development.
Why would a mother choose not to breastfeed?
Reasons may include, but not be limited to:
1. Returning to work/school
2. Lack of support
3. Health concerns
4. Personal issues
5. Lost of hope after not producing an ideal amount, etc
Before the invention of bottles and formula, wet nursing was the safest and most common alternative to breastfeeding by the natural mother. Society’s negative view of wet nursing, combined with improvements of the feeding bottle and the availability of animal’s milk, gradually led to the substitution of artificial feeding for wet nursing.
How can something so natural, be easily viewed as synthetic? Why is it ok to watch animals “wet-nurse” whilst we feed the same milk to our own babies? Why has this been made an agenda, and normalized?
Something I don’t like:
How can we let a whole “community/committee/board” dictate & determine what we do with our own person? So much that breastfeeding has been banned and recently lifted. I do not understand why we let others run our personal lives this way. IF YOU WANT TO BREASTFEED, YOU DO JUST THAT.
(In California, on September 28, 2012, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law AB2386, which states that it is unlawful to engage in specified discriminatory practices in employment or housing accommodations on the basis of breastfeeding or medical conditions related to breastfeeding.)
Milk may cause mucus, but not breast milk. Mucus buildup can cause serious health problems, breast milk will not! Let’s set our kids up for success and vitalize them with the food/nutrition created specifically for them. Then some wonder why formula-fed babies, unfortunately, had more doctor visits in their first year than breastfed babies.
Of course, and it is clear what side I sternly represent. However, I am not against the opposition in this matter. Everyone’s circumstances are different, but I have witnessed a handful of selfish mothers. YES, some women are selfish with their breasts. Also, some women have been sexually violated in their past; and trauma will not allow them to mentally be able to nurse. All of our reasons are different.
It seems to always be the ones who “didn’t get the chance to” or simply didn’t, who has something negative to say about your breastfeeding journey. Whether it is about the breast itself, or the duration in which you decide to nurture. Somebody will always have something negative to say. So much to say that it caused society to ban, and switch to an “artificial” way of feeding.
Prior to my breastfeeding journey, I was just as amazed when hearing of those who breastfed their babies for 4+ years. Some are disgusted at those who choose to breastfeed beyond infancy. Aware, that some women have wires that do not spark; and it may not all be right in their thinking chamber. Some get a thrill, as one may not be able to separate nursing & a sexual act; or maybe they can. Maybe Lifetime movies have done it for me, but any and everything is possible. I know there are sick women who breastfeed beyond infancy for sexual satisfaction. Those women I shun!
Now post breastfeeding, I have a different point of view.
The connection that is built, the bond that grows while nursing your baby is irreplaceable. To know and understand that you, as mom have all that baby requires; is fulfilling. You are what the baby needs, and especially for the first few years of the baby’s life. Now, I am not saying that formula-fed babies are loved any less by their mothers. From my experience I notice when a baby is strictly breastfed; it makes it 10 times harder for dad to step in and do anything. AGAIN, YOU ARE WHAT THE BABY NEEDS. This is the attachment that mom oh so yearns for.
While typing this, I can see why single women would breastfeed longer than those in a relationship (just thinking, I need stats).
Plain and simple, while I started to ween my little one off of “wet-nursing”, I began to miss her; as if she was not in the next room. It felt like already, in 14 hours; the connection we built over this past year — had all gone. At that moment all I wanted her to do was latch, to watch her gorgeous face and be assured, “I have everything you need”.
So yes, some mothers I will now attest for and say, they simply want to breastfeed. It can give a sense of empowerment, or just simply knowing the benefits and having your child’s best interest at heart. It is a desire to want to keep that love alive, the connection going, and that bond to grow fonder. There are great moms, and these are some of the feelings they may have.
Now that our heart is in human form, we must do what is best for them. Without caring what others say because they will always say. Please do not be easily persuaded when it comes to your child. If your mind is made up, your mind is made up! In most cases, no one’s theories “without proof” can call for any leniency on my end; when it has to do with my human heart. No one should want better for your child than you do, and that’s instinct. I guess that would be something else a “great mom” would only agree with.
-MMJ
Quote of the Auracle; “It takes a village to raise a child — NOT feed them.”
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