I couldn't think of an appropriate title for this post. If you are a new mom - in a sense - there is no such thing as "Breastfeeding 101." You merely have to "learn as you go." Please excuse my rudimentary choice of a title.
In my opinion, breastfeeding is a particularly elusive part of having an infant, due to lack of information. And I don't by any stretch mean a lack of "how-to-breastfeed" information. There's enough information on the techniques of breastfeeding to make a woman blue in the face. What I mean is a lack of "how-difficult-it-is" information.
La Leche League International has done a marvelous job, beginning in 1956, of promoting the natural benefits of breastfeeding. At that time, breastfeeding an infant was considered a mark of poverty and ignorance: (1) breast milk was considered nutritionally inferior to manufactured formulas, (2) inability to afford infant formula displayed one's poverty and lack-of-class, and (3) there were various Freudian rumors about how breastfeeding might "damage" your child, especially boy babies.
Thanks to organizations like LLL, breastfeeding is now widely promoted and accepted as a wonderful way to nuture an infant, both nutritionally and emotionally. Unfortunately, the flip-side of this marvelous advance in child rearing is a nagging sense of guilt when a mother is unsuccessful, unable, or chooses not to breastfeed. Literature on breastfeeding is presented in a "how to successfully..." mindset. While this is positive and optimistic, it may leave a woman who has not been successful reeling in confusion: 'Which step in the "how-to-successfully list" haven't I followed? Maybe my infant is tounge-tied. Maybe I have inverted nipples. Maybe I have flat nipples. Maybe I'm holding him incorrectly. Maybe I have too much milk. Maybe I don't have enough milk. Maybe the latch is wrong. Maybe we need more skin-to-skin time. Maybe he's not hungry. Maybe he's too tired. Maybe he's bottle-bound. Maybe I didn't try hard enough. Maybe he doesn't love me.'
Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh......
Before the birth of their babies, women may often think to themselves, "How hard can this possibly be? I will have breasts that lactate and a hungry infant who is born with a suckling reflex. Piece-of-cake: it's natural!"
However, shortly after the birth of their babies, many first-time mothers discover that "natural" does not necessarily mean "comes to one naturally." Rather, for a mother who wishes to breastfeed, especially if it is her first child, the experience can be riddled with questions, uncertainties, awkward situations, and feelings of ineptitude.
I myself had QUITE a time getting our son James to nurse. I have problems with overproduction (more to come on Monday)... but of course, I had no inkling that that would be the case until I was already engorged, deflated, and in the demanding service of a 3 day-old newborn. While I was generously leaking through every bra, nursing pad, and diaper stuffed down my shirt, you can bet that (despite our feeding problems) the last thing on my mind was to make time to dress myself and take my baby to a breastfeeding meeting!!
Without entrenching on the topics of Monday's post, I would simply say this: if you are pregnant and planning to breastfeed your infant, PREPARE. If you are an over-achiever like myself, don't consider this to be just another easy task in the long line of successes you have trailing behind you. Go to a breastfeeding meeting NOW, before your baby is born. Learn what you can now. Listen not to the "how to successfully..." list, but rather listen to the questions of mothers who are having difficulties. Write down what techniques are recommended to them and whether the mothers report success with certain suggestions. Ask your mom if she had problems breastfeeding, what they were, and how she overcame them.
Breastfeeding is a fantastic and easy way to feed your baby without too much hassle. I highly recommend it! However, the elusive nature of breastfeeding may very well be one of the most frustrating hurdles you will cross as a new parent. Thus, the next few blogs will cover this topic in brief. I hope you find it useful and nutritious!
I think your advice about going to a breastfeeding meeting before the baby comes is VERY good, and something I did. I was glad to go and meet the women at my LLL chapter before Abby came so that if I needed to contact them outside of a meeting after she was born, I would feel more comfortable having met them already. However, I found that although the women at my LLL group were more than willing to answer questions for me, before Abby came, I didn't know what to ask! The single most helpful thing for me in learning how to breastfeed Abby was spending a lot of time with the lactation consultants while Abby and I were still in the hospital. Every time I fed her for the first 2 days after she was born, I asked for one of the LCs to come in and work with us. I felt a little silly asking for so much help but they were really wonderful and taught me a LOT of tricks to helping Abby latch on that were based on her unique tendencies: Abby sucks her lips in a lot and did that when she latched on which was very painful - the LCs taught me how to pull out her lips so we could have a better latch. Many hospitals have LCs on staff and their services are free while you are in the hospital....call on them! Our hospital even offers free post-partum visits to mothers who are having trouble once they get home. I learned about all these great services through the Lamaze and Breastfeeding classes that we took at the hospital before Abby came....not super expensive and WELL worth our time!
ReplyDeleteSorry for the long comment...I promise I'm not trying to encroach on your blog! ;) Thanks for sharing your experiences!!