Feeding from the Breast
Every morning I wake up to feed Archer. So, while I’m waking up I watch TV for a bit before I start the day. I’ve been stuck on watching a couple of shows on TLC–Bringing Home Baby and A Baby Story. My Bradley Method teacher always told me to stay away from these shows, but I can’t help watching. The shows are getting better. I’m seeing less of the births with interventions and more natural drug free births. Hopefully this is a sign that American women are waking up.
One thing that drives me crazy in these shows is the mothers’ efforts to breastfeed and the insane amount of misinformation they are all getting about it. Most of the moms desire to breastfeed, but the first few days they are feeding the babies formula because they think either they should wait for their own milk to come in or that they don’t have enough milk for the baby. Each show is then concluded with mothers of 10 week old babies being fed with formula and mothers who are disappointed they couldn’t breastfeed due to lack of milk. I am one of these moms that was misinformed as well. With my first son the lactation nurse never told me actually how big the baby’s stomach is the first few days and that the baby will get what he needs with persistent feeding. I was never told that the first 6 weeks you will be breastfeeding ALL THE TIME. I was told the baby will eat every 2-3 hours for about half an hour per feeding. This was way off! I think that moms assume they don’t have a sufficient milk supply because the babies aren’t as quickly satisfied as with feeding with a bottle. Nursing takes much longer. And also, a newborn is used to being fed constantly in the womb; a switch to only eating every 2-3 hours is quite drastic.
Women need better information and truth about breastfeeding. It usually will start out with struggles. We need to get the message out that we as mothers really do have EVERYTHING our babies need, including enough breast milk. We need not get so discouraged. While breastfeeding is natural, it may not come to the moms and babies naturally. It takes some work, but after the feeding has been established, it is more than rewarding and very easy.
April 9th, 2009 at 3:03 am
Great post! Do you care if I link to your story from the Breastfeeding Coalition?
April 9th, 2009 at 6:42 am
that would be great!
April 9th, 2009 at 6:42 am
that would be great!