It’s Sunday morning, and I have been stricken with Mastitis as of the late evening before. I go to Urgent Care to get my antibiotics. The doctor working comes in to talk with me about the whole situation. I tell him about the new issues that may have attributed to my getting Mastitis for the second time. Archer has been spacing out nursing more and more, and sometimes we get busy and miss feedings. (After really looking at what’s going on, I need to to pay more attention to the space between feedings. I also need to be pumping when I’m away from him for those few hours when I’m home alone to sew.) So, anyway, his advice is as follows:

I need to continue breastfeeding through the remainder of my illness, and then switch Archer over to cow’s milk. (!) This advice came from hearing that Archer is over the age of 1, and that he nurses mostly of the evenings and through the night. This to him spelled out weaning, but to me, weaning will happen naturally, and does not mean switching him over to cow’s milk within his advised “2-3 weeks”. 2-3 weeks! Weaning could be a year long process! Also, apparently since Archer is 1 now, he’s only gaining comfort from breastfeeding! I guess that all the immune boosters and nutrition that are daily adapting to my son’s needs suddenly disappear after the age of 1.

Anyway, I was appalled by the horrible advice, to say the least. I contacted my Midwife, Penny Lane CNM, to see if the Breastfeeding Coalition she is in had some sort of packet of information to send to doctors when situations like this arose. And, she did! So, this doctor has some information and a letter from me being sent to him. I can’t tell you how good it felt to write this letter.

Here it is:

Dear Dr.,

I came into Urgent Care on Sunday, March 7 at the Greenbush Arnett Clinic. I came in with Mastitis and needed antibiotics. I appreciate the prescription for the antibiotics, but I feel your recommendation to quit breastfeeding my son was horrible advice. I understand that my son is weaning, and my choice is to let that process happen naturally—which could be a year long process. We are going through a rough patch in our breastfeeding relationship, but the issues that we are having can easily be resolved. I, The American Academy of Pediatrics, The American Academy of Family Physicians, the US Surgeon General, and the World Health Organization feel breastfeeding is the BEST thing I can be doing for my child. And, it is recommended to breastfeed AT LEAST through 2 years and longer if both the mother and child are still interested. So, stopping breastfeeding should be the LAST resort, considering my son’s age. There are many reasons for getting Mastitis, and I really think that my situation should have been looked at a bit longer than the 2 minutes you spoke with me to advise quitting breastfeeding. Or maybe, I should have been referred to a Lactation Consultant. If I’m going to take anyone’s advice on the breastfeeding relationship I have with my son, it is going to have to be someone with a firm background of experience and knowledge on the subject. It’s apparent to me that knowledge about breastfeeding is not something you have. To say that because my son is past the age of 1 year his sole benefit from breastfeeding is comfort, is absolutely false. He is still getting the nutrition that has been his ONLY source of nourishment for the past 12 months. Any lack of nutrients in his solid food diet is supplemented with my breast milk. Also, his immune system highly benefits from breastfeeding. I found it quite ridiculous to offer advice to switch from breast milk to cow’s milk. Cow’s milk has far less–nutritionally speaking– to offer than breast milk. Not to mention, my milk adapts to what my son needs daily. Overall, I feel your recommendation was detrimental to the health of my son.

Luckily, I am knowledgeable about breastfeeding and know when someone is giving ignorant advice. I feel sorry for the young mothers that are coming to you for advice that aren’t as knowledgeable. To recommend to a mother to stop doing the best thing she can for her child, because you are uninformed on the subject is quite sad. I do hope you will enlighten yourself on this very important subject before offering any more advice.

Sincerely,
Katie Fry

AND, we now have a 7 month old that is sitting up, crawling, and standing with support. So far I’ve had a hard time taking my eyes off this beautiful baby, and now I have many more reasons why I shouldn’t avert my eyes from him. I really don’t like the sound of Archer hitting the floor, SILENCE, and then an enormous cry. So, I’m always on my toes ready for the catch. Needless to say, I’m much busier.

Another (exciting for me, maybe not for you) milestone that we have reached is breastfeeding for 7 months. I really wasn’t sure how nursing would go with Archer after having a very short and frustrating time with Jackson. I also was not sure how much I would want to breastfeed. It’s quite the responsibility. It turns out I love breastfeeding and it has made so many things much easier. Archer is tired and fussy, he nurses and calms down. Archer gets hurt, he nurses and calms down. Archer is upset that we are going on yet another car ride, he nurses and calms down. It’s amazing how truly handy breastfeeding is!

And by the way, no, Archer is not like your average baby that will fall asleep in the car. He despises the car at certain times of the day. He dislikes it so much that he will cry and cry and cry AND CRY until the situation is compromised by him not riding in that horrible car seat. So, we take many breaks on long trips, and try to avoid car rides of the late evening.

In summary, life is moving quickly and we are having a fabulous time.

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.

Breastfeeding was an issue to begin with, of course. I told myself not to get frustrated if there happens to be a difficulty with breastfeeding before Archer arrived. Inevitably, we did have a tiny issue, and I got a bit frustrated. But, now we have both learned how to “master” this nursing thing, and I couldn’t be happier that it’s becoming so easy. And, like all the breastfeeding advocates say, it really is rewarding and brings a special bond to you and your baby.

Jackson has had a hard time as well. He’s not getting the attention he deserves, so we have decided that we will make it our mission to be more conscious of the attention we give him. Negative attention is one thing he’s been getting a lot of–we need to change that. Otherwise, Jackson is being a wonderful son and big brother. He loves his little brother, and he is the best helper his mama could ask for.

John, of course, has had no trouble at all adjusting. He’s been there to encourage me when I’m feeling down. He’s was there for me when I called him to come home on his first week back to work. He’s there for Jackson when I’ve got Archer to feed. He is wonderful.

My new family is wonderful!