Breastfeeding: The Pros and Cons (and get this: there are no cons.)

This is a topic I feel so strongly about and SO important, I can’t zip my lip any longer. The zipper has popped! It is too important to our children.
And in this new health care/healthy-eating climate, it should be the NO.1 Topic on any health expert’s tongue!  With Jamie Oliver/Michelle Obama and how many others worrying about childhood obesity/diabetes, let’s start at the beginning! Way before McDonalds, school lunches and Pepsi.

Mothers who take offense to us pro breastfeeding gals, saying we are trying to make them feel guilty, imply they are bad mothers etc, Not true and I disagree strongly! I have never met any nursing mom who has said any such thing. We want all babies to have a healthy start! BUT I think it is just as important to put as much concern into what is nourishing your baby’s brain/body as to what kind of car seat, stroller, clothes he/she wears.

First: I think most of us know the pros. It has been proven to be the best food for your infant hands down. Anyone who says formula is equal is sadly deluded. The facts speak for themselves. Even formula companies admit it!

Antibodies, perfect temp, perfect container, designed by God herself!
Also hundreds of pros for mom and so convenient! Always available, no fuss, no mess.
If you don’t know the pros: google it!

And the bonding. Don’t get me started. There is no greater feeling in the world than when your infant is cuddled in your arms, oxytocin and prolactin flowing and your child holds your finger and looks up into your eyes as they suckle.  If you haven’t experienced it, yes, you have no idea what you are missing!
Now I agree we need more education, more support, more educators and
more funding!!!  I do not put down moms who didn’t have enough milk, had poor latch, sore nipples and hundreds of other issues that can happen when attempting to breast feed with or without support.

Yes, even though it should be the most natural act in the world, it isn’t in our fast paced, overworked, keep up with the Jones’s society.

I do have an issue with moms who aren’t willing to put their child’s health first. Not sorry either. Mom’s who don’t want their breasts to sag (guess what: it was the pregnancy anyway but even if it wasn’t: what is more important really?)  Or think it is easier to mix up a bottle rather than sit down and nurse their beautiful baby?  And as for the moms who “say” they are breastfeeding when they are pumping/bottling? I understand working moms have to pump and send a bottle of breastmilk to daycare. My own daughters do it. God bless them for pumping in some of the most unbelievable circumstances. That is a whole other blog. Breastfeeding or pumping in a bathroom stall is INSANE!!!!!! Would you eat YOUR lunch in a stall?
 But pump all the time? No breast to skin contact? That is sad for both mother and child. Sorry but true.
There are a ton of other excuses I have heard that were totally sad. (like Dad wanted his time. Are you kidding me? Give the kid a bath, Dad. Rock the baby, change the baby, or when baby gets older, feed solids or even a bottle with breastmilk if necessary)

Also lack of sleep from getting up at night to feed baby. This blows me away. Thinking it is easier to get up and make a bottle. Yeah, right. You still have to sit up in a chair to feed the bottle.

Oh yeah: formula fed babies sleep longer!!! That’s because their stomachs are full of lead that takes many hours to digest (or not digest) where as breast milk, which is perfect for baby, digests quickly as God designed it. So they are hungry more often. My answer was to take baby into bed with me, nurse and go back to sleep. For parents afraid of overlying their babies (this really only happens with drugged parents) there are now many cosleeping apparatus on the market to keep baby close and safe.
And as far as it hurting. OK, sometimes it might hurt. Especially at first when your breasts are tender, you are sore from childbirth and sleep deprived, emotional from postpartum hormones, that’s when Moms need the support!
I have been there: sore nipples, cracked nipples that bled, mastitis, baby on nursing strike, etc. But this passes. I don’t remember when I first felt that inexplicable bliss but it wiped out every possible negative con I could come up with. The sad part is many moms don’t make it to the bliss. : (
They give up. And then they get defensive and some become anti breastfeeding and anti breastfeeding supporters/advocates.

I know I was lucky or just so damned stubborn nothing was going to stop me. I knew in my gut/heart that breastfeeding was best and that was what my kids were going to get. Yes, I had problems. It wasn’t perfect by far. But it was wonderful, rewarding; the bonding with my daughters was the most beautiful experience I have ever had. (and yes I do have a good relationship with my husband and am psychologically balanced.) And just as rewarding to me is two of those daughters have breastfed their children (five boys so far). I still have one daughter who even though not married yet, intends to breastfeed her someday babies. She has witnessed the magic. : )

I experienced the death of my daughter Lindsey, (our youngest) whom I never got to nurse. She was a preemie (placenta previa) and in the neonatal unit. I began pumping colostrum but she died of a brain hemorrhage at two days old before she could try nursing. I had been forced to wean my then two-year-old daughter due to the hemorrhaging of that pregnancy. It was difficult on everyone. But it was a healing/rebonding experience when I came home from the hospital to a traumatized two year old (six week separation from mom) we sat down in the rocker and nursed. Healing for both. Today she is a healthy independent twenty seven-year-old.

OK, I am ready for the agree to disagree pact I have made with my friends. Many of my friends did not breastfeed their children. Whether it was for lack of knowledge, support, a bad past history/experience etc. It is definitely a HOT Button Topic. Almost as bad as politics or abortion.

I have avoided blogging about till now. I have written some blogs and FB comments that have ruffled some feathers but nothing like when it comes to this topic, I am sure. I can’t believe that in the year 2010, this is still an issue! It makes me angry!!! I breastfed in the 70’s and 80’s. (My mom did not breastfeed but was very supportive of me doing it) When the only support was Le Leche’ League. (Yes, us fanatics.) Now days there are lactation consultants in hospitals, midwives, and breastfeeding centers (I worked at one of the first for four years!)

This is a very important subject to me. I believe in it as strongly as I believe alcoholism is a disease, my dogs are part of my family and we are each responsible for ourselves and can’t control anyone else.

I am sorry if you disagree but to be blunt, it’s a fact.