Friday, July 27, 2007

About nursing babies

I share about breastfeeding openly, passionately and hopefully inspirationally, but what you have in this post is a glimpse into the way I feel about breastfeeding in a way that I rarely share it. Raw and honest.

I always try to find a nice way to not say what I really think but in the end I feel that I have pretty good grounds for my gut reaction to moms who don't nurse. I don't like dancing around the fact that the reality is that formula is inferior in every way to breastmilk. It's not popular to say, but it is still true no matter whose feelings it hurts.

I nursed babies for 10 years, through heck and high water, bloody nipples (for six months while I searched for someone to clip a tied tongue) through in laws who disapproved, through pregnancies and all kinds of life's ups and downs. I nursed even when it meant that I was working 48hours a week and pumping all that time. I nursed through major postpartum depression. I nursed and nursed and nursed in almost every circumstance that you can imagine except low supply (I have oversupply and OAMER issues instead) so when a mom comes at me with all her zillion excuses, I'll be honest, what I see is just excuses.

I would nurse my baby under any circumstance no matter how bad it hurt, no matter how emotional it made me. The only thing that might keep me from doing it would be cancer treatment drugs or drugs to treat BPD, and even then I'd be looking for a way around it. It is a MAJOR priority for me, for my babies' first years and I'm not apologetic about it being the very best, and I'm not apologetic for believing that it is God's perfect plan for every baby.I am much much more passionate about breastfeeding than I am about natural birth. Birth is over in one event, breastfeeding sets the stage for a lifetime, and that's not just my not so humble opinin, it's a fact.

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