Excellent Breastfeeding Editorial

Editorial

I certaintly think Option 1 sounds Wonderful!!!!! I got a lot more of option 1 after I was more experienced/ educated and knew what I wanted and how to voice my desires. I WISH more hospitals were baby friendly!!!

 

Wow! Great article! So very true.

Shannon

 

:good:

what a great article! thank you for posting.

 

Thank you!! That was great!

 

Great article!

There are a few things in option 1 I find unrealistic and/or not for everyone, though.

-Sleeping with baby in arm's reach - this is a great option, and one that more people ought to consider. However, some babies are NOISY at night, even when they're sleeping well - grunting and snoring and thumping their legs around - and it can be hard to get a good sleep when they're so close.

-Bringing an infant to work - even with the most peaceful sleeping baby, I would never be able to concentrate and get work done.

-"After 6 months, you introduce solids. A few months later, you really don't need to pump any more" - ahem, breastmilk should still be #1 and you should still be pumping.

Another thing that bothered me was how doom-and-gloom the second part was. I think that before you have a baby, it's easy to get really caught up in having the "perfect" birth, and to get extremely anxious about the consequences of not having the "perfect" birth. A lot of expecting moms worry that they'll be doomed to BFing failure if the birth and hospital stay don't turn out like option 1. And anxiety is no fun for anyone, and can even be a self-fulfilling prophecy. I think the way option 2 is written could inadvertently feed into that. I wish there was more reassurance that you can still get off to a great start BFing even if things don't work out that way.

Case in point: I delivered at 34 wks, DD was on a respirator for her first 24 hrs (ie not doing anything with her mouth other than having a breathing tube stuck down her throat), bottle fed exclusively for her first few days, given a pacifier, and still bottle fed a lot in the NICU even after starting some nursing, and needless to say, when she was in the NICU for her first couple weeks, we didn't get nearly enough time together. And you know what? The first time I nursed her, she latched on like a pro. It didn't hurt, and we never had any problems nursing. DS took much longer to learn to nurse, but he got it too. So even if things aren't ideal, it's not the end of the world.

All that said, though, I should stress that overall I did really like the article. I really hope that we'll see a shift toward more BFing-friendly policy in hospitals!

 

Holly, i think you make some excellent points! and i agree that not having the ideal start doesn't guarantee the end of BFing. that being said, it sounds like our births were similar (34 weeks, straight to NICU, time on CPAP, bottle fed for first week, etc) but unlike you, i had a hell of a time getting started BFing. i'm still BFing now but i think that has more to do with sheer stubborness (bordering on obsessive) on my part than because of anything else. i think though that many other women wouldn't have continued and that would have been fine for them to choose that - but it's a case in point of an unnecesarily difficult beginning causing an end to a good thing.

and all that being said, even when BFing doesn't have that ideal start, there are still so many things that can be done to protect & promote the BFing relationship - for example, i was never told that you can cup feed, finger feed or syringe feed your preemie babies. they were just given bottles. :unknw: i mean, maybe i would have chosen to give them bottles anyway, but i wasn't even told what my options were - not, i think, because of some nefarious plan by the medical authorities to undermine BFing, but just because, despite all the talk we talk about the benefits of BFing, we don't actually walk the walk. our medical authorities sometimes know less than we do about BFing - and how screwy is that?

 

A blog response to the article posted on Kellymom this morning. Good stuff.

http://sortacrunchy.typepad.com/sortacrunchy/2010/04/an-open-letter-to-my-fellow-breastfeeding-advocates.html

I really, really like what the author is saying about how every woman has a story. I think if we thought of BFing that way things would change.

 

Umm, another unrealistic thing in the first part, "your coworkers enjoy having a baby around".

I don't think so.

My coworkers would enjoy getting a chance to take 5 to 10 minutes to exclaim over my baby's cuteness once a month on a visit. But they would not enjoy me bringing him into the office.

I'm going to work on a description of the hospital where I gave birth, which is 100% pro breastfeeding--no bottles allowed on the premises--at home then post it next time I'm on line.

 

GandEmom, that's awesome! ITA. BFing is so very individual. Even the same mom is going to have different experiences with each child. That's one thing I love about this forum, actually - just hearing everyone's stories and learning so much from everyone's unique situation.

 

love it! :good: what a great article.

 

This is my favorite link from that article: My link. As a sociologist, that makes me smile.

 

booby traps! :laughing: love it. it's so true. thanks for the link.

 

Wow, that first story literally gave me chills! How amazing would it be to receive that kind of support and not have to fight so hard?! I agree with others though that the baby at work is completely unrealistic. It sounds as if they imagine that every woman in the US has an office job. Don't we wish. I haven't had a single job in which I'd be able to bring a baby with me, even for a minute. In fact, I've only ever had one job where I was allowed a lunch break. Other than that, spot on! If I could find a hospital like that, I'd consider moving just to be near it

 

I actually was lucky enough to deliver at a Baby Friendly hospital. Having nothing to compare it to, the nurses were decently supportive of BF- I could call them and have them help me latch a baby on, which I did on the 2nd night when I sent my DH home to sleep (& be ready for discharge). 1 of the nurses was really, really good. She could latch my lazy baby on like NOBODY'S BUSINESS, LOL. I miss her, sometimes- she was not very friendly, but immediately knew I'd need a pump & helped get my big boy to nurse.