A post about boobs

I'll start by saying I'm not, by any means, a breastfeeding fanatic. I don't plan on breastfeeding Anne Marie until she's 5 or anything like that. I think it's fine to breastfeed in public, but I don't really do it (if people are at my house, I've been known to nurse in front of them, but I refrain from restaurants, malls, etc, and I always cover up.). Anne Marie has had formula when I haven't pumped enough for day care, and I don't think it's going to kill her.

But recently, I've heard some comments that just make me shiver a bit. I was talking to a woman recently who asked me if I was still breastfeeding. When I told her I was, she said, "That's good for you, I guess."

The "I guess" kind of took me off guard. To her it seemed strange that someone with a 10 month old would still be breastfeeding. No matter what I've heard from other people, I've always just assumed that most people, if they can, want to breastfeed their children for one year. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's heard of the health benefits. I know some people don't breastfeed for a year, but I can't imagine anyone thinking it wasn't a decent idea.

Breastfeeding was super-hard for Anne Marie and me. Without the support of people who just assumed I would be breastfeeding, I probably wouldn't have ever been able to do it. Anne Marie was born at 12:53 a.m. and by 6 a.m. there was a lactation consultant in my room, double-action mechanical pump in hand. I sat there like a cow for 15 minutes, and presented exactly 2 drops to send to the nicu. We went on like that every three hours, day and night, until finally I had enough to feed my daughter without supplementing formula.

But, being so small, she still couldn't latch on. The lactation consultant gave me a plastic nipple to wear so it would be easier for her. One or two times a day we would try breastfeeding, then give her a bottle. It went on like that for weeks. I was pretty sure I would be pumping milk, then feeding it through a bottle for a year. I wasn't excited.

Finally, Anne Marie got the hang of it, but she still wouldn't nurse without the fake nipple. So I took it everywhere. We couldn't go on a trip without two fake nipples packed into the diaper bag. Four months later, she finally gave up the plastic nipple, and we were off, just like a normal mother and baby. In all, it took 6 months of sometimes bizarre, always inconvenient maneuvering before we were nursing normally.

It took awhile to get to my point, but my point is that now it's finally easy. We don't have to wash bottles, and we don't have to carry formula. Probably best of all, breastmilk is free.

I know some women aren't lucky enough to have the support I had, and when it gets tough, they don't see another option besides quitting. And I know there are some women who just can't nurse at all. But I think many more women would continue to nurse if they had nothing more than someone telling them that's it's important, and that it will get easier. And more women would definitely continue to nurse if there weren't people out there who made them feel weird for doing so.

Anne Marie is 10 months old now, so in a few months, she and the boob will part ways. Regardless of what our society thinks, I feel satisfied that I've given her the best start I can, and I'm really glad that, in the beginning, I had people around me who didn't expect any less.