As you breastfeed your baby and ponder the meaning of life, you may also wonder to yourself «how
does breastfeeding work?»
Today we'll discover that breastfeeding quickly becomes a labor of love based on supply and demand in part 2 of our series on how
does breastfeeding work.
If you've ever thought «how
does breastfeeding work» during a breastfeeding session, you've come to the right place.
Not exact matches
Maybe they don't have the time or privacy to
breastfeed because they
work long hours or are rarely in the privacy of their own home.
Often women with low supply are let down by the
breastfeeding community because they rely on the idea that if your child
does not have enough milk it is because you are not
working hard enough.
If you are a
breastfeeding mom who has to pump regularly, whether you are pumping at
work, exclusively pumping (by choice or necessity), trying to increase your supply,
breastfeeding multiples or donating to a human milk bank, you probably don't want to spend all of your pumping time holding the horns.
WIC
did offer
breastfeeding support - peer counselor, access to a pump if I was
working, extra supplemental fruits and veggies, etc - but we also get 95 jars of baby food per month.
Incidentally, I
breastfed for a little over a year, but around 9 months supplemented with formula too — I am a staunch supporter of moms
doing what
works for them and their child.
The
breastfeeding advocates I know aren't «mean», but they are honest and have a tough, tough job
working in this bottlefeeding culture, trying to share information that many, many people simply don't want to hear.
As committed to
breastfeeding as I am and have always been (I have been putting off a breast reduction even though the size of my breasts might be contributing to early osteoparthritis because I think some of my chronic health issues are related to poor early nutrition - not just formula - feeding but plenty of other over-processed junk), I don't know that I'd have been willing or able to go through all that if my plumbing wasn't
working.
And to add to that, when a woman has tried her damndest to
breastfeed, and it just
did not
work out, please be sure and tell her that she is NOT a bad mother and her child WILL be just fine and not damaged for life.
I
did have a successful
breastfeeding relationship after a TON of
work, but, it was NOT at all due in part to the help of my doctors.
Sometimes people really wanted to
breastfeed and tried really hard, but it just didn't
work out and talking about it opens the wounds again each time.
I always
worked while pumping (conference calls or typing emails, etc) using my hands - free aparatus and my decision to leave THAT
work force had nothing to
do with
breastfeeding my son - but everything to
do with SPENDING MORE TIME WITH MY SON.
Bashing
breastfeeding worked once, so she's
doing it again.
If you attend meetings you'll find there are many of the components of a tribe: the ritual of greeting people and
doing introductions, the
work of helping each other with mothering and
breastfeeding and sharing refreshments at the end of the meeting, the commitment of time together each month.
Do breastfeeding classes and support groups really
work?
BUT if Babywise
does not «mesh with God's design for how
breastfeeding works», then how
do people ever have success?
He has only had one breast feed today and I have expressed my milk into a bottle for him, already and he still has not had it yet, I'm impressed as to how the rice cereal helps fill him up, and keeps him content, and how he has dropped so quick on his
breastfeeds, the weaning onto solids is really
working for me, also I'm very proud in how he is
doing so well
doing with this change.
While getting pregnant while
breastfeeding is a possibility, it
does not always
work as you have though.
Perhaps... just perhaps... the paradigm you've chosen
does not mesh with God's design for how
breastfeeding works?
Try on your other breast when baby is feeding and make sure to warn the people across the room:) Sally Tedstone,
Breastfeeding Expert Midwife and
Breastfeeding Educator with UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative, writes: «If it
does not
work at first,
do not panic or think that there is no milk, simply try another spot, a slightly different hand formation or rhythm until it
works for you.
However, don't give the baby a real pacifier until the
breastfeeding has started to
work smoothly, to avoid confusing your baby.
Again, I
did not suffer a postpartum MS episode and
breastfeeding again
works wonderfully.
Breastfeeding mothers feed their child while taking care of their other children or while they're
working and
doing any other of a million necessary tasks.
Not only
do our practices spoil Mother Nature's design for the continuation of the human race, our civilization keeps on mutilating the mother by silencing her, by not helping her heal, and when
breastfeeding, which could help her heal, doesn't
work as expected, that too is taken away from her.
And with that, I ignorantly and over-confidently plunged full speed ahead to towards one of the hardest things I have ever
done:
breastfeeding as a
working mom.
I didn't know anything about having a low milk supply, being a
working mom on top of caring for a newborn, having D - MER, and the millions of other things that would affect my life after giving birth to another human,
breastfeeding, and going back to
work.
Knowing all this information was out there, I couldn't believe there was anyone who didn't
breastfeed these days, other than uneducated teenage moms, those with uncompromising
work situations, or those unfortunate women who were physically unable to
do so (and according to what I had read on the La Leche League website, there were very few of these women out there - far fewer than the formula lobby and misinformed doctors would have us believe).
If you have to
work on the computer or
do household chores and want to have those
breastfeed bottles always filled, the pump strap hand - free can help you to accomplish more in a day.
Understandably, if you have never been a
breastfeeding or pumping mom, you have no idea that there are things you can
do ahead of time to set make returning to
work easier.
To be part of the
breastfeeding infantry, it doesn't matter if you're planning to
work full - time or be a stay - at - home - mom, if you're gay or straight, if you're a card - carrying left - wing feminist or a Mormon with a penchant for traditional values.
Do something nice for yourself at that moment and let the person who is offering the baby the bottle the opportunity to kind of
work his or her way through it on their own just like when you
did when you're
breastfeeding.
Failing to succeed because of a challenging birth scenario, maternal pain, cracked nipples, ineffective suckling, poor latch or return to
work would not equate an inability to achieve optimal
breastfeeding, although certainly it
does seem that way sometimes (Abrour & Kessler, 2013).
Emotional Healing When
Breastfeeding Does Not
Work.
I went into it probably knowing a lot more about
breastfeeding than most people who've never
done it, I was absolutely committed to making it
work, and I had a great support system.
I
did great exclusively
Breastfeeding but now I am at
work 12 hr days 3 - 4 days a week and pumping.
And if
breastfeeding didn't
work out, for whatever reason, you may have experienced this as another significant loss — or even «failure.»
I wanted to
breastfeed and tried so hard, but it didn't
work out.
I also knew at that point that there was basically nothing else I could have
done to try to make
breastfeeding work; I had
done my best, and things still just weren't
working.
One
breastfeeding journey that didn't
work, and one that
did, using all the contraptions!
Working full time and
breastfeeding a baby is doable and thousands of mothers
do it everyday.
There is reassurance, too, for
working moms as Valerie explains how
breastfeeding can be combined with returning to
work, and support for all moms in the comments that
breastfeeding does not «tie you down,» need not be either «humiliating» or «indecent» in public, and that you can in fact «feed your baby in any position and anywhere.»
Instead of mothers and babies
working together as
breastfeeding partners, mothers must
do all of the
work.
If they are not
breastfeeding well, they also
do not need extra water, but rather, the mother should be helped so that
breastfeeding works better.
I was able to take my children to
work with me and
breastfeed on the job without fleeing into a bathroom or private room, but that was largely because I was comfortable
doing so and wanted to set a positive
breastfeeding example for the other mothers attending my preschool / playgroup.
But I know that not all women have the opportunity to
breastfeed at all, or they must stop
breastfeeding sooner than they'd like because they don't have the support they need at
work, or from their spouse, or from their friends and family.
I
breastfed although I was of the opinion that I would give it a go and if it didn't
work out that was fine.
The whole premise is that the current approach to promoting
breastfeeding by the government is inappropriate specifically because it doesn't encourage women to figure out what
works for them but assumes breast feeding is best for everyone.
I recently
worked with Whitney through her
breastfeeding journey, so she asked me to share what I
do.