In honor of National Breastfeeding Month I am posting about ta-da.... breastfeeding! I am proud to say that we have been successful in exclusively breast feeding Cohen so far. As taboo as it may be to openly discuss I feel that it is absolutely necessary. The support a mom received whether nursing or not is very important. A nursing mom needs reassurance that what she is doing is okay and for that matter formula mom needs to know the same thing. How a family chooses to feed their infant is a personal choice that I know we put a lot of thought into. Truth be told i started my pregnancy with Cohen unsure of how I felt about breast feeding. I had only seen the women in my family formula feed and I had no idea that as many young women my age were choosing to breastfeed their infants. It was Chase who helped me see the benefit and all of the logic behind it. Chase has continued to be 100% behind me in this decision and is always encouraging. As far as family goes... our grandmothers have been amazingly supportive of this decision. After all, this is they way they did things when they had babies. My sister has also come a long way through this process and offers her support through curiosity. Then there's our mothers. My mom has had a rather negative view of breast feeding for as long as I can remember. The first time I told her we were considering breast feeding her response was a wrinkled up nose and "yuck." I reminded her that Mary didn't run to the pharmacy to pick up formula for Jesus. Since then I think she's come around little by little. My MIL has her own story too. When Chase was a baby he had an awful time with formula. His doctor never really told them if it was a milk allergy or a milk intolerance but my MIL definitely knew whatever it was is was bad. His mom told us how sick Chase was because of the formula. That alone was a reason for me to breast feed Cohen. For the most part I think my MIL is happy that we don't have to go through the things she did with a sick baby due to formula.
Here are a few things that you can do to offer your support to a new mom:
1. If you don't have anything nice to say keep it to yourself. It's hard enough when we already know how you feel so we don't need to be reminded of it. That's true for any new mom no matter their decision to breastfeed or not.
2. The decision made by the parents is simply their decision. Love them and respect them for making the best choice they can for their child.
3. Don't encourage a breast feeding mom to stop early to satisfy your own wants. Chase and I are both pretty hardheaded and we aren't going to be swayed but I can see how someone would listen to the riff raff and quit early because someone is telling them they are wrong.
Breast feeding hasn't been an easy journey but has by far been one of the most rewarding. What would make things easier is not hearing negative things like "that's why you need to stop that" or continuously asking "when is he starting solids?" We are just following Cohen's lead through this. When he's ready he'll let us know and we'll go from there. Honestly, we are crazy about this handsome boy and we are just taking it day by day. When we're ready to start the weaning process and more importantly when Cohen is ready we'll be sure to let everyone know. So, please just take the time to love and encourage the new parents in your life for whatever decision they have made regarding feeding their infant. They need that love and encouragement... Especially mom.
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