Carol wrote:
> what i find sad about these situations, having recently had a call from a
> relative along the same lines "my 9 mo old is weaning himself, what can i
> do?," is that it becomes apparent that the closely attached parenting
> lifestyle that we tend to expect and hope that breastfeeding will
encourage,
> does not necessarily happen. plenty of mothers are able to breast feed,
that
> is, feed their baby with their breasts, but not allow the feeding to turn
> into nurturing. this is painful for me to understand but i do see quite
> clearly what it involves

This is so common isn't it.
I had a discussion with a pregnant woman while doing a duty at the toy
library (didn't want to tell her I am a midwife and (hopefully nearly )
aspiring LC but someone else did) about breastfeeding - " I had to force my
child to drink at 9 mo, there was nothing left, then I weaned him because I
had no milk"
I'm sure so many women do get by in terms of milk production and feed q3-4h
but there are many who will "run out" with this kind of schedule.
Think that all 9mo are in danger of weaning themselves - so much else going
on for them!
Interesting reading the discussion on frequency of feeding. I too have never
looked at the clock and thought no, it's not time for a drink - put a breast
in that child's mouth mdh would say if they cried. I did think,oh no, only a
20 min (or whatever) sleep, but it seemed to easy to just slip the breast
in - who can be bothered waiting. I did however pump and return to work with
the first 2 at a youngish age - they had irregular bottles of ebm, never
formula, and fed for around 2 years.
They both used dummies, #2 a lot.
I had periods at 5 weeks and 5 mo postpartum respectively.
Now #3 is 10 mo, feeds very often and is worn a lot, even tho I *thought* I
had done that with the others - and no periods! No dummy either (never liked
them,I must admit)


Frequent feeding is frowned upon - but I often explain to parents that it is
food, drink, comfort all rolled into one.
when you ask how often they eat, drink, chew gum or
talk/phone/e-mail/fax/hug etc someone in a day it is usually at least 10-12
times or more.... seems like another reasonable analogy.
I guess this is all linked with the dependence issue we have discussed of
late.

Fiona Hermann
midwife
Hamilton
New Zealand

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