If you aren't interested in my antidote then please hit DELETE :O)
We all I'm sure have different feelings with our clients that we do with our own family, as do I. I tell my clients the nice version and then get plain old irritated at my family(or more accurately, my husband's bottle pushing family), so much so that I usually stay away from family functions in their house because the ride home then ends up being one big "I can't believe they do that" session. Well in the last six months, there have been three babies born in this family besides mine, so I wanted to go and see all the cute new babies. Last week my husband's grandmother (Mamie) told me that one cousin that just recently had twins wasn't nursing... in fact I think her response was "why on Earth would she nurse? she has her hands full enough as it is!" she didn't like my come back that it takes more hands to bottle feed. I was so disappointed, this cousin had pumped me for breastfeeding information before the babies were born, I gave her my email address (she lives out of town) and she promised to email me if she had any trouble. So needless to say, I was dreading this family function yesterday with all I had in me. Not to mention that my husband was sick so I was taking all three of my kids by myself (usually no big deal, but it was his family). So here I am dreading going, the first conversation that I get in is with one of my husband's VERY mainstream cousin's who just had a D&C and the dr. nicked her colon and she will never be able to carry to term now and has to have a col. bag, she is degrading me because of my choice to become a midwife. As I sit there and try to take it she ends with the comment "doctors go to school for years to learn how to birth women perfectly" so what pops out of my mouth in anger? "well the one who worked on you sure did a great job!" Yes, I know that was rude, just call it ten years of irritation finally coming to a head. She got up and didn't say another word to me the entire time I was there.
So how does this restore my faith? it doesn't but what happened next does... as I was sitting in this house trying to decide if I could scoop up my kiddos and leave without anyone noticing (there were about 20 people there) , but then decided my 4 year old would end up giving us up by trying to make a grand exit. Just as I am contemplating another exit route in walks my mother in law. This woman has been a thorn in my side for a long time but is suddenly very supportive of me, so I won't look a gift horse in the mouth! She notices that I am getting frustrated and comes in to tell me that the cousin with the new twins IS nursing! I about fell out of my chair. So I went and started talking to her, getting her concerns about nursing twins, etc. She says they are about 80% bf and only 20% supplemented when she needs an extra hand. She was concerned about her milk production and I assured her that they babies looked very healthy and that her body would make enough for them.
Then the icing on the cake... another cousin wants to know what I am doing about my 2 year old who doesn't want to eat lately because he's teething. I tell her nothing. She wants to know if I am concerned because he may loose weight, etc. I tell her, as she is pouring some bovine delight for her two year old, that I don't worry because I still nurse him. He gets all the nutrients that he needs and so if he only eats one or two good meals at day I can handle that. She is shocked and doesn't try to compare children with me again.
All in all, an experience that I was loathing turned out ok. It just made my day to know that the twins were being nursed!
Now back to your regularly scheduled lactation topics.
Melisa
~*~*~*~*~
Did you hear? Breast is Best
Certified Lactation Counselor
Midwifery Student
Homeopathic Counselor in Training
Childbirth Educator in Training
www.nurturingmama.com
Mom to Harry who changed my life,
Jacob who changed my spirit, and
Elleanor who changed my soul.
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