Just to jump in with my personal experience...The first night after my son
was born, he was in bed with me.  After four hours of sleep from both of us,
I awoke.  Looking over at my new baby, I realized he was sleeping very
soundly.  Something made me uncomfortable.  I whispered to my husband, "He
hasn't nursed in four hours."  My husband wisely said, "Follow your gut
instinct.  If it bothers you and you think he needs to be fed, then wake
him."  I did.  He did a fabulous nursing followed by four more hours of sleep
from both of us and another great nursing.

The thought that keeps creeping into my head is that if moms are allowed to
trust themselves without all of the societal constraints, opinions, mandates,
moral imperatives, etc., about feeding, then women would know instinctively
when their babies needed to be fed and when they didn't (barring very unusual
circumstances, of course).  IMHO, the problem is that women are so busy
questioning themselves (because one group says one thing and another says the
complete opposite and yet another says something different--each group giving
the feeling that "this is the way you SHOULD do it") that the women don't
hear their inner instinctual voices anymore.  Those little pricks of
conscience have been drowned out by the din of our numerous cultural
expectations.

Jessica Harrison Carlyon, MBA, CD, CLE

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