After I have been here griping about continuance, I thought I would share a
nice story.  I really do have only a few moms in my practice who nurse past
a year, so I tend to get excited when I meet a new one.  This week a 45 year
old woman made an appt. with me for a well-woman exam.  During the course of
the history taking, I found out that she has a nearly 2 year old daughter
who is still nursing.  Turns out she had 2 children over a decade ago, then
lost one to cancer.  After a couple years, she and her husband decided to
try for another child, and had their little girl when mom was nearly 44.
She started telling me about how much effort her family and friends are
going through to get her to wean, and even her previous physician (the
obstetrician who quit her practice on 2 weeks notice and left me with 45 new
pregnant patients a couple months ago!) told her at her last annual exam
that she should wean because baby was getting too old (baby wasn't even 1
yet then.)  She was talking about how sad weaning made her feel, and how she
had been putting it off, and how she was becoming a "closet nurser."  I was
able to provide her with a support for nursing her baby, some resources for
her family, an invitation to LLL, and permission to tell her family that I
said breastfeeding for as long as possible was medically desirable!  She was
so excited to find out that she wasn't some kind of deviant!  There are so
few extended breastfeeders around here that the average person may never
meet one, so it was great to be able to provide her with some support.  It
was so nice to see a mom who simply nursed her baby all this time without
any problems - and to help her deflect the undesired comments and opinions
that are her only problem now.  I'm hoping she and her daughter will come to
LLL with us, and be an example to the younger, mostly first time mothers there.
Jennifer Tieman
Family Physician
Mom to 4, including nursling Caroline Rose born 5/31/03

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