Like many of the stories I have read here over the past few days, my
breastfeeding experience had a lot to do with a strong stubborn streak: the
more difficulty I had, the more determined I became to make it work.

As a student nurse in 1966, I "assisted" a few new mothers with putting
babies to breast in the style we were taught in those days: baby first
brought to the mother at age 12 hours or more, water given first by bottle
"to be sure the baby didn't have esophageal atresia", feedings scheduled
every four hours for a total of 5 nursings per day, no more than five
minutes per side for the first 3 days, one side only per feeding so that
each breast was nursed once every 8 hours, etc.  For the few mothers who
chose "rooming in," the babies could be with them only about 8 hours a day.
 Never at night.  But I also read Karen Pryor's new book, "Nursing Your
Baby," and it made a big impression on me.  It was so different from what
we were doing.

As a new pediatric nurse at U. of Washington Hospital in Seattle in 1967, I
was impressed by the deathly ill babies referred to our unit who could not
tolerate any kind of formula.  We mixed up all kinds of complicated
concoctions for them, putting them on donated breast milk as a last resort,
and lo and behold, every one of them improved dramatically when this was
done. But the local LLL had misgivings about continually supplying donated
milk to these babies when the mothers were not willing to try to relactate,
and relationships with our unit were strained.

As a grad student in maternal-child nursing in 1970, I attended LLL
meetings in Denver, just to see what they were all about.  I wasn't married
and had no children, and was initially viewed with suspicion as a kind of
heath care system spy, but in the end was accepted.  I must admit, I was
quite taken aback to see children who could talk and swim at the pool and
were still nursing.

When I had my own first baby in 1980, I knew I would breastfeed.  In fact,
I thought I knew just about everything.  I had read lots of books by then,
taught my pediatric nursing students how to support nursing mothers (so I
thought), and was sure I didn't need to attend LLL meetings.  I figured I'd
take a 6 month leave of absence from my university teaching job and wean my
baby to a cup at that point.  Well, I had an abruptio placenta, a forceps
delivery, a baby who swallowed a lot of blood and was jaundiced and under
bili lights, who had no voice due to bruising and swelling that damaged his
cranial nerve.  He developed a staph infection under the eye pads,
requiring antibiotics.  He was sleepy and refused to nurse.  At that time
no one knew how to help with latch-on and positioning the way we do now.  I
had to wait for him to yawn, then jam him on.  His mouth would snap shut
like a mousetrap, and I had sore, bleeding nipples.  I was told to give
formula after every feeding, and had to bring him in for weight checks
every two days.  It took over a month until he regained his birth weight.
I was totally exhausted and had frequent bouts of mastitis.  My two
stepchildren (age 10 and 12) kept asking if I had breast cancer, as their
mother had died of 4 years earlier.  My husband didn't know how to help, as
these two previous children had been bottle-fed.  In desperation I drove
across town to attend the LLL series meeting titled "The Art of
Breastfeeding and Overcoming Difficulties."  I kept on going to LLL, and
eventually my baby and I learned to nurse together.  The convenience, the
love, the comfort, and the breastfeeding games were all new and unexpected
surprises.  Even though these are described in books, reading didn't
prepare me for the impact of experiencing them personally.  I did not have
relatives or many friends who knew much about breastfeeding first hand, but
I sought out and made new, supportive friends through LLL.

Josh was still nursing at age 2 1/2 when I became pregnant with "one last
baby."  This time I was SURE I knew everything.  But it turned out that I
was carrying twins.  Luckily, another mother in our LLL group was also
pregnant with twins, 10 weeks ahead of me.  She was my mentor, support and
consultant. Although I had an emergency C-section (due to the first baby
being a footling breach), both babies were good size (6 lbs, 5 lbs 3 oz)
and nursed well from the start.  Of course, nursing newborns when there are
3 other kids at home, one of them a 3 year old, was a new challenge in
itself.

Eventually, we gathered together several other mothers who were nursing
twins and arranged special LLL meetings to talk about the unique challenges
of breastfeeding multiples.  I've been a leader of this group for almost 7
years.  Yes, my kids are all weaned now!  Josh nursed until a little over
age 3, and Ben and Jon until around 4, though the last year was only to
fall asleep at night (generally about 5 or 10 minutes).  I find that I love
facilitating a group where mothers in this special situation can come
together and help each other.  They are a wonderful source of support and
encouragement to each other, and I feel honored to help make it possible
for them to meet on a monthly basis. I have finally learned that I do not
know it all and never will, and can let each mother and baby teach me more.


I became IBCLC 2 years ago.  I never went back to my university
teaching-pediatric clinical nurse specialist job, as I found it impossible
to combine the long hours and high stress level with a family of 5 kids.  I
want to be part of the effort to try to help change our society's attitudes
about the ways babies should be fed and nurtured.  I try to do this through
writing, serving on local and state breastfeeding groups, as well as
helping individual mothers and babies and my LLL group.

Anne Altshuler, RN, MS, IBCLC and LLL Leader in Madison, WI