"...breastfeeding a hard and risky business..." Maybe that's why so many
first moms say, prenatally, that they're going to try breastfeeding. (Did
you ever notice that no one "tries" formula-feeding?)
Barb Roseborough, in Erie , PA w
(where there's a white coating on the ground)
> ----------
> From: Cathy Bargar[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Friday, January 14, 2000 9:14 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: perspectives
>
> Carol writes:
> "Now we are supplementing with formula at
> 16-20 ounces in 24 hours. Needless to say, the mother is most
> discouraged."
>
> I'm working right now with a mom/baby with a similar situation. At 4 wks,
> baby's just back to birth wt. - although this represents a gain of a pound
> in one wk., once they started supplementing. What struck me about "my"
> mother is that she's *not* "most discouraged", even though she's pumping,
> BFing directly, and supplementing. She says that BFing is "going well". By
> which she seems to mean that the baby is now going to breast pretty
> happily,
> even though he's not doing much eating while he's there. (And he's no
> longer
> starving,a good thing by anybody's standards.)
>
> It puzzles me that women are so willing to be content with such (to my
> eyes)
> mediocre results. It could just be the old half-empty vs. half-full thing,
> but this woman doesn't have a half-full kind of perspective, and it
> strikes
> me as something far different. It says to me that women have been led to
> believe that BFing is a very hard and risky business, and often doesn't
> "work" at all, so that as long as the baby doesn't reject the breast (and
> the mother) outright women can consider that it's "going well". Reminds me
> a
> bit of the kind of insecurity many women have about relationships with men
> -
> like a bad partner is better than none at all. It bothers me. Just another
> subtle way we've learned to de-value our bodies and our selves and our own
> power.
>
> Cathy Bargar RN IBCLC, Feeling Fussy in Ithaca NY
>
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