Valerie - I just wanted to say that I agree with your sentiments. I am
still very new to this field and am currently in training to be a
breastfeeding peer counsler at our local hospital, but I do have personal
experience in 'milk harvesting'. For the first 2 months of my sons life I
did nothing but pump and bottle feed him, not neccessarly because of a
serious medical issue like you described, but because I was ill informed
regarding some standard bfing issues that can arise. I saw pumping as my
ONLY way to continure feeding my son my milk, which was very important to
me. Believe me when I say it was very time consuming and heartbreaking, but
I stuck to it and thank goodness I did, because otherwise I would not still
be bfing him now (at 16 months and pg!). Luckily my son had other plans,
and decided to go back to my breast with ease and no help from anyone - boy
was I lucky. During that time I considered almost daily switching to
formula, but knowing I was 'breastfeeding' really made me stick to it, I
knew I was doing the best I could at the time to feed and nurture my baby
the best way possible. This is the case for some women, I subscribed to
pumpmoms and the support there was unbeliveable, and they were actually the
ones who kept encouraging me to try putting him back to the breast. As a
mother who does breastfeed, sometimes it just feels like sometimes nothing
is good enough - whether it be co-sleeping, pumping, weaning. Obvioulsly we
all want the same thing - for babies to be breastfeed by their mothers and
for mothers to know the benifits and want to breastfeed - but I feel when
we start getting into the tecnicalities of who is doing it the 'right way'
or the 'better way' we are losing our objective. This will other turn
mothers away, not bring them in.

Going back to learning mode

Grace O'Connor
IBCLC wannabe, Bfing peer counsler, Nursing mother to Ethan (16 months) and
due with #2 in April.

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