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Subject:
From:
"Kathleen G. Auerbach" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 7 Jan 1999 09:42:13 -0800
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Weaning is a part of the life we all experience with some aspects more
bittersweet than other times. However, it need not be traumatic.  The
mothers I have been privileged to know over the last 2+ decades who had the
least difficult times with weaning (after LONG breastfeeding periods) were
those who simply followed the baby's lead. As they got older and nursed
less often or only at special times (early AM was our favorite; or before
going to bed), both mother and child attributed more importance to other
ways of being close.  In many many cases, the mothers could not tell me the
absolutely last time the baby breastfed, it was such a gradual process.  (I
think it was last week, but what day was that?)

On a personal note, I experienced regrets (and tears) many years later and
only after reading a book that implied that any baby who weaned before 2
years had been FORCED off teh breast (Doug weaned at 22 months, 10 days).
[Ok, ok, I was one of those obsessive compulsive first-time moms who wrote
EVERYTHING down!]  That book forced me to rethink how it was with us and
until I read it, it never occurred to me that I had forced him.  I still
don't htink I did.  He simply STOPPED one day after nursing on both sides
for about an hour, and sighing a big sigh of contentment.  A month later,
he asked and I offered, but he had FORGOTTEN what to do!  Was I surprised
at that!

Anyway, think of weaning as just one of many developmental milestones (for
all family members) that we experience, in different ways, at different
times.  It is not simply a loss, but also a sign of other more subtle
changes in the mother's relationship with her child....

Jay, hope this helps...

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"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly
disguised as impossible situations."
Kathleen G. Auerbach,PhD, IBCLC (Ferndale, WA USA) [log in to unmask]
WEB PAGE: http://www.telcomplus.net/kga/lactation.htm
LACTNET archives http://library.ummed.edu/lsv/archives/lactnet.html

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