OK LActnetters, since we're discussing reasons Mom give to not
breastfeed...here is my personal challenge.
A Very Close Relative [let's preserve her anonymity], persuaded by me, and
by her own desire to lose weight quickly (not the most promising reason,
but we made the most of it...) tried with little support to breastfeed. SHe
managed for 4 days after which I left her in England (I returned to US)
with her Mum who said "This baby spits out the nipple just like you when
you were a baby."
The baby was very fussy and they ended up calling a midwife who came at 3
a.m. (they do things like this in England), gave the baby a bottle of
formula (they do that too), and baby slept for 7 hours. End of
breastfeeding. The baby returned to being a fusser within days and has
never slept well which is a big deal for them. They put him on 'formula for
very hungry babies' - presumably something that takes a horribly long time
to digest...
Now my Close Relative is trying to conceive another baby and as she's very
young (early 20s) and no problems last time, chances are she will.
She was grateful for my support last time and the one thing that appealed
to her was that she plus hubbie got flu at time of birth, and her milk
seemed to protect the baby (guess who told her this).
However, when I hinted that breastfeeding really helped my children do
better at night, she said, "Oh, I wish I'd never tried THAT. I won't do it
next time. That's where the problem started."
She is very nice. She is just young and naive and not terribly well
educated especially with breastfeeding. SHe has no support except for me
and she probably thinks I'm just an interfering, crazy old mother (over 30)
of 3.
Should I just leave her in peace? Any suggestions that might appeal to such
a Mom?! (She never did lose the weight either!)
Anne Merewood