Diane, you know much of my story already, but I will share it here. My 
eldest will be 32 next week! (HOW did we all get so old??)

My mother breastfed all four of us (and I am the oldest, so I got to see it 
lots) although she weaned my sister early (6 weeks) after having a delayed 
post-partum hemorrhage. I also grew up on a farm and saw lots of animal 
mothering and feeding. My mother also talked about her mother, who had a 
baby as a single mother (my uncle Peter) and made money by selling her milk 
to the local hospital for sick and premature babies. This, I think, helped 
me feel confident that I would have lots of milk.

When Matthew was born (in hospital), all new mothers who breastfed (very 
few) were first taught to nurse lying down. This was, I think, because most 
mothers had been given epidurals and they were trying to avoid the spinal 
headaches? They had very rigid schedules (2 minutes per side the 1st day, 
every four hours, 4 minutes the next day, etc.). These did not make sense to 
me, as I knew none of the animals on the farm scheduled or timed feedings, 
and the animals were FAR more successful than the few mothers I knew who had 
attempted breastfeeding. So I poured out the bottle of water they gave me to 
"top up" feedings, fed my baby whenever he wanted as long as he wanted, 
ignored the stuff they gave me to clean my nipples with (do horses clean 
their nipples before feeding? no!) and packed up and went home after two 
days because I was fed up with the whole place.

I went to LLL for the first time when Matthew was 6 weeks old, in order to 
learn how to breastfeed sitting up. I was getting tired of having to lie 
down every time I wanted to feed him! I still remember seeing 3-year-old 
twin boys standing up and nursing while their mother sat on the couch at 
that first meeting. I have been attending meetings ever since.

Teresa 

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