Elaine,
You wrote:
<Not the breastfeeding per se, but all that goes with nurturing
little ones and growing myself in the process. It is, on some level, a
vain
attempt to hold back the clock and not rush into the (very scary)
"raising
teenagers" stage. I had also noted that the women I admired most (of
those
in their late 40s to 60s) either had several children or told me they
wish
they had had more.>
This echoes my motivation, even while, and partly because of, raising
teen agers, to persuade my husband to start a "second family" when I was
37, going on 38. I remember hearing an obstetrician say that if a woman
had any secret desires about having more children, her psychological
adjustment to menopause would be easier if she went ahead and had a child
late in life.
I also remember feeling as if "perhaps this time I can get it right"
(the breastfeeding and the general rewardingness of parenthood part). Our
oldest 4 were 15 on down to 8, and at the time, I remembered it as mostly
less rewarding and much more of a struggle than I had anticipated when I
started out to be a parent. I can understand better now the many, many
reasons why I felt that way at the time.
When I was in the childbearing years, many of my classmates had 13, 11,
9 or 8 etc. children, and religious views about unnaturally curtailing
fertility entered into it. Ecology was not the "in" thing yet. I then
viewed 6 as a relatively small family. But the same 6 have come to be
viewed by today's standards, as a very large family. Perhaps because I
was more mature, I found a deeper enjoyment in having and breastfeeding
(successfully, and for 2 1/2 years) and rearing my 5th child.
I learned even more about life from rearing our 6th child, whom we
adopted 2 years later when I was 41. It turned out to be an entirely
different type of experience but I wouldn't trade either experience now,
partly because I appreciate that children raise their parents just as
much or more than parents raise their children. And I am convinced that
the breastfeeding experience, or the lack of it, is an integral part of
the "reward feeling" factor. That's what keeps me active in the lactation
field today.
Jean
************************************************
K. Jean Cotterman RNC, IBCLC
Dayton, Ohio USA
________________________________________________________________
YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET!
Juno now offers FREE Internet Access!
Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.
***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|
