Nikki said, and I agree "Sure, it is very inconvenient if mothers stay home
to mother. It takes a
lot of time. I have met many women for whom collecting their milk at work is
not an option that makes any sense for them; they are already working very
very
hard: running the house, taking care of other children plus full time
employment. They are already exhausted from working outside the home during
a
pregnancy. What and where is the incentive for her to work even harder to
pump
and
collect her milk?
Sick babies are considered normal, because they are so common. "Lots of
babies have ear infections."
I cannot imagine why so many people fail to put two and two together and
realize that having a sick baby is infinitely more inconvenient than
breastfeeding, whether they are home during the day or not!
This makes me think of the case of a friend of mine, who'd had a baby born
at the same time I adopted Joseph. The baby was her sixth child, but first
son. For the first three months or so, she'd breastfed exclusively and her
son had been the picture of health. I can still picture this mom bouncing
her happy little brown eyed, brown haired, olive complected cherub on one
leg, and my happy little nappy-haired, dark brown-skinned, black eyed cherub
on the other, while I played the piano in church. Unfortunately, she was
feeling overwhelmed at home and decided she needed for her older children to
be able to help feed the baby. Her baby was not willing to take both
bottles and the breast, and she weaned all together and put him on formula.
Everything changed dramatically, after that. Her son had severe diarrhea
and vomiting that would not stop. Instead of growing normally, like Joseph
was, her boy was losing weight. She was barely getting any sleep at all,
and was scared to death that her son had some terminal illness that just
hadn't been diagnosed. Fortunately, he did get better, but not until after
months of torture.
Fortunately, this mom saw the connection between weaning her son from the
breast, and his horrible illness, and never inclined to wean a baby early,
again. The last time I saw her, she was holding her 8th child, a 20 pound
four month old boy, who was totally breastfed.
Of course, it would not be considered PC to say anything to a mother to the
effect that her choice of feeding was what caused her baby to be sick, which
brings up another topic to discuss but, really, don't mothers have the RIGHT
to know that choosing not to breast feed requires acceptance of a much
greater rate of illness?
Darillyn
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