Hello, cyber friends.

I have been nomail for quite a while and came back to see this thread
going.  I am a CNM in SW Washington State for those who don't know me.

My first baby was born in 1973, and I don't think it ever occured to me to
not breastfeed.  I was one of those hippie types in those days, into
natural foods, interested in herbal medicines, etc.  My mom had bottle fed
me -- she was told by her doctor that she was "too nervous" to breastfeed,
but my grandmother, who lived with us, had breastfed my mom for four
years and was convinced that it was much, much better.   When I was 19, I
had my first experience knowing a pregnant woman (I was an only child),
and she did Lamaze and introduced me to the concept of "natural
childbirth". She breastfed her baby for three months. A few years later, I
met another woman who was pregnant and who had her baby at home. That baby
was still nursing the last time I saw her and he was eight months old.
Having a sensitive nose, I was struck by how much nicer breastfed babies
seemed to smell compared to the bottle fed ones I had known.

I had lots of questions about many things in pregnancy, but feeding method
was not one of them.  I did read the first edition of Nursing Your Baby,
and found it to be wonderful in preparing me.  I did have a home birth and
Ben, my son, ended up being one of those colicky kids.  My parents were
urging me to feed him "real food" when he was two months old and their
friends were very disparaging about his constant nursing. I was pretty
rebellious and stubborn. Nursing was just so much easier and I couldn't
imagine doing anything else.  Besides, even then, I figured that if he was
colicky with just breast milk in his system, it would be much worse if we
added other things.

Still when Ben was about 15 months old, I encountered lots of pressure to
wean and I somehow thought it would give me more freedom.  We had a very
traumatic weaning that I swore that I would not repeat with any future
children and didn't.  I breastfed the rest of my children (3 more in the
next 12 years) until they weaned themselves, usually at age 4 or so.

During my nursing years (last baby weaned in 1990), especially with the
first two children, I wasn't particularly militant about breastfeeding,
except that I loved the connection it gave me, and felt that I would not
have been a very good bottle feeding mom as I could do nursing easily and
intuitively and would feel like I was having to work and second guess my
children if I were bottle feeding which I didn't feel (and still don't
feel) that I would have much patience for.

With my later children, I noticed that the nursing connection sure seemed
to smooth out things as they got older. We experienced none of the
terrible twos or tantrums and unhappiness I experienced with my first
kiddo.  I think the depth of our connection persisted longer thru out
childhood..... My final two are just entering adolescence..... Now, it
would be nice to have something like nursing to gentle each of them thru
the mood changes and turbulence of those times, but hugs and occasional
cuddles and the foundation of love built upon attachment parenting will
have to suffice.

Ione Sims, CNM