As a medical student with a "delinquent" strand, I read everything I
could about unmedicated labor, and breastfeeding (including "Spiritual
Midwifery"... and was labeled "a poet" by a friendly though rough
obstetrician). Obviously, I ended up helping my friends to bf. So, of
course, when my time came, the least I could do was breastfeeding. My
husband was all for it, all my sisters-in-law had bf for a max of 10 mo,
and my mother was adamantly though politely against it, thinking that I
was doing it "just to prove something"...
My first son weaned at five months, and I was so proud that I had not
forced him. In fact, I had nursed him morning and evening 7 days a week,
thinking that the supply would hold. It did not.
My daughter weaned at 10 months, because a bottle was much easier to drag
around than the mommy. I knew better than the first time, and was
disappointed.
And Felix is still nursing... 34 months, nursing every evening, and most
mornings. He says "good" and "licious", smaking his lips after a feed,
and graciously opens his mouth when he hears me go "ouch". No more
interested in weaning than in toilet training.
Is there any other way of mothering ?

Louise Denhez, M.D., M.P.H
Chargee d'enseignement clinique
Departement de medecine sociale et preventive
Montreal, Quebec