Kathy D wrote:
<<  If everyone was told and/or just knew from growing up around it, that
babies are breastfed as often as they like, and that may range from every 15
minutes to every 4
 hours, then I wouldn't be hearing so many women wail "My baby wants to eat
 again, and it's only been 2.5 hours -- what's wrong??!!" >>
I had just this "complaint" from two moms at my BF support group last week.
0ne baby was 3 weeks and the other was 12 days old....so I explained how in
this culture our expectations of babies are unrealistic. Just last month the
baby was (in the womb) continuously rocked, held and drip-fed 24-7....now, a
few short days to weeks later, it is not realistic to expect them to be able
to go several hours.
        I addressed how human babies come out before they are fully cooked;
that human brains have become so evolved that if they stayed in the womb
until fully developed, a woman would not be able to deliver them with such
large heads, so the brain must continue to grow and develop outside, but
needed conditions similar to the womb.
        I also guarantee them that by 10 months (which will fly by faster
than the pregnancy did!!) their babies will likely be eating three square
meals a day of solid foods and nursing five or six times around the
meals.They seem to understand the points I try to make, esp when backed up by
moms of older babies who can tell them they went through the same thing.
        Maybe we need to start in those prenatal (and pre pregnancy) classes,
telling them to rethink their expectations???

Kathy RNC IBCLC  in NJ

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