"Safe bed-sharing, breastfeeding, and attachment parenting are like seat
belts..."  I really like this idea expressed by Nikki.  I was thinking
along the same lines last week.  I can't remember the post that
triggered that thought but I know I was thinking that life seems so
contradictory. I can say for myself that I enjoyed breastfeeding,
bed-sharing, and attachment parenting but there were times when I was
definitely not joyful about it.  Life is like that.  There are times
that the people I love the most, irritate me the most.  I guess it is
the duality of life.  I remember an art teacher telling me that the
opposite of love was not hate but apathy.  I get the impression from
some mothers that unless everything goes perfectly--breastfeeding,
childbirth, etc.--they feel like they have somehow failed.  I was once
told that I mustn't have had a "good" homebirth because I had said that
my labor was painful.  I guess the perfect birth is suppose to be
without pain.  Just like the perfect breastfeeding relationship is
without pain or trouble?  I can say that as I near the half-century mark
that life isn't about perfection.  My births and my breastfeeding
relationships with my children were filled with imperfections(likewise
my parenting).  They brought me enormous joy but there were
problems..there was pain at times.  Living the best we can is not about
having a perfect life but how we handle the imperfections of our lives.
Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC

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