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Subject:
From:
Henya KnitMammy <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:24:06 -0400
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Sorry, it is came out long.
Hello, I have been reading silently this thread. Now I have decided to speak
up. First of all I have a big respect for all of you ether "natural", or
"medical" , "moderate" or "extremist". I am pitting this adjectives in
quotation marks because those categories ave liquid, depending on the issue
the same person can fit into ether one of them. This said, here is my point:
Most of you were born and grew up in democratic societies. I did not. I come
from Russia and still have very clear recollections of the realities there.
That is why I am very, very, very scared when people try to legislate
reproduction and other bodily functions. Today you see it as a law
protecting the rights of babes, tomorrow the State, or a well-meaning social
worker will decide what is good for your baby even if it is in conflict of
what you want and believe in. Here is some personal history. My grandmother
had extremely debilitating nothia during pregnancy. Here I was hospitalised
with a lot milder symptoms. But it was not considered a medical complication
in Russia. Because during her baby bearing years contraception was
non-existent she got pregnant a lot. Abortions were illegal. She almost died
after such a procedure. She had over 20 illegal abortions. Just think about
it. Is it not horrifying! On the other hand there was a time when cardiac
patients and diabetics were forced to have abortions. It was not a choice. I
had a close friend, who was very short ( about 4'8"), when she got pregnant
in the 1930th she was forcibly hospitalized in her 4th month, and kept there
until she gave birth. She told me that every day in the morning the doctors
came and told her that she has to let them abort. It went on until she
reached her 7th month. Then they started pressuring for C-section. She was
able to make it to term and have her twins (that was a surprise) naturally.
If you think that it is just history, I will tell you that it went on, at
least where I lived, past 1990s. So please think, are all YOUR choices
defensible? When I had a 12 month old baby that could not digest solids the
feeding therapist and GI were insisting on hospitalizing him and feeding
him through the IV until he matures. I did not see it as a solution. In the
end after a lot of stress I prevailed. And re lactated, and nursed him for
almost another year. What if those well-meaning people went to court to
demand treatment? They did threaten...
As I see it you really can not make a woman breastfeed. What can be done- is
to make it a lot simpler than bottle feeding.
Again, in Russia breast milk was an economic resource, not to be wasted.
Most of the women nursed. There was no alternative. Formula not only had to
be prescribed, it also had to be found ( and it was not readily available).
And everybody knew it was inferior. It was called "artificial" and that had
a stigma. But then no one was worried about making mothers feel guilty.
Guilty was good. My mother remembers that when I was a year and a half old
she was tired of nursing me and tried to get a prescription. The doctor
squashed her breast, her milk shot out, she was told to go home and feed the
baby. I was nursed until 3. Also solids were introduced at about 4 month.
But then Russia had a three YEAR maternity leave. I believe that was because
Russia always wanted to increase population. On another hand America does
not need to grow it's own kids. It has Immigration.
I wish we could combine the best of both worlds, but we can not, so we have
to live with what we got.
And try to help both members of the nursing duet. We can not protect the
baby at the mother's expense.
-- 
Henya
Brooklyn,NY

Please, visit my blog
http://chickenstitches.blogspot.com/
Find me on Ravelry as knitmammy :-)

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