Patricia,
Your insight never ceases to amaze me. I have experienced this same
understanding of what was happening with a baby and mother, but could not
put the feeling into this perfect description. Thank you, again.
Mary A. Banaszewski RN, IBCLC

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Patrica Gima said:
>
> I asked both of these mothers about their "body feelings" when they were
> putting the baby to breast and when they were bottle feeding.  You won't
be
> surprised at their answers.  First of all, they both felt personal
> rejection.  When they picked up the baby and offered the breast they were
> thinking, "Oh my, I wonder if he will do it this time. Why doesn't he
want
> to feed from me?"  Much tension and anxiety. When baby failed to feed at
> the breast, mom got a bottle of ebm, closed up her breasts and *in a
> relaxed manner* gave the bottle.  There was no tension of "Oh, I wonder
if
> he will do it this time. Why doesn't he want to feed from the bottle?"
>
> Babies are smart.  They can sense when a mother is happily *engaged* in a
> feeding at the breast.  It feels good to them.  But when mom is at ease
> with the bottle and tense with breastfeeding, the latter doesn't feel as
> good.  The *preference* is the relaxed, glad-I'm-doing-this mom.