A couple of recent posts really caught my attention...the first by Pat about
the formula fiasco. I remember in my pre-mother days visiting my brother and
his wife and my nephews, both of whom were exclusively formula fed. This was
in 1981 and 1987 respectively, and I still remember that my sister in law
talked about how the nurses in the hospital actually encouraged her to
breastfeed, at least to give my nephew colostrum, but she refused. Since
becoming involved in the breastfeeding field, I have always thought that
those nurses deserved a medal for encouraging mothers to breastfeed, even if
the moms declined. Anyway, I would visit them, and my brother and sister in
law, both college graduates, would take the ready to serve formula and pour
it into bottles for night feedings, and then leave them out for however many
hours were needed until the baby needed it. They too did not warm it because
they never refrigerated it...just opened it and into the bottles it went. I
do think they would refrigerate what was left over from this, but not those
bottles. My sister in law said a similar thing to what the mom in Pat's post
did....after all, it wasn't refrigerated in the store, so why should it be at
home? It's really a wonder that my nephews did not get sicker than they
were...going to day care at 4 weeks old each, they both seemed to have
continual colds for the first several years of their lives.....
I also wanted to applaud Jan for he post about the lack of complications seen
in the birthing center she helped start vs. the hospital....you may recall my
post regarding my own experience of breastfeeding following five C-sections
that I posted a couple of months ago. With my last baby, 20 months ago, my
usually abundant supply was so slow coming in that my ABO jaundiced baby was
getting very dehydrated and had to be given some formula...which nearly
killed me, but what are you going to do? My own lactation consultant
explained to me that the amount of fluids in my body (I was swollen from
ankles to hips) was probably to blame for this. So, intervention leads to
the need for more intervention. My experience would validates yours, from
the opposite point of view. In my case, I don't think bonding was
compromised because of this, but tying together my two stories, I know that I
was aghast at the lack of closeness my sister in law seemed to have with her
bottle fed babies...and I can see some of the results of this in my now
nearly 20 year old nephew especially. I think there are many things that can
cause this distance between mothers/fathers and babies. Surely bottle
feeding and early separation for long periods of time contribute to it.
Just a couple of (long) thoughts....
Betsy Koval
Lansing, MI
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