Tuesday, December 17, 2013

To breastfeed or not to breastfeed.....that is the question


Lately this seems to be the topic of conversation....might have something to do with this image

Shortly after we landed in the 'safe zone' of our pregnancy (let's face it, that place really does not exist especially if you are an infertilet) I wondered if I would be breastfeed, would it work for me, would I produce enough for my child....the only thing I kept saying is I will try - good old College Motto...really it is, Norwich University: I Will Try. 

After birth I was shocked at how quickly she latched and I thought...huh, what is all the fuss about this being hard....fast forward probably 24 hours to a screaming newborn, sleep deprived new mom and a nurse man handling my boob to try to get my daughter to eat. It wasn't working. I was failing. I couldn't do this. These were my thoughts - I broke down. The nurses are there to help you, support you, take care of you.....but some made me feel horrible that I couldn't feed my own child. They did everything they could think of before mentioning the word formula. Through blood shot, swollen teary eyes I said my daughter has to eat, if it's formula, then it's formula.

Why is formula so frowned upon? Kids from the 60's,70's, 80's were all pretty much formula fed babies and they all turned out just fine....hell I was a formula fed baby and I'm good! There is so much pressure on women to make sure they breastfeed their babies that it becomes too much. People need to realize it is a choice, some women are not fortunate enough to be able to produce for their babies, they have a difficult time with it. Do I think the women that try give up too soon??? Probably. It's hard. It's frustrating. It's heartbreaking. I ended up solely pumping because my daughter would become 'hangry' but would breastfeed if she needed to be topped off. Once I stopped pumping (for my own reasons) and we ran out of frozen milk, she was on straight up, good old formula. And guess what, she's good.....happy, healthy, fat formula fed faced baby.

To the women that breastfeed - more power to you....and more pennies in your pocket! To the women that don't....no worries, you only get dirty looks from the breastfeeding Nazi's once in a while ;)

*please note that last comment was meant as a joke.....there are some sensitive peeps out there!

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