Why I Celebrate Nursing

This past week was World Breastfeeding Week. I thought it would be appropriate to explain why I post about it, talk about it, blog about it.
I do so because it’s important. Not just to me. It’s important for people, and not just mothers, but important to all humans, to know the breastfeeding is normal. There is nothing obscene or immodest about it. It’s important for people to be able to talk about it openly, for mothers to come and ask for help, and for children to learn it is the normal way to feed babies. I dislike the “breast is best” message because it implies that formula is a good substitute. It is not. Breast is normal. Formula is barely adequate.

Formula Feeding Doubles Infant Deaths in America
And it comes with a high cost
Breastfeeding could save 1.3 million infant lives each year
Six million babies now saved every year through exclusive breastfeeding
Breastfeeding reduces risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and others

That's a lot of babies and women and families affected by a normal way that mammals feed offspring.

I became an advocate for breastfeeding after my own experience as a new mother, struggling to breastfeed my son. Only after my own struggle did I really understand why nearly 74% of women attempt breastfeeding in the US, yet before their babies are even 3 months old, only 33% of women are exclusively breastfeeding. It drops even more at 6 months, to 13.6% That's a lot of disappointed mommies who tried and many who feel like they or their bodies failed them. Society failed them, is my opinion. Actually, I also believe the mothers who chose not to even try breastfeeding, were influenced heavily on their decision by our society. The one that shuns nursing mothers. The one that isolates new moms and babies from church meetings, social parties, and even family gatherings. The society that fills advertising with bottles and formula, so much so that it’s even difficult to find baby cards or gift bags without a bottle. Our children grow up never seeing it. Our sons and daughters grow up, curious about the shameful activity that must be taking place behind a Hooter Hider.
It's very frustrating to be trying to breastfeed, and when you ask women you know questions to try and get help, they tell you to just give the baby a bottle. They tell you that they never had those problems, and if it is hard, you should formula fed. Your friends tell you that the reason your life is difficult is because you're choosing to make it that way. Your baby would be calmer, happier, easier, you'd have more energy, you would have freedom, others would bond better... all if you just formula fed. I'm not making this up. I was told all of this when I was struggling in the early days/weeks to breastfeed my newborn son. All lies. Breastfeeding, once you get past the hard part (if you even have a hard part), is easy. It makes LOTS about parenting easier.
It's also frustrating that even the little "helpful tips" people, friends, even doctors & nurses tell you could unknowingly sabotage your milk supply. Stuff like having somebody else feed the baby a bottle in order for you to get a "break" (and they don't tell you that you need to pump whenever the baby is fed a bottle, so your body knows to make more milk... doesn't matter if you already pumped the milk in order to provide that bottle). Or topping off breastfeeding with a bottle (even if a newborn baby is full, they'll suck more down when that bottle nipple activates their sucking reflex). Or limiting the amount of time baby is allowed to spend breastfeeding (My MIL was told she had to unlatch baby after 10 minutes on each side, then give pacifier if baby still wanted to suck... and her milk "shockingly" dried up after a few months with each baby... yet she still passed on this "wisdom" to me because she was trying to help and had no idea that was likely the cause of her failure).

I thought I was prepared to breastfeed! I knew friends & relatives who had tried and failed, so it made me realize I needed to get as much information as possible just in case. I paid for and took a breastfeeding class. I read books, I read online, I watched breastfeeding latching videos online... had I not been so prepared before hand, I definitely would have failed. I wouldn't have been able to spot bad information for what it was, and since we ended up having a struggle already, I just don't see how I could have possibly succeeded. I would have been one of those women who initiated breastfeeding, only to become a formula feeder.
This is why I support World Breastfeeding Week. This is why for the past year, I’ve volunteered my time as a breastfeeding mentor on the “adopt-a-mom” program for new moms who want to breastfeed. If not for other women who advocated for me, I would not have succeeded. This is why I care.