What was your personal reason for your feeding choice? - Page 5

[redhotmama]

Originally Posted by Sagesgirl

And from a spiritual standpoint--God made me this way, and He makes no mistakes.

Yes!
Also, my mother breastfed me in the 70's after a nightmarish birth and with no advice, support or assistance from anyone in her family or hospital staff. My whole life I've known it's just what you do.

If for some reason I "couldn't" breastfeed, I'd get a friend, a wet nurse, or a milk bank for help. I would just as soon let my 5 year old drive a car than feed my baby artifical lab created junk food.

What I'm especially impressed with are mommas who maybe ff a first baby and then realize breastfeeding is their new choice with subsequent babies (or feeding in the case of above poster) Good job mama!

[SleeplessMommy]

I was BF as a baby... so of course I gave my baby the best possible food source, mommy milk.

[attachedmamaof3]

Without reading anyone else's posts ('cause it's more fun that way! ), I didn't think about it at all. There was nothing to decide for me, seriously. FF never even entered my mind as an option. (Don't mean this the wrong way but..) Anything other than breastfeeding seemed ridiculous to me, since that's literally the reason we have breasts and I'd never even considered anything else. And I'd never heard of the apparent phenomena of breasts not working.

[SPOpa]

Well, I looked at it this way: I live a healthy lifestyle. I read labels on my food. I won't buy something if it is filled with chemicals or harmful things. If I want orange juice, I will buy real orange juice, not orange "drink" with high fructose corn syrup and artificial coloring.

I figured I owed the same to my baby: why get him artificial food that attempts to replicate breastmilk when I can give him the perfect food that is breastmilk?

[momuveight2B]

My mom breastfed her children as had my grandmother and greatgrandmother, the lady next door and my aunts.

When my youngest brother came along mom had a very difficult c-section, what we now know as post partum depression and a child who could not latch properly. She was in so much pain she gave in to bottle feeding as was common in the early 1970s.

This baby of all of her children had terrible colic and was in the hospital several times. I was only about six at the time but I remember how terribly unhappy he was. My mom was unhappy too because she had to mix the formula from a recipe each day, bottle it and boil it on the stove to sterilize and seal the bottles. It was a lot of work. I didn't understand why she didn't nurse him like the past babies.

She became so depressed that she couldn't care for him and left to live with her parents.

Now she can talk about it and understands what went wrong. She was a very experienced breastfeeding mom who had a good support system. The entire family has always talked about how sick formula made this child. He is almost forty now and his children are breastfed and they follow CLW.

So I grew up knowing that it was really important to breastfeed and avoid formula at all costs.

I also have a sister who allowed formula to be given to her child in the hospital and the baby almost died. She broke out in blisters all over her body and was having difficulty breathing. Sister was a bf mom too but gave in to pressure to allow a bottle after a difficult birth.

[lesley&grace]

When I was pregnant with DD I made the choice to try breastfeeding. My dh took a course at University in Breastfeeding, as part of his BSC in Nursing, during my last trimester, so we both learned a lot about how milk is made and nursing and so on. But I was really nervous about it because you do hear so many people talk about how they "couldn't" and how hard it was, I watched my mom struggle to bf a babe (who we now know was lactose intolerant, an issue that could have been solved with cutting dairy out of her diet, but we did not know that then) as he projectile vomited her milk and screamed in pain. I decided to commit to 6 months, then see where we were with it. My dh tried to convince me to commit to a year, but I told him to stop pressuring me and accepted formula samples "just in case".

My early hesitation to commit to bf was because I was so worried that I would not be able to and I just did not think I would handle the disappointment. I finally explained to my dh why I needed him to stop pressuring me, and he tried to understand that I was terrified of failing at something that seemed (to me anyway) to be such a innate aspect of motherhood. So I can totally understand why new moms are worried, and how pressure can basically send them to ff if things get difficult, it's why I try really hard not to harp on moms-to-be about bf, I give my advice and let them know that I am here if they need me.

Thankfully for me, bf went very well, I had lots of support and I nursed her until she was 20 mos, stopping when my pregnancy made it incredibly painful to keep going. And what I have learned since about formula companies made me very proud that my dd never had any, and that my son won't either.

[JamesMama]

It never really occoured to me NOT to. I decided while we were TTC that I was going to bf. Formula was never really an option...

It's not like I had culture pressing in on me to breastfeed. If anything the opposite because I had never met a single person that bf'ed...in fact I had a lot of pressure to supplament and even not breastfeed at all. Guess it's just the rebel in me. LOL.

Plus we didn't have a lot of money and I didn't want to get on WIC. So free stuff it was!

[thismama]

Nobody in my family breastfed, except for one aunt, for a brief time.

For me it was/is an act of feminism, of acknowledging and utilizing the power of my body to sustain the life of my child. Very empowering. And I was not supporting formula companies who exploit other women in poorer countries. It was also about giving my child the best emotional and nutritional start in life, and about fostering secure attachment between us.

Love breastfeeding. Which is probably why I'm still doing it, 3.5 years later.

[mags]

I was taught in nursing school that, "breast is best" and it really stuck in my head. Plus, I was lucky enough to work at a nursing unit prior to having my first baby in which there was almost a 100% BF rate of the nursing staff (the only non-BFer was the desk clerk), and they all pumped at work. It set the standard for me that it was, "the norm." Of course we ended up moving to a different state where BFing was not as common, but it did not change my mind.

[sillymommaX2]

9 years ago nobody told me that BF and Formula were different. I honestly knew NOTHING about BF. I did try it cause my doctor told me to. I was young and decided it wasnt something I wanted to do. : I had no support from DH (than BF) and my own mother who nursed all of us till we were 15months didnt even share her stories or words of encouragement.

When I had my 2nd child it was 7 years later. I knew more and BF was natural to me. Now with #3 there wasnt even a choice.

When my DD gets to the child bearing years, I will be sure to encourage her. I already do.

[mlally]

In my family everyone breastfeeds. It never occurred to me to us a bottle. We are ranchers and the orphan lambs and calves always look terrible and die on a dime because they do not get their mother's milk. The ones who nurse are the biggest and healthiest. The ewes who are good milkers are the ones we keep. Therefore that is the best thing for my baby also

[edamommy]

my breasts made milk. What's the other choice? AND my ds was a 33weeker in the hospital for amonth and I didn't even meet him for over 48 hours... and he STILL only received breastmilk! via gavage/donor for the 2nd/3rd day and then by gavage/breast from me.

[Bella Mia]

I knew my mom had breastfed me and my siblings (though I now know it wasn't for very long at all). And I suppose in a way I think I wanted to be like her, or to please her.

She had also delivered 2 of her 4 kids w/o pain meds so I wanted to try that as well. I ended up being medicated for dd's birth, but I've breastfed for far longer than she ever did

I sort of knew breastfeeding was best when I "decided," but I have definitely come a long way since then!!

[cjuniverse]

I was breastfed for maybe a day, and was raised in very much a bottle-feeding, body-hating culture. Breasts were sexual and sexual was BAD, therefore breastfeeding was sexual and BAD (though this was never said directly, it's definitely the message I picked up). Babies got bottles, that was it. My grandmother has said (and still says, despite the fact that I'm still breastfeeding her almost 13-month old great-grandson) that breastfeeding is 'disgusting', and that she didn't breastfeed because she 'isn't a cow'. :

So yeah, not a lot of support or encouragement or positive influence from my surrounding environment. Which made me all the more determined to 'show them all', as I've always been the defiant child. Certainly an element of rebelliousness there.

I don't remember what *I* thought about breastfeeding before I decided to get pregnant with my son (though I'm nearly positive I did make some anti-NIP statements at some point). Never saw it (or at least don't remember seeing it) done anywhere, not on my radar really.

However, I've always been one to question things and just do what I want to do regardless. 'Alternative' and 'natural' ways of living have always been attractive to me, and that innate sense (logic!) is definitely the prime motivator in leading me down the path I'm treading.

I did tons of research while pregnant, and in doing so came upon lots of information about breastfeeding. At that point, even though I had not decided whether or not to remain in my son's life (long story, pm if you want details), I figured there was no point in spending money on something my body would make for free. I also didn't want my husband to have to raise a sickly child alone. Basically, I wanted to give him (my son) the best chance at good health I could.

I believe the original plan was to stick around to breastfeed for at least six months (or work out a pumping arrangement). That turned to a year, then shortly before my son was born I committed to parenting him, and nursing for as long as possible.

In the end, it was a combination of (internet) research, my own instincts, and a general open-minded, holistic way of thinking, and questioning authority and conventional memes and modes.

And stuff.

[Novella]

Originally Posted by G8P4

I notice that some of you have said that you breastfed because you are a mammal, or that you breastfed because it was the norm for you, your particular cultural norm. But, I want you to dig down deeper! Why, then, was it important for you to do something that was the norm for your culture or species? Would you have been embarrassed or ashamed not to breastfeed? Would it have just felt wrong? Or, was it that it was truly unimaginable, just like putting yourself on renal dialysis or walking on crutches for those with legs that are not broken? For those who grew up in a culture of breastfeeding how do you think it would have “felt” to do otherwise, or was it truly not a consideration for you? Or did some of you living within breastfeeding cultures breastfeed because your role models breastfed and you admired and looked up to them?

Hmmm. . . I guess for me it was important to honour the norm for our species because I think humans like to give airs about how we can outsmart the natural world and time and time again we are proven wrong! I like to try to remember and respect our mammal ways because I think it has all kinds of important ramifications for how we treat our fellow (wo)man. We spent a year in Austria. Although on the world perspective, Austria and Canada are a lot more similar than they are different, the differences were astounding! In 20-seconds: Every business-man in a suit knows what cow manure smells like and how it gets handled - people seem to be a more associated with the natural world than in North America. Their society sends many messages that being fat isn't OK, but at the same time you can be nude and obese on a beach or at a sauna and everyone will just let you be!

And there certainly would have been some of the sentiment of "why use crutches when I have legs" in that I never really CHOSE breastfeeding over formula.

I got really angry at What to Expect When Your Expecting (the first pregnancy book I ever bought). I think it does a real disservice to women. IMO, the authors are so busy trying to appeal to everyone to boost their sales, that they have almost no good advice - they talk about the "advantages" of everything! This reflection of that book extends far beyond their discussions about how to feed newborns, BTW!

Nope, there was no one who I admired and looked up to who breastfed and thus was a role model. My grandma maybe, but given that formula wasn't available when she was having babies, it doesn't really apply. My mom breastfed, but I've never held her in the highest regard on most fronts.

Yes, I definitely would have been embarrassed and ashamed to not breastfeed. Most of the women I know who choose that route easily are uneducated and uninspiring. I would not want to "be part of their club" as snotty as that might sound.

And like the other poster who mentioned a friend saying that the baby formula smelled so gross she wouldn't taste it. . . I mixed up calf milk replacer on the farm and it just about turned my stomach! I was utterly disgusted to realize that baby formula smelled the same way.

[the_lissa]

I didn't choose to breastfeed so much as I just didn't choose to formula feed. Why wouldn't I do something biologically normal?

[spughy]

I breastfed because my parents always talked about how vital it was for a healthy baby. I grew up with the notion that GOOD moms breastfed. It was inconceivable to me that I wouldn't breastfeed.

Then when my DD was born I lost a LOT of blood and ended up with very low milk supply and had to supplement. I felt like such a failure - BUT I am very glad that I felt that way, and didn't give up, I worked my butt off pumping and taking domperidone and eventually I WAS able to bf exclusively. DD got every bit of breastmilk I was able to produce and she is still happily nursing at nearly 18 mo. Without that pressure of expectation I might have given up.

[sharon71]

12 yrs ago with my 1st DD I thought it would be "cool" to BF and cheap. I BFed her 4 mths and switched to formula. She had thrush for almost 3 mths and we(I) couldn't get rid of it. I now know that I should have been treated also.
10 yes ago with My 2nd DD I BFed because I did her with her sister however i switched to formula again at 4 mths. i was exhausted and the only parent since my DH had been deployed since the baby was 5 weeks old.
My 3rd DD I was older,wiser and more educated on breastfeeding,the "evilness" of formula,etc We went through 5 yrs of infertility to get pregnant with our 3rd and I made a promise that if I got pregnant I'd do everything in my power to BF and avoid formula i'm proud and happy that she hasn't had a drop of formula and is still BFed at 21 mths.

[althara]

My mom breastfed my brother and I. And I saw my cousin breastfeed her babies. It was always a perfectly natural and normal thing for me. And once I became pregnant and started to educate myself about all things baby I found out that formula was inferior.

Now I just wish my mom had known about nursing strikes. She said I self weaned at 10 mos. And my SIL stopped bf her baby at 4 months because the baby "just wasn't interested anymore".

[RoundAbout]

My mom did not breastfeed, nor did any of my aunts, cousins, etc.

But I grew up hearing studies about how it was best and figured it was natural and knew that I would do it. So I would say those information campaigns really do work. As an adult, expense and convenience (and a good dose of stubborness because we had serious bf issues the first 6 weeks) made the choice to bf a slam dunk.

BTW, my mom is now very pro-breastfeeding and she brags to me about her friend/coworker who is EBF and pumping despite the difficulties of doing so with an on-the-go blue collar job.