:dizzy:

I took ds to the ped today for his 2.5 y/o checkup and while waiting, the conversation turned to nursing (every single mama in there was nursing!! 5 mamas!). Anyway, one of the mama's said that she'd just found out that she was pg and her OB told her that she needed to quit BF. I told her she needed to find a new OB!

So I suggested mine (and osteopath, who's totally pro BF), and I think she was happy to hear that there was an alternative to weaning. Hopefully she'll stick with BF - she really was disappointed at the thought of having to wean her dd.

Anyway,
I'm wondering. Is it common for doctors to suggest weaning while pregnant? Everyone I've talked to, even the other mama's in the peds office acted like that doctor was psycho!

I think it's fairly common advice, partially due to the fact that docs know squat about breastfeeding and partially due to a misguided desire to want to try to make the mother comfortable or not feel guilty if she wants to wean.

I was told at my first OB appointment with this pregnancy to quit breastfeeding ASAP. I told that OB it was time to find a different OB. I just never told the new OB because IMO, it's none of her business unless I was having problems with preterm labor.

It would take more than a book to compile all the things that your average OB doesn't know about breastfeeding...more like an encyclopedia. :lol So I am not surprised at all. So glad you were there to give the woman some better advice!

(Of course, breastfeeding during pregnancy presents challenges, and I wouldn't fault anyone for deciding to wean while pregnant! But there is no reason IMO to advise that ahead of time, absent any issues!)

When DS #1 turned 1 yr old, at his well child check my family phys said "it's okay to go ahead and wean him to whole milk now." I thought, "gee, thanks for your permission." I got pg with DS #2 3 months later and when the dr confirmed my pg he asked if I was still breastfeeding. I said yes and he said I should go ahead and wean now.

I certainly didn't wean, and never told him anymore about breastfeeding DS #1. I think he assumed I did wean him, but I didn't think it was any of his business after I did research that said it was safe to nurse during pregnancy.

I would like to know where you live that there were 5 nursing mommas in the waiting room who also thought the OB was nuts!!
:thumb :thumb

Really, a mapquest link and a good lead on apartments would do! :lol

I think it's fairly common, which is why one of my main reasons for going with a midwife with this pregnancy is that she wouldn't flip out about me nursing! I asked her at my first appointment and she said her own son nursed through out her pregnancy. In fact he nursed about a half hour after his little brother was born :)

(Of course, breastfeeding during pregnancy presents challenges, and I wouldn't fault anyone for deciding to wean while pregnant! But there is no reason IMO to advise that ahead of time, absent any issues!)


I completly agree, I think that too many people put their opinions, and old wives tales on me. I didn't wean him really, I just got like 4 months preg. or somewhere around that time, I started having production problems, and ds was eating solids now(around 1 year) and things just went down hill from there...:( sadly he wouldn't have much at all to do with BFing , and whrn he did he just was so fussy, he seemed unsatisfied..so we just kinda quit. He never has even been interested with my boobs at all after that. Even watching me BFing dd he just acts like whatever SO-I guess that everything turned out ok. But I think back now, I and I think that I could of made it work.:innocent DD will CLW when she darn well pleases:thumb

Evidence based medicine.
That is a hot-button term.

She needs to ask her OB "why", then ask where his evidence is, that she would like to read those studies and a meta-analysis of them. When he comes up with 'clinical practice experience', she responds that 'anecdote' is not evidence based medicine.

I would like to know where you live that there were 5 nursing mommas in the waiting room who also thought the OB was nuts!!
:thumb :thumb

Really, a mapquest link and a good lead on apartments would do! :lol
:yeah: I know very few bf mommas IRL. The only ones I know are from LLL!

I met a mom like that at a baby shower. She found out she was pregnant when her baby was only 4 months old and the doctor told her to wean immediately. She told me that when I was nursing Gracie and she looked so sad about it. I told her that her doctor was wrong, and should she get pregnant again while nursing her next baby she definiately didn't need to wean and she should contact LLL for more information. There were other women there that heard too, hopefully they all learned something!! I really felt bad for her, she looked jelous while I was nursing and her baby was drinking down a bottle. :(

Murietta, Ca.

:thumb

It was really cool actually, 'cept one mama had this HORRIBLE bedazzled binky with a crown shoved in her dd's mouth. She kept calling it her BLINGky.. It was so ghetto! lol:dizzy:

They were all nursed babies though. It was awesome :) :)

*

Yep, my OB (well, actually his nurse practitioner, because I was only important enough to see the OB when I needed internals at the end of my pregnancy) told me this gem.

"Oh, you still nurse? You need to wean."
"I'm not planning on weaning."
"Oh, but you have to."
"No."
(At this point she's confused...a patient refuse?!?)
"You want to keep nursing?"
"Yes."
"But our recommendation is to wean."
"Thank you for your recommendation. But my decision is not to."

She eventually gave me some bunk about "nutritional needs", but when I asked her if she really thought I was going to be malnourished while nursing, she admitted that it was unlikely.

And yes, I originally wanted midwives, who kicked me out of their practice when I got gestational diabetes. At least this OB didn't insist on inducing at 38 weeks with every gestational diabetic. I'm so getting a homebirth if I have another one.

When I was pregnant with DS2, at my first visit with the midwife she asked when I had weaned DS1. I said "I am still nursing him."

She replied "Way to go!!!"

And every midwife I saw in the practice afterwards responded the same way when I told them I was still nursing DS1 throughout pregnancy (it only came up a couple of times when they asked whether I had any pain - or when completing their paperwork and the part which said "age of weaning" for my first child was left blank).

I love love love my midwives.

My OB said that my DD (2.75yo) probably WOULD wean, but she hasn't said anything about whether I SHOULD wean or not. I would definitely have to challenge her knowledge of why I should wean if that were the case. My DD is slowly cutting back on her own and I'd hate, hate, HATE to have to fight with her over something that she loves so much. Besides, at 19 weeks, I've gone through some really painful points and I feel like I"ve gotten past the worst pain so weaning now would be crazy since I've been through so much to continue.

I have a friend who calls the doctor for everything. When she was nursing her dd1 when she found out she was pregnant w/ dd2 at 8 months, the nurse told her "you might as well start weaning her," and I believe that's what she did. We didn't talk about it, I think because she knew I was still nursing my 2 y.o. at that point and pregnant w/ the same due date as her.

Luckily, she's still nursing dd2 at 14.5 months. :thumb I've been encouraging her to continue meeting her dd's needs in this way. I'm the only one doing it for her, even her dh wants her to stop.

Why does everyone else think they know what we should do w/ our breasts?

Sus

I only tell the doctors what they need to know. Since I know most would freak out over nursing while pregnant, it isn't something I would even mention.

A friend of mine was told if she nursed while she was pg she would 'starve her unborn baby." I came back with a list off Kellymom that said her body would take care of the unborn first, nursling second, and her last. She kept nursing till her DS weaned himself when she was 4 or 5 months along.

As far as I know it's pretty common practice among OB's. Thankfully next time around I'll have a midwife who Tandem nursed her youngest two. (nursing one for 4 years and one for 5...2 years tandem)

Murietta, Ca.

:thumb

It was really cool actually, 'cept one mama had this HORRIBLE bedazzled binky with a crown shoved in her dd's mouth. She kept calling it her BLINGky.. It was so ghetto! lol:dizzy:

They were all nursed babies though. It was awesome :) :)
I think that might actually be the brand name of those pacifiers!

Pacifiers can certainly be used appropriately- or, like any other parenting tool, can be overused. I don't think it makes too much difference to the baby if it's "fancy" or "simple" as long as it's an overall safe design.

Anyway, back on topic: I'm honestly surprised women are still being told this. My Mom weaned my older brother when she found out she was pg with me, and didn't think she had the choice not to. You mean there's been no improvement in 35 years?

My OB said "there shouldn't be any problems with you breastfeeding unless you feel contractions" to which I said "having sex gives you contractions, doesn't it?" and he got all red hehe. Then he told me that DD wouldn't like my breastmilk taste and wean herself, but so far she still adores her "boo-boo's" :lol I don't know what I would have said if he recommended I quit...probably tell him that the WHO recommends 2 years of bfing and thats what I'm aiming for, but thanks for the rec'.

I'm so glad that my OB is as bf'ing friendly as he is. When I became pg with twins I took my oldest dd to her ped for an emergency visit. The doctor we got was one I had never seen before. My dd had hives and we were trying to figure out where they had come from. I told him that she had not eaten anything new and neither had I...I mentioned that she was nursing. He immediately said that if she was nursing and I was pg that I had to wean ASAP and proceeded to WRITE IT IN MY DD'S CHART that he advised me to wean!! What the....???? Needless to say I changed ped's literally the next day.

I told my OB what happened and he was LIVID! He said there was no evidence that I needed to wean even if I was carrying twins and that it was none of that ped's business because I was his patient. I believe he even called his office to tell him as much. My OB has also hired me to teach a 2 hour bf'ing class to his expectant patients. He rocks....:thumb

As a side note...my oldest dd nursed until she was 25-months-old which was about 1 1/2 months before her twin sisters were born. :)

When I went in for my first OB appointent, the nurse asked me when my last af was. I told her 3 months early. Her response? You're just coming in NOW?? I told her, yes, b/c I just got af back after 2 years, since I was still nursing... Her response?

"Honey, you'll have to stop that. You need all your nutrients for your baby."

When I told dh, he laughed and stated... uh, didn't know all your nutrients just come out of your breasts. ;-)


The dr, didn't make it out as a big deal, though, and only said that's fine... forgot the reason I mentioned it to him.

Tammy

I got pg with DD when DS was 12 months. At my first prenatal appt, my medwife (no, not a typo), told me I should wean around 6 months pg so I wouldn't go into preterm labor. Although I knew it wasn't true, I wish I would have been enough of a lactivist to make a fuss about her bad advice.

It was really cool actually, 'cept one mama had this HORRIBLE bedazzled binky with a crown shoved in her dd's mouth. She kept calling it her BLINGky.. It was so ghetto! lol:dizzy:

Those ARE a "brand" of binky! I actually saw them in a magazine (have no idea which one) with a whole bunch of other things that all the stars had for their babies. Weird, huh? But if you think THAT's strange, check this out: http://itsmybinky.com/sowhgowi254d.html

I got pg with my second when my first was only 9 mos old, and had no intention of nursing her what-so-ever, even if my midwife had told me not to (and I'd have read her the riot act if she had, lol). My mom, on the other hand, had my two youngest half brothers about the same age apart and weaned on the (abysmal) advice of her OB. I forget if she mentioned something about weaning Serra, or how it came up, but I told her that a lot of OBs mistakenly still think nursing will hurt the current pg in some way, but that we know better now. I could see she was still really sad all these years later about "having" to wean so early, and out of four, that brother's the only one who wasn't nursed a full year at least.

I wouldn't call my mom a lactivist, but when I ws having latch problems with my first, she called every day to see how we were doing and try and help up. Even when I first told her I was pg, she always just assumed I would nurse. I love my mom!

Serendipity

I've had midwives with all four pgs, so no problems there. BUT, when I was pg with ds1, I saw my current physician for the first time (can't remember why now). I took dd1 with me, and she was nearly two (I was about halfway through my pg). She wanted to nurse in when we were in the room waiting for the doctor. Of course, she was still nursing when the doctor walked in. She didn't even bat an eye! I was shocked. I was all ready for my defense, but I didn't need it! How cool is that? She even ended up saying something about it being great that dd was still nursing. She is a mom of four who has nursed all four, uses homeopathic remedies for her kiddos, knows we co-sleep and doesn't care, is knowledgable about intactness - is it any surprise that she is still our family doc after five years!!!