Attitudes
Welcome to Breastfeeding Experiences!
Modern motherhood is a place filled with opinion. We are bombarded with information from a variety of sources: medical, family, internet and books to name but a few. As a woman who has chosen to breastfeed her child, you have no doubt encountered both positive and negative attitudes towards your choice. Sometimes, these can be very damaging and have a lasting impact on your confidence.
If you would like to share your experiences of attitudes towards breastfeeding, please use this form to share it with us.
Attitudes Towards Breastfeeding
Name: Julie Nash
Title: How My Man Feels about Breastfeeding
Story: Hello, My name is Julie Nash, and currently I'm breastfeeding my 12 month old son and spent 18 months breastfeeding my 4 year old daughter.
I made the decision to breastfeed my children when I was pregnant with my daughter and my husband was absolutely supportive of that from day one! He has been instrumental in the success that we've had and I would be doing him an injustice if I said anything less that that. He took care of MY needs when I needed to be taking care of our baby's needs.
When my son was born, he took care of me and our daughter's needs, while I was busy nursing the baby. When I got mastitis for the first time ever (nursing my son), the infection was extreme! I was on total bed rest and desperately ill, with barely enough strength to feed my son. He took care of EVERYTHING. No matter what the challenges were (and there were PLENTY) he was there doing whatever needed to be done to fix/overcome the obstacles.
The simple fact is, breastfeeding is not an option for us. We feel that strongly about it. When I had complications nursing, we dealt with them as we would've any other medical situation. It was not a matter of whether or not we "wanted" to continue with the breastfeeding struggles. The issue was how we could balance our responsibilities with the household and family AND support me medically at the same time so that our child would continue receiving the necessary nutrition. I am a very blessed woman, mother, and wife! We are a team at our core and that is the secret to MY successful breastfeeding experience and OUR happy and successful marriage.
However, I should stress that without a committment to exclusive nursing on MY part, clearly, we would not have been successful. A mother has to understand that her husband can only "support" her. She has to want to breastfeed. She has to feel that it's the best thing she can do for her baby. But more than that, a woman needs to understand that breastfeeding is HARD! Often times it can even SUCK!
Being solely responsible to do all feedings is exhausting to say the least. But parenting is hard. No one ever said it was easy and women should not go into it with rose-colored glasses on. Enter into the breastfeeding relationship with your baby knowing that it will be the single hardest task you will ever accomplish and also one of the MOST REWARDING as well. Perhaps then there would be less women using precious energy feeing disappointment in not always "enjoying" nursing their baby. That's my story/opinion/advice in a nutshell.
I love my "man" and couldn't have done this without him!
Name: Wendy
Title: Surprise
Story: In my experience, attitudes towards breastfeeding surprised me. When I was pregnant, I think the general view was that it was impossible to breastfeed your first baby so I was totally prepared to fail. I bought bottles and formula and took them to hospital thinking I would give up within the first couple of days. In a way, it was good as I felt a real sense of achievement when I managed to feed my son exclusively, but as a consequence, I hadn't read anything about breastfeeding so I was a bit clueless.
Name: Mel
Title: Attitudes I Have Experienced
Story: Attitudes vary from person to person in my experience. I've had prudes who were shocked, people who think it's outdated to breastfeed, people who have been very supportive and practically cheered when I've done it in public.
I think the worst one was my ex brother-in-law, who made personal comments about my breasts being bigger and ogled me more than was necessary! On the whole though, I think once you've done it in front of them once, people tend to ignore it completely. After all, it's not exactly cabaret!