When I had Claudia my entire attitude from the start was; I'm not going to have a birth plan as she and my body will decide how and when she’ll come out and that I will try to breastfeed, having never done so, and see how it goes. Claudia was a whopping 9lbs 3oz and was a hungry butterball. My wonderful sister stayed with me my second night and I’m still thanking my lucky stars I had someone to hold my hand. The colostrum, which is the most nutritious part, was not enough to fill up my little turkey. My night time nurse decided to have me pump and feed that to Claudia first then have her latch on afterwards to help my milk production. Well any women who has given birth will tell you that you feel just awfully fat and feel like they’ve broken the world record for being the most exhausted and emotionally broken human on the planet. So here I am, crying hungry baby, exhausted beyond belief new mom with suction cups attached to each of my breasts. I felt like a cow on a production line. I burst into tears. Having my sister there made me laugh about it all. To this day if I had to pump I would do one breast at a time. I was traumatized! Claudia drank the only ounce I was able to produce and looked desperately for more. With mom in tears and a hungry newborn my sister suggested formula. A ready-made bottle I could plug in her little mouth and then get the rest I so desperately needed.
My daytime nurse came in and read what the night time nurse had helped me get through and was ready to fire her. One thing you’ll learn, everyone has an opinion about what you should and shouldn’t be doing with your baby. This daytime nurse felt that I should have stuck it out no matter how long it took for Claudia to latch on and no matter how emotionally drained I was. The lactation consultant didn’t even want me to leave the hospital until Claudia latched on properly. In my overtired, over-emotionally drained and Hulk like voice told her to sign the damn papers and that I would do what was best for me and my baby! I honestly was not ready to give up just yet but that I made sure to tell these ladies that it was MY choice. My main concern was making sure that my baby was getting fed whether by formulated food or mom. I really didn’t care.
My husband, in an act of desperation and survival went out and purchased an expensive pump to help and it did. I was able to pump and feed the colostrum to my daughter and top her up with a little bit of formula until my own milk came in. Boy did it ever! Turns out I could have breastfed every single baby born in the hospital that night but not every woman is blessed with a cow's milk production gene.
Funny thing is, I went on to have two more babies, and not as over cooked as Claudia was thank you. I also did not produce quite as much milk as the first time around. I am happy I had the support to get me through it. It was not a piece of cake in the beginning, especially with Sebastien. I will spare you with those details but it was very painful with him.
One of my friends was not even able to produce more than three ounces of milk from pumping both of her breasts. Honestly we hung out a lot and she did try but her body just didn’t have my cow gene I was blessed with. It can happen.
Social economics also plays a big role in whether a woman should and can breastfeed. Tell me, if a mother is eating poorly like fried foods and junk do you want her to breastfeed her child? What kind of nutrition will she be passing through her breast milk to her baby? Wouldn’t it make more sense for her to bottle feed as that baby will get more nutrition out of a man made bottle than her breast milk?
Breastfeeding has been so glorified that we have forgotten to ask women how they feel about it and look at the picture as a whole. How dare people presume that it’s a god given gift that we as women are so selfish not to share this natural way with our newborn. We are also made to bear children but not everyone is blessed to do so. Just because the mechanics are there does not mean they work. And if you don’t have a pair of breast yourself I believe you should keep your opinions to yourself! I don’t go around promoting vasectomies do I?
Happy parenting!
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