Breastfeeding Article

I love breastfeeding.

It was a rough go at first.  A long, rough go.  Poor latch, cracked, bleeding nipples, engorgement, thrush, mastitis...not really a walk in the park.  When Haydon was 2 weeks old, I remember putting him down and dreading the fact that he would wake up in two hours and we'd have to do it all over again.  My mom looked at us one day and said to me "Ah, isn't nursing just the best!?"  And I wanted to hurt her.  Best for my baby, sure, I knew that, and I wasn't about to quit, but there was nothing enjoyable about it.

After 6 weeks we got it sorted out.  With the help of lactation consultants and breastfeeding friends, we worked out the latch, and suddenly it wasn't painful anymore.  And now?  Now I enjoy it.  It's a precious time I get to spend with my boy.  I knew that something had "clicked" when I crawled back into bed one night after feeding Haydon and thinking "James just missed that," and thinking how lucky I was to have spent that time with him.

Anyway, there's a great article at mothering.com called Taking Down the Bottle.  It discusses how despite the fact that health professionals all agree that "breast is best," culturally, bottle feeding is still the norm, and this colours how we think, talk and act with respect to feeding our children.