Thursday, March 13

Breastfeeding!!

Often the people around me are surprised that I breastfed my son for 3 1/2 years. Heck, I even surprise myself. I didn't do it for myself. I did it for him to have one overall advantage that I didn't have, the perfect food for babies.

When I think about the whole experience, once I learned how to do it, how to measure it, and how to define success...It was a lovely and great experience. People are often asking me questions about what did I supplement with, how do you know he is getting enough, doesn't it hurt? In my initial experience, I had pain. I had aggravation. I couldn't tell if he was getting enough. Moreover, I didn't trust the natural process of breastfeeding. I learned luckily by reading, and meeting other moms who were breastfeeding through La Leche League.

I found all this wonderful information using the World Wide Web, and I posted about it on my other webpage, http://www.geocities.com/morelia78/bebe.html. I didn't write about mastitis, because I reserved that for my vegan page. That pain by itself was a world of its own, that lead me to do tons and tons of research about why I should really just stick to breastfeeding. It wasn't just about saving tons of money on FORMULA. It wasn't just about being the best thing for the ENVIRONMENT. Do you know how much trash you produce, just trying to feed your baby the CONVENIENT FOOD?? It is about the fact that we don't know what nutrients breast milk contains and it was meant for the baby. BREAST MILK serves to prepare the immune system, provides emotional support, and does many invisible and miraculous things for your baby.

I am not a Breastfeeding NUT. What I hope other would do is research, learn to think independently, and do what is best under EVERY SINGLE circumstance. If you do not know what your options are, you are simply letting others decide for you.

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