Subj : Re: This Train Just Went Splat!
To   : alt.tv.er
From : npardue
Date : Sun Sep 25 2005 10:12:51

From Newsgroup: alt.tv.er

Myself nor my 2 siblings were breastfed. My mother said that she tried
for 2
days with my brother but couldn't make milk.


I collect old babycare/pregnancy books.  They all, of course,
recommended breastfeeding. But one of the most interesting is a book
that has, in the back, a 'baby book' of the type that mom fills in with
baby's milestones. It's from 1943. She writes that she first put baby
to the breast 15 hours after birth but 'didn't have any milk.' She then
gave bottle feedings after each nursing and weaned completely to the
bottle at 8 days. (3 days after going home.) What's especially
interesting is that she wrote that the baby lost no weight -- gained 3
ounces during her week in the hospital. Obviously mom 'had no milk'
because baby was being given so much formula that she had no incentive
to nurse!


 Of course back in 1959 when he
was born breastfeeding wasn't supported in hospitals, and in fact many
discouraged it. It takes a few days for the milk to come in anyway.

I'm of similar age.  My mom breastfed my two older sisters for a few
months each. (They were born in 1957 and 1958). The hospital nurses
hated it because it meant they had to bring the babies to her for each
feeding, rather than just sticking bottles in their mouths in the
nursery.  When I came along 3 years later I was a very 'good' baby and
never cried to be fed. Mom was trying to be very modern and feeding us
all 'on demand', and I didn't demand.  After a week or so I'd lost so
much weight that the doctor told her to wean me. So I was put on a
bottle.  My brother, born 3 years after me, was also breastfed. (I'm
the only one of the four of us with allergies and eczema. Coincidence?)

DH wasn't breastfed at all. THe doctor told his mom that she couldn't
nurse due to flat nipples.  He ended up being allergic to every
standard formula on the market, and so was fed on some weird formula
made from ground lamb. (And he had ashtma and allergies as a child.)

I wasn't exposed to it until I married my husband and was around for a
few
of his siblings when they breastfed. We were dirt poor when our first
was
born and it really was our only choice. The first month was tough - but

after that I wouldn't have switched to a bottle for any amount of
money. The
convenience couldn't be beat, it was free, easy at night and contrary
to
popular belief I wasn't at all tied down. I've had friends who bottle
fed
their first but tried breastfeeding with my encouragement with future
children. All agreed that the first month was tough, but they too
absolutely
loved all aspects of breastfeeding after that. It's not for everyone,
but
certainly worth a try at least for the baby.


I never thought of doing anything else.  It just seemed odd to me to
want to do something inconvenient, expensive and inferior when I could
just as easily (if not more so), choose the other. (Both my sisters had
had babies by that time. My first neice was nursed for about a year and
a half. My second for just under  a year, though my sister supplemented
the whole time.)

 I had quite a lot of soreness for about the first week, and I had to
fight the ped a little over a spell of 'breastmilk jaundice' where he
insisted that I wean temporarily (which I did, grudgingly, for 12
hours), and then wanted me to supplement until the jaundice cleared.
(Which I refused.) Once that first week was over, it was pretty much
smooth sailing for us. As you said, completely convenient, easy, and
didn't tie me down at all. Usually I just took her with me.  When I
couldn't, I initially left a bottle of pumped milk, but she wouldn't
take it, so at that point I just made sure that I nursed before leaving
and was never gone for more than a couple of hours. 

Naomi

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