Breastfeeding

How does everyone feel about breastfeeding?

I work with a lot of new moms who have never had experience with latching on- trust me, it can be very difficult to begin breastfeeding, in addition to the plethora of complications (underdeveloped milk ducts, mastitis, nipple soreness) and I find more women, particularly younger moms, are choosing to go to formula.

For the moms out there, did you breastfeed, or use formula? Or even both? Which did you find suited you better?

In addition to a slow rise of formula using moms, how do you feel about breastfeeding in public place- given that the breast is hidden, and the mom is not obvious about it; I've had women breastfeed so well, I couldn't even tell what they were doing...
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As for my thoughts, I would love to see more moms breastfeeding. It creates a GREAT bond bewteen mom and her baby, the breastmilk is perfectly formulated for the baby's caloric and nutritional needs, and it's natural.

As for breastfeeding in public, I think if a woman is discreet about it, there should definately not be a problem with it. I think more conservative sides of the argument claim breast=sex, no matter if a breast is used in a sexual manner or not. Unless they provide public rooms for it, it should not be banned. People don't HAVE to watch.

Great thread, Purple B!!

I'd practically volunteer to be the president of La Leche League, I think it's so important. I only did it for a year and five months and probably would have done it longer, but he weaned himself. It has such great health benefits for both baby and mom. It was definitely a hassle. I had mastitis, and my baby had the mouth of a ferocious piranha. As I adjusted to it and toughened up, it began to feel great. Nursing in public is awkward at best, especially as uptight as some people are, and I'm modest. Pumping is a pain. Leaking is embarrassing. And one of the things no one ever warned me about was the fact that it would add an awkward element to my sex life. Mamas-to-be, if you've never been a Grafenberg-squirting kind of girl when you crest your sexual peak, you'll be a twin-squirting kind of girl when you do during the breastfeeding months/years. Unless you've just nursed yourself dry before hitting the sack--in which case you're unlikely to be aroused enough to want sex--hope you have a husband who regards that as wildly funny and arousing. Looking back, I'm glad I did it for my son but also for how much it lowers my own risk of breast cancer. I have had friends who've really lamented the loss of their breast shape after nursing, but I guess I was either so young or so small-breasted that it didn't have that effect on me.

I volunteer with WIC every Tuesday morning from 8am-11am for a walk-in free kind of breast feeding help session- the moms all sit around in a conference room, breastfeeding, and the more experienced moms and I help other members with latching, sorenesss, technique, questions- it's so much fun, and it's such a great experience.

I love La Leche League!

That's so great! I wish they'd had a program like that at my hospital. They had a lactation consultant but no experienced nursing moms in a group, and it helps to have an actual breastfeeding woman demonstrate techniques, I'm sure. Plus just the emotional support, especially if it's rough at first, which I found it to be. That's lovely that that's part of your job. If that doesn't contribute to the betterment of society, I don't know what does. (My husband told me he thinks you need to stay in medicine!)

I don't know what they call it, but there is a device that allows breastfeeding women to extract their milk and save it until they have an opportune time to feed their baby. There was a women at my wife's workplace that did it in the ladyâ??s lounge, and put the bottled stuff in the employees' refrigerator for the rest of the day - where many of them kept their lunch, snacks, etc. Even parents were disgusted by it, many employees complained to management, and she was told to stop the practice.

Thanks, Dr. Byrd and BG- that means a lot coming from you :)

I'm still considering nursing, I would still only have 2 more years left to get my BSN. I was briefly considering being a pediatrician, but I realized I couldn't possibly get past the physical sciences; I've taken physics 3 times with different (and splendid) professors, but I couldn't grasp it at all.

Maybe I'll get my BSN and go on to become a CRNP. Maybe do patient education? I don't know. I'm 19, and I have a ton of time to do what I want with my life. I just want to get back to classes, but I'm waiting to get everything sorted out.

EDIT: BA, of course that's not sanitary, but instead of simply coming onto the threads and comlaining about a single scenario you have encountered, why don't you lift your negativity veil, and say something to actually contribute to the thread?

What you're mentioning is breast pumping- it doesn't extract the milk nearly as well as natural breastfeeding, and it completely erases the mom/baby bond. But once in a while, it's fine.

That's breast-pumping and bottle-storage of the pumped milk, Breuk. And women with colleagues like that are wise to bring little cold storage packs or ice chests, which, in Manhattan, must be impossibly difficult. I'm betting more and more large companies have breast feeding areas and refrigerators. My former employer does (but didn't in my day). I helped influence that change.

If it makes you feel any better, PB, I still get panic attacks when faced with physical-science type equations even now. Biochemistry sneaks them in from time to time. And it's scary enough on its own. My heart goes out to you on that challenge because I never felt--and never will feel--comfortable with that area of this science, either.

And it's a real crapper, because I LOVE learning A&P, especially reproductive, neurological, and cardiac systems...

Neurology would also sound like a very interesting field to go into.

I hate it when people complain about women breast feeding in public when they're all covered up and nothing is exposed. I feel bad for nursing moms. They're always told that its best for the baby but then they turn around and people give them hell doing it. The benefits of it out weigh anything negative that comes of of accidently seeing part of some womans boob.