I'm not one of these to post personal things on the internet, so I'm not going to make excuses as to why I haven't posted in a while. What I will say is that I've lost my camera so you'll have to wait to see Vienna's birthday jelly (well, jelly might be the wrong word...!).
I start training on Tuesday to become a peer supporter. For those of you who don't know what that is (and I'm not trying to sound patronising but I didn't until I met one), it's a mum who breastfed her children for at least 6 months and then goes on to help other mums with their feeding experiences. I had a meeting about it on Friday and it got me thinking about HOW heated discussions about infant feeding can get. Not that I need reminding of that.
If you breastfeed you spend your time fighting people who think it's for posh people or who say it's "unnatural" and who don't want a baby "hanging off their boob". You spend your time fighting your pain receptors when the latch is poor, the baby has a tongue tie or is teething, you get thrush, you get mastitis or they just plain chew. Then when people say you should stop because of all that. You pretend you can't see that people are trying not to look when you feed in weird places (like on the bus and walking through Wilkinson's... yes, I'm talking from personal experience here) or that little old women trying to look doesn't strike you as just a tiny bit odd.
If you formula feed you spend your time fighting lactivists who will loudly proclaim you are actively harming your child by forcing this cack down their throat. You fight your body which tells you that 4am is NOT a good time to be patiently standing for 6-8 minutes while the bottle is warming. People don't give you as many dirty looks, but if you have a lactivist family you will never hear the end of it.
THEN after all that we get onto 'weaning' (because it's feeding now):
Is my baby hungry or is she just sucking her fists?
Do I wait til 6 months?
Do I use BLW or spoonfeed?
What do I feed him?
Should I worry about raw eggs, and salt content, and fat, and red meat, and chicken, and sugar?
Do they need 5 a day?
It's just ENDLESS. God I hope training goes ok. Feeding is SO stressful and I want to do something to ease someone else's stress, I really do. I'm quite a liberal breastfeeder. I think saying "breast is best" like some crazy mantra without explaining why does more harm than good, I think if you want to feed your baby formula then it doesn't make you an evil mother and I think babies would be a lot happier if their mums didn't judge each other.
Prop-feeders aside. I do judge you. Sorry.
By the way, a lactivist is a lactating activist- someone that's very pro-breastfeeding.
I start training on Tuesday to become a peer supporter. For those of you who don't know what that is (and I'm not trying to sound patronising but I didn't until I met one), it's a mum who breastfed her children for at least 6 months and then goes on to help other mums with their feeding experiences. I had a meeting about it on Friday and it got me thinking about HOW heated discussions about infant feeding can get. Not that I need reminding of that.
If you breastfeed you spend your time fighting people who think it's for posh people or who say it's "unnatural" and who don't want a baby "hanging off their boob". You spend your time fighting your pain receptors when the latch is poor, the baby has a tongue tie or is teething, you get thrush, you get mastitis or they just plain chew. Then when people say you should stop because of all that. You pretend you can't see that people are trying not to look when you feed in weird places (like on the bus and walking through Wilkinson's... yes, I'm talking from personal experience here) or that little old women trying to look doesn't strike you as just a tiny bit odd.
If you formula feed you spend your time fighting lactivists who will loudly proclaim you are actively harming your child by forcing this cack down their throat. You fight your body which tells you that 4am is NOT a good time to be patiently standing for 6-8 minutes while the bottle is warming. People don't give you as many dirty looks, but if you have a lactivist family you will never hear the end of it.
THEN after all that we get onto 'weaning' (because it's feeding now):
Is my baby hungry or is she just sucking her fists?
Do I wait til 6 months?
Do I use BLW or spoonfeed?
What do I feed him?
Should I worry about raw eggs, and salt content, and fat, and red meat, and chicken, and sugar?
Do they need 5 a day?
It's just ENDLESS. God I hope training goes ok. Feeding is SO stressful and I want to do something to ease someone else's stress, I really do. I'm quite a liberal breastfeeder. I think saying "breast is best" like some crazy mantra without explaining why does more harm than good, I think if you want to feed your baby formula then it doesn't make you an evil mother and I think babies would be a lot happier if their mums didn't judge each other.
Prop-feeders aside. I do judge you. Sorry.
By the way, a lactivist is a lactating activist- someone that's very pro-breastfeeding.
