Well I have an experience to share. Some of my fellow L&D nurses will shake their heads because they've had dealt with this too..
I had a young mom (18yrs old) last night who I accepted as my patient when I came on my shift last night. Her family was around her encouraging her on. She pushed like a trouper and did a great job with her birth. Great! So about 30 mins. after birth I ask her if she is bottle or breast feeding. She looks at me and says.. "umm well bottle, but I want to try breastfeeding just to see...". I say "I will help you. You can do it!". I sit her straight up in bed and unbutton her gown and put a few pillows on the bed. When I place her sweet baby boy to her breast he latches on immediately. "Seee! I told you you'd do great!" I place the pillows so her arms don't get weary holding the baby up. Baby contines to nurse for 20 mins then sleep quietly at her breast. I feel like I've shown her how easy and how natural her baby took to her. Well her girlfriend asks her if she likes it. She says, "Well no but I know its good for him, so I'll do it for a few days." Well I give her the whole talk about how easy breastfeeding is, how it makes her skinnier faster lol, how it makes her uterus go down faster, how convienant it is, and how its FREE!!! She just looks at me and says "well I'll do it while I'm here in the hospital. But my mom bottle fed me and I don't think I like having him pull at my nipple."
I felt a bit frustrated by her disinterest, because this baby boy was truly one of those babys who just Knows what to do without any help! But I've also learned that if the mom isn't really keen on breastfeeding it is Very hard to convince her otherwise. I mean, her mother in the room LEFT when it was time for me to help her nurse. Like she was embarressed or uncomfortable. She looked at me like I had two heads when I told her how wonderful breastfeeding was. She said "well I bottlefed my children and they were fine". Sigh. There was no support there. The BF only said "She can do whatever she wants to do..."
Well so I did my bit. Baby nursed well. I told her how lovely she looked feeding her baby. She smiled. But I don't think she'll keep it up. I hope she proves me wrong!! But I'll never know.
7 comments:
'Tis sad. :(
I breast-fed both my babies, and I'll tell ya, the first one was a challenge! It was a good two weeks before she properly "latched"....and in the meantime, I thought I was starving her to death. Check her out now. A beautiful young woman with a perfect 4.0 GPA and on her way to becoming a nurse! Yes, I do believe STRONGLY that breast-fed is best-fed. Was it worth it? You bet.
My second child was a natural at breastfeeding. Funny....you always remember the ones that were "difficult"...lol.
Awesome job!! Too bad though, she probably will switch to a bottle before she even goes home. Sometimes, you just can't change the belief system in a family.
Amen! I won't give up tho. I know from personal experience how wonderful breastfeeding is =)
I breast fed my daughter for 2 years! LOL Some would say that is excessive but I don't think so. She is rarely sick, and very smart. When that first happened to me I got really nervous and almost stopped just because I was scared i wasn't giving her enough but as I watched her grow I relaxed a lot. Maybe she will.
I can't believe I missed this post.
You know the Little Imp is THIRTY MONTHS and she is STILL bf'ing. Not often but she still does. Usually morning and night.
Breast is best....but unfortunately young women today are indoctrinated that Breast is for sex.
Sad.
My grandmother was the same way as this girls mother was.
She thought I was crazy for breastfeeding and that any problem or difficulty my baby or I had was somehow linked to nursing.
It was discouraging but I managed to rise above her commenting on it all the time.
I guess back in the day some la leche person told her she was a bad mother for not trying to nurse, turned her off to anybody nursing I guess!
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