The ABC’s of Breastfeeding: Exclusive Nursing
Imagine something with me. Imagine that 60% of women do not learn to read as well as they wish. Or that 60% of women who wanted to learn to drive a car never did, even though they thought someone would teach them. Surely there would be outrage. We would be angry, and rightfully so.
What about 60% of mothers who aren't able to breastfeed as long as they hope? Even the highest estimates of women/babies physically not able to breastfeed get to about 15%. Not 60%. Do we care about those numbers, too?
I know. Breastfeeding is a choice that every woman is free to make. I've seen all the posts (both sweet and snarky) about how all moms love their kids just the same, no matter how they choose to feed them. And I get it. 100%. Hello, mom of a tube-fed kid here! There are reasons breastfeeding does not work for many people, and none of them make any mother a bad mom.
But when more than half of women aren't able to breastfeed the way they want, I think we have another problem going on than judgy mcjudgersons shaming moms. Instead, the signs seem to be pointing towards fundamental problems of support and education in our society, and that should galvanize us to better actions.
Quick crash course on why exclusive breastfeeding matters for at least the first six months: It's what the WHO and the AAP recommend, for one. And it's not just for the babies. There are so many physiological benefits for women who exclusively breastfeed, too. The immune boosting properties of breastfeeding are astonishingly wonderful for babies and breastfeeding mothers have reduced rates of certain kinds of cancers (just one of the benefits, mind you!).
So where are we going wrong? One study found that women struggle and cease breastfeeding because of concerns with latching, because of cultural norms that are unsupportive, because of concerns about infant weight...
All of these things can be addressed with better education and better support. Here are my some tips for helping you succeed at this goal starting in the early days:
1) Find Support While You Are Still Pregnant ~ Visit a La Leche League meeting, join a Facebook breastfeeding group, hire a doula (ask for doula support to be part of a baby shower gift! seriously, you will not regret it).
2) Deliver at a Baby Friendly Hospital ~ These designated hospitals meet specific requirements for helping promote breastfeeding success. If there isn't a designated hospital near you, ask the hospitals you do have what their policies are. Ask what they are doing to help ensure mothers' success.
3) Get informed ~ Read a book on breastfeeding. Follow a couple of good blogs on the subject. Here's one reason why it matters: infant weight loss in the first couple of days has been one of the main standards for evaluating how well baby is doing at nursing. If baby lost a certain percentage of birth weight, then this meant they weren't getting enough nutrients. In recent years, though, the research has been showing that if mothers received IV fluids in labor, baby's weight will be skewed and they will appear to have lost more weight than is accurate.
4) Nurse Often ~ Keep baby in your room at the hospital and with you when you get home. Spend as much time skin to skin as possible, and do not feel obligated to entertain guests or fulfill household tasks in the early days. Nursing may be natural, but it is *not* easy at the beginning; it's a brand new skill for the baby, and it takes a great deal of work and practice.
Maybe breastfeeding is not for you or your baby. But every woman ought to be able to make this decision fully armed with facts, with knowledge, with confidence and peace. She should not feel defeated by this decision and if breastfeeding is what she wants, we should be there by her side, helping her achieve it.