Our doula came round and brought her baby doll. It's not quite life sized, but it's to scale with the pelvis she brought round. It's meant to show how baby travels through the pelvis. You can also use the baby doll to practice breastfeeding holds. I have to admit it seems a little more complicated than I thought. I was warned that having stiff shoulders and tension in the old shoulder blades is the worst thing. Of course, my shoulders are tighter than a high wire.
The Vol-in-Law practiced holding the baby doll. He's never held a baby before.
He cradled its little head and didn't drop it.
Start as you mean to go on.
-0-
I showed the doula this article on breastfeeding from the Mail on Sunday. This article is basically saying "breastfeeding Nazis made me starve my baby" - it all works out when the mum goes on to give her child formula. The doula was very disappointed. I have to agree [mostly] with one of the stories commenters:
It is outrageous that the lack of support women are getting to breastfeed, is being characterised as being a problem of some kind of bullying breastfeeding mafia, rather than the problem it really is -that our culture and our health service, while paying lip service to the desirability of feeding our children with the best food there is,specially designed for them, is actually deeply uncomfortable with it.
Although I'm not sure how much they're deeply uncomfortable with it - as they don't have the time or the patience to make sure that it happens.
6 days til baby Cletus
4 comments:
I once worked on a childbirth book when I was in publishing. There is indeed a breastfeeding mafia and they are quite scary people. One woman (a renowned international expert on breastfeeding) said that any woman who didn't breastfeed her baby might as well give it a cigarette, because that's the harm she was doing to its health. How does a statement like this help women or further the cause of breastfeeding? It just makes women feel guilty and inadequate (which is the intent of saying something like that in the first place). Not only that, it makes breastfeeding into a competition to see who is a "real" mother and who isn't. As women, we are already competing with one another in every way (who is the thinnest,the youngest, etc.). I guess we shouldn't expect child-rearing to be any different. This is just one more way to make us feel like crap because we aren't good enough.
I would never give my newborn a cigarette. They can't really hold things or bring them to their own mouths until they're like 8 or 9 months old. Waste.
Yes, some people can be a little heavy handed, I guess. And I've seen a cousin who wasn't able to breastfeed feel terribly guilty. She wanted to but just couldn't do it for a variety of really, real reasons. And when I was explaining this to someone - she said "well, she probably didn't have enough support." Errr... no - she delivered her twins by c-section when she had happened to have one of those rare - but near fatal - serious cases of the flu - so she couldn't even hold or be in the same room as her sons for a week and was very weak for some time afterwards. She should NEVER have been made to feel guilty. (Personal disappointment is fine, guilt - NO)
On the other hand, in my birth classes and in discussion forums I see a LOT of women who are having a bit of trouble breast feeding give up because they have body issues or because someone in their family has told them that breastfeeding is "selfish" (others want to feed baby) or it's animalistic. So they give up at the first hurdle.
And I've already had people tell me I shouldn't breastfeed past six months because it's gross...and the faces they make...this from people who honestly know NOTHING about breastfeeding.
So yes, there are breastfeeding nutjobs out there - but still there's still I think there's more pressure NOT to breastfeed.
I wonder what the difference is between England and the US on the issue of breast-feeding. I honestly don't know.
When I was dealing with these breast-feeding militants, I was living in Boston. I imagine a lot of this is class-driven. Most of these women were well-educated, middle- and upper-middle class women. There was a certain smugness about them that I resented. These are the same kinds of people who think they are *morally superior* to others because they feed their kids organic food, rather than letting them eat at McDonalds.
I am in a social class with these women, but I wasn't raised that way, so I guess I look at them with suspicion. I guess I have a few "issues" I need to deal with! :)
Oh definitely class issues with this. You are so right - and I do find these anti-McDs, anti-tv, organic loving, anti-country music, red state hating, bf'ding women very annoying. Even though, as a white, well-educated (not that they would think much of my UT degrees!) middle class woman I might share some of their practices.
But there is also another class issue - lower income, less well-educated women do tend to formula feed more. They are the ones who can least afford it and there ARE definite health benefits to breast feeding which they can least afford to pass up.
I myself hope there won't be any problems breast feeding - 'cause it just looks cheaper, more convenient, and you can eat more!
Post a Comment