Wet Set
Gazette: Jan.
2004
Breastfeeding – Normal and Natural, and
Worthy of a Little Help from its Friends
By Deborah Myers, MS, CNS, CLE,
Member of the Board, Breastfeeding Task Force of Greater Los Angeles
Perhaps breastfeeding your baby was a smooth and easy experience
each and every time you put your little one to your breast. If so,
you may wonder – “What’s all the fuss? Why has a profession grown
around helping mothers breastfeed? Why have special laws been passed
to protect breastfeeding? After all, isn’t breastfeeding the most
normal and natural thing in the world?.”
Or perhaps breastfeeding has challenged you in ways you never
expected. Maybe you have wondered “Why is breastfeeding so difficult
at times – after all, what could be more normal and natural than
breastfeeding a baby?”
Or did you try to breastfeed, and after several disappointing
attempts, decided to satisfy your crying baby’s hunger with formula?
Although normal and natural, successful breastfeeding happens within
a context. Some things we can control, others we cannot.
Breastfeeding advocacy and the support professions that have grown
around breastfeeding focus on those pieces of the contextual mosaic
we can control, to help mothers have pleasurable and satisfying
breastfeeding experiences, avoid unnecessary obstacles, and overcome
those challenges that do arise.
Reflecting on your own experience – How were those first precious
minutes, hours and days after the birth of your baby? Were you given
your baby to nurse immediately? Were knowledgeable nursing staff
available to guide and assist you? If there were medical decisions
to be made, did your physician take breastfeeding into
consideration? And how have those around you reacted to your
breastfeeding? Has your partner been supportive? What about the
influential elders and peer relationships in your life? What has
been your experience breastfeeding your baby outside your home –
warm smiles? Hostile stares?
The impact of the medical system, and the influence of family,
friends and culture cannot be underestimated when we reflect on
breastfeeding success, whether our own or that of our fiends and
others in our community. Looking back at an old photo album from my
traveling days in Guatemala, I stopped to reflect upon a photograph
of a young Maya Indian woman whose mother had been my weaving
teacher. I asked if I could take a photograph to remember her by.
She posed for me - blouse raised, baby at breast. In the central
park of her town, statues of mothers with water flowing from their
breasts adorned the fountain in the park’s center. Clearly, the
children who grow up in that culture receive an array of nonverbal
cues that breastfeeding is the normal and natural way to nourish and
nurture a baby. What must we do here in Southern California, USA to
create the same supportive fabric within our own communities?
Some readers may have had the joyous experience of having been given
their baby immediately after birth, and having their baby require
little or no assistance to latch-on. Those of you who had this
experience knew from that moment just how right it all was. But for
the majority of mothers, the pain relief medications administered
during labor and customary separation of mother and baby - practices
that evolved around expectations of bottle feeding – may override
the infants’ natural period of alertness and desire to suckle, that
are evident immediately following birth.
When the mother and infant are reunited hours later, the mother may
find herself greeted by a baby who prefers to sleep than breastfeed.
When he nurses, his suck may not be vigorous because he/she too has
been sedated by the pain relief medication given to the mother
during labor. The initial burst of alertness that the newborn
initially experiences is followed by a period of sleepiness, also
natural, because the birthing process has been as exhausting for the
baby as it has been for the mother. When this is the scenario, those
first breastfeedings can be very challenging.
How can we foster a climate that is nurturing to mothers, babies and
the breastfeeding process? How can we ensure the mothers and babies
have the support they need at this precious and vulnerable time?
Breastfeeding advocacy works on many levels. Here are a few ideas:
Create consumer demand: Speak up and let your doctors and nurses
know that breastfeeding is important to you and needs to be factored
into decisions concerning your baby. When necessary, research and
share information with them that may help them make the right
decisions for you and your baby. One example is those occasions when
medications are prescribed for the mother and the doctor is
concerned about a potential impact on the baby. Resources are
available to guide doctors and parents in these and other similar
decisions.
Be a positive role model: Exercise your right to breastfeed in
public, wherever you and your baby have a right to be. Never against
the law, law in California and many other states now specifically
protects the right to breastfeed in public.
Become an activist: The Breastfeeding Task Force of Greater LA
offers a variety of opportunities for education for professionals
and laypersons alike, through workshops and internet links on its
website; learning about legislation as it is being considered to
support breastfeeding; and joining forces with others to create the
kind of supportive climate we would wish for mothers, babies and
families who choose breastfeeding. Consider attending a
Breastfeeding Task Force Meeting. Meetings are held quarterly, in
Inglewood, from 11 am – 2 pm.
For more information about the Breastfeeding Task Force of Greater
Los Angeles, and links to other breastfeeding information and
activities, visit the Breastfeeding Task Force on the web at
www.breastfeedla.org.
