Next Friday begins World Breastfeeding Week (WBW). The theme of WBW is “Going for the Gold” and focuses on the need to support mothers in achieving the gold standard of infant feeding practices: exclusive breastfeeding for six months, followed by appropriate complementary foods and continued breastfeeding for two years and beyond.
Breastfeeding is the gold standard. All of us should be encouraging mothers in any way possible to nurse their babies and offer any support they need to accomplish this task in a society which encourages new moms to use bottles and pacifiers and where moms are expected to leave their babies for whatever reason.
Last year during WBW, I blogged daily on the abundant breastfeeding research. This year the following story led me to choose stories and experiences of individual breastfeeding mothers which start next Friday, August 1st. Such stories encourage and support those mothers who are breastfeeding.
How many mothers would spoon-feed breastmilk to their premature baby for two months until the baby was able to suckle from the breast? This premature baby never had formula. How many working mothers would run home three times a day to breastfeed their baby? This mother did it all and “ran for the gold.” Here is her story.
“I am a 39 year old and mother of 3 children, now 20, 17 and 12, [and all born in Bhutan, a country between China and India]. My daughter was born premature in the year 1987. My elder son was born in 1990 and the youngest son in 1996. Although bottle feeding (formula) was becoming more readily available and more popular in Bhutan, I always wanted to breastfeed my children and I did. My first child was born premature and I had a tough time breastfeeding her for the first 2 months. I had to squeeze first into a cup and feed her with a tiny spoon. At that time I never tried formula. I was lucky for I was not working at that time. I had full time for my baby and I could spend a lot of time in my effort to breastfeed her. The first two months I fed her by spoon until she reached the normal birth age of a pregnancy. She could not suck properly until 2 months old.
By the time my second child was born, I was working as a government employee. Government employees were entitled to three months maternity leave and after the completion of that leave time, we (mothers) had to feed our children only during lunch time which was 1- 2 PM. Keeping in mind how important my job was to me and how important my child was to me, I fulfilled both responsibilities and did not fail at either. I would breastfeed my child before I left for work. I worked hard to clear all my papers on my desk as fast as I could so I could run home to feed my baby. I ran at least 3 times a day back and forth between my work and my baby.
It took me 15-20 minutes going and coming back. I needed at least 10 minutes to nurse my baby. Every day I was gone for about one hour. For example, my office hours were 9 am to 5 pm with a lunch break from 1 to 2 pm. I ran home around 10:30 in the morning and was back around 11 am. I took my lunch break from 12.30 pm to 1:30 pm. when I went home to feed my baby. I made another visit to my baby at 3 pm.
I was always worried that someone would see me leaving and that an office memo would appear on the notice board stating that this was not allowed. I was fortunate that my job responsibilities dealt with other offices. If anyone saw me and asked questions, I was able to cover up this activity. In fact my work involved other offices dealing with foreigners visiting Bhutan. These offices were out of my work area and so it was always easy for me to make excuses.
It was difficult but the difficulty was nothing compared to the excitement that you get from holding your baby and breastfeeding. The excitement of being a MOTHER may not be felt so deep inside if one does not breastfeed their children.
My first child breastfed until age 3 when I became pregnant with my second child. (We believed [erroneously] that breast milk spoils and is not healthy for children when you become pregnant.) My second child breastfed until almost age 5 (until start of pre-primary school). My third child breastfed until age 3.
My culture is very conservative in many ways. As a young girl or teenager, we do not wear anything that is too revealing or which would expose much skin. However after becoming a mother, no matter where we were (i.e., in a bus, in a crowd or in a public area) we understood that our baby’s need to feed was immediate. Being conservative was not as important when it came to breastfeeding. Breastfeeding comes first. Therefore, with my own experience of being a mother and breastfeeding my three children, I take breastfeeding as “MOST IMPORTANT”. Breastfeeding helps our children to be healthier and good health is the most valuable wealth. My kids are very healthy now and I believe that is the result of BREASTFEEDING” (emphasis in the original).
Friday, August 1, 1st Day of World Breastfeeding Week: “Contemplating the Baby”
Sheila Kippley
Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood
Natural Family Planning (an online manual)
www.nfpandmore.org