So many mothers during pregnancy are often asked the same question over and over again: "How are you planning to feed your baby?"
When we are asked this, we automatically want to say "breastfeed" because in all honesty, this is what we know they want to hear. We feel pushed and pressurized into breastfeeding our babies and we are constantly reminded of the health benefits that breastfeeding brings along. If we don't agree to breastfeed, we are then made to feel irresponsible, we are made to feel as though by not breastfeeding, we are imposing a HUGE health risk to our babies.
At appointments, we are thrown leaflets and booklets on the benefits of breastfeeding, we have heard the term "breast is best" about 250 times, we are given constant information on how to breast feed and if we say we are planning to bottle feed as opposed to breast, then we are given a funny look and faced with a barrage of questions making us feel worthless, defeated, irresponsible and well. . . like a bad mum.
Do you want to know the answer to the question "which is really best?" Here's the simply and straight forward answer for you:
FEED YOUR BABY HOWEVER THE HELL YOU WANT TO!
Yes that's right. At the end of the day, it isn't the health visitors, midwives, pediatricians, doctors etc who are going to be going through the emotional, life changing events of having a baby IT IS YOU.
I have breastfed and bottle fed and I did so on my own terms. However, when I chose to bottle feed my baby, I was made to feel stupid, I was belittled , I was constantly reminded of all the healthy anti-bodies that my baby COULD be getting if I chose to breast feed instead and I felt as though I was constantly monitored as a parent. When I breastfed however, I was praised, welcomed by all the health professionals, given approval by health visitors and midwives and treat like absolute royalty. This situation here, is completely unfair. I cannot stress enough how I absolutely HATE to see mothers who choose to bottle feed their babies bashed down and made to feel as though they are depriving their newborns.
It is very true that babies do get anti-bodies from their mothers "mummy milk" however, by them not having breast milk is not a life or death situation, therefore, it is completely unnecessary to belittle a mother because she doesn't have a baby hanging off her nipple.
As a mother, you have to do what is best for you, not anybody else and you certainly shouldn't have to feel pressurized by the system to breastfeed. Often, mothers try and are made to feel like a failure when they decide to give up. Let me give you some home truths about breastfeeding right here: when you first start, your nipples feel like they are on fire. Every time that baby latches on , you are faced with intense pain even if their "latch" is great, this is because your body is getting used to it. You often have to cope with that pain for at LEAST 3 days whilst you wait for your milk to come in. Once your milk does come in, your going to be leaking like a cow everywhere and you can say good bye to those beautiful bra's you once wore, because your boobs will be different size cups every day throughout the day. You can also wave goodbye to certain clothes you once loved to wear, nice tops, dresses etc that you were looking forward to wearing again once you popped your baby out. Be prepared for your newborn to want to latch ALL of the time for the first few weeks whilst you wait for your milk to establish and be prepared to get used to the fact your baby will not form a feeding pattern but rather want to feed on demand. Say good bye to ANY form of sleep, because for some reason, breast fed babies like to sleep less because they also like to comfort feed. Oh and be prepared to have your tits on show anywhere and everywhere.
Now I am not one bit saying breastfeeding is a bad thing, I did it with my youngest son and I loved it. I am telling you the reality of it and showing people how hard it really is because if we do decide to stop breastfeeding because we find it too difficult, then that really is OK. Although it is completely natural, it is very difficult to do, especially when we live in a society where it is looked down upon to breastfeed in public, how the hell we supposed to feed our babies!?
My main point in this post is to just show how choosing to bottle feed our babies does NOT define who we are as mothers. Our babies will be JUST FINE with a bottle of formula, breast or even a bit of both! Don't feel pressurized by heath-care professionals to breastfeed and if you do try and it doesn't work out for you, don't feel bad either.
We live in the 21st century and there are MANY brands out their who do amazing bottles, some which even mimic a mothers nipple.
So feed your baby however the hell you want to and don't feel bad about it. And remember, the best is whatever YOU choose it to be.
I know they say that breast feeding is better for the babies health but my wife did not like the idea of breast feeding so we fed all 3 of our children with the bottle, we have never had any problems. when she had all 3 children the hospital really pushed for her to breast feed, it made her feel really uncomfortable. are little lad was born 17 weeks ago and she told them, " look this is my body and i will do as i please".
so so happy that your wife stood up for what she wanted to do! Congratulations on your new arrival how old are your other two :)
i have two girls one at 10 and one at 4. time has flown so fast, my youngest doughter goes to school in september does not feel like ten minutes since she was born. have you got any more?
Amazing. No, I just have the two boys, one who's 5 and one who's now 4 months :)
nice age gap between them both. there are 6 years between my two girls and 10 years between my oldest and youngest.
Yes I wanted a smallish age gap and plan to do that again so all of my children are close together :) There is 16 years between me and my brother so wanted to give my children a much smaller age gap :) Thanks for stopping by again. . .
we didn't even plan on having kids it just happen lol. we had not been together long about 6 months, then there is 6 years age difference between the two girls. we did try to have another before then but other things cropped up like work and stuff, then we planned to get married, about 3 months before we got married our 2nd child came. cheers for replying back to me :)