The popularity of breastfeeding has risen and fallen over the last hundred years.
In the early twentieth century, it was very common for every mother who was able to breastfeed her baby until weaning. If you needed to leave your baby with a sitter, it was ordinary for that sitter to breastfeed your baby in your absence.
With the invention of formula and the rubber nipple, mothers could suddenly be apart from their babies more easily. In the mid-twentieth century, women were encouraged to put their babies on a more “nutritiously balanced” formula, train their babies early on to sleep through the night, and place their children in daycare so they could enter the workforce.
When the government developed WIC, or Women, Infants, and Children, in the late 1960s, its purpose was to meet the needs of malnourished families. At that time, it primarily provided food vouchers and formula to these families. Often, mothers would place their baby directly on a prepared formula, knowing that it was readily available through WIC.
Near the end of the twentieth century, health officials started to encourage breastfeeding as an adequate and even more nutritionally sound choice for feeding babies.
While this option works for some mothers, many new mothers struggled with not having breastfeeding support from family members. After all, their own mothers and grandmothers had bottle-fed their babies. WIC had to change its support role to include breastfeeding moms, offering to supply breast pumps and food packages to encourage good health for both baby and mom.
In the early 1990s, National Breastfeeding Week was established in the United States after a WHO/UNICEF meeting emphasizing the global benefits of breastmilk for moms and babies. The celebration was expanded to National Breastfeeding Month in 2011.
My Story
My breastfeeding journey began as a young mom, newly discharged from the hospital after a rough delivery. The Labor and Delivery nurses did their best to get me started, but as I went home with my new baby, I quickly gave in to the pressure to place my daughter on a bottle. Our nursing journey was over at three days old.
When my second child was born, I was determined to try again. He latched on well and seemed to know what to do effortlessly. I felt confident in my nursing abilities and fully breastfed him until he was 12 months old. The same could be said for my baby number three and four. Both nursed well and continued until almost two years of age.
When baby number five was born, she had a minor tongue tie that made nursing more difficult. We were able to get her tongue clipped, and she, too, was a successful nurser until the age of two.
After much success breastfeeding my babies, I had no concerns during my sixth pregnancy.
I had already breastfed for almost seven years, so surely, I knew what to expect. But her birth was different. Quick and somewhat traumatic, my smallest baby arrived early. That’s when all my confidence went out the window. I nursed her for the first few days as I had the others. I looked for wet diapers but struggled to see if she was wetting. She fussed a lot, and we offered a pacifier to soothe her. On day three, a friend showed up with her breast pump and baby scale, determined to help me figure this baby out. Weighing the baby shocked me at how much weight she had lost. We immediately offered her a bottle, which she hungrily slurped down. Simultaneously, I started pumping my now almost non-existent supply while I cried buckets of tears . . .
Just where had I gone wrong?
How could I have missed the evidence that my baby was starving?
I was experienced yet overconfident, letting my guard down too soon.
For three months, I tried every trick the lactation consultants could offer. Nursing shields, power pumping, lactation cookies, and an SNS tube taped to my breast and filled with formula, allowing her to suckle me and still get extra calories. We weighed and recorded her data daily. I set a goal that if we weren’t breastfeeding by three months, I would give up, and she would be a bottle baby. She squeaked by the deadline and started nursing full-time at three months. However, I still had to feed her a bottle of formula each day or she did not put on the necessary half-ounce of weight per day. She went on to nurse until she was over two years old.
My subsequent two babies were both NICU babies. I pumped and bottle-fed them my milk, finally understanding that I didn’t need to stress.
By now, I knew there was plenty of time to teach breastfeeding when they were discharged from the hospital. Each nursed for over two years.
My final baby was born on time, perfectly healthy, and ready to nurse. Though she tried hard early on, it was apparent that she wasn’t getting enough milk, though I had an abundance. A pediatric dentist assessed her and diagnosed a tongue and lip tie that needed revision. The surgery was completed around her three-month birthday. She went on to nurse until she was three years old. I had always said that I would not nurse longer than two years, but this little one had health issues that made weaning more traumatic than allowing her to find comfort in my lap nursing.
Your story may include a three-day breastfeeding stint or nursing a toddler. You may be a working and pumping mother or a strictly breast-only mom. You may have years of experience or be brand new at this. The bottom line is that, as mothers, we do what is best for our babies first.
Fed is best, but don’t give up too soon on the potential joys of breastfeeding, even if it is for a short time. You won’t know until you try . . .
For another mom’s perspective on breastfeeding, see Every Breastfeeding Journey Is Different and It’s All Okay.
The opinions expressed in this post are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of OKC Mom, its executive team, other contributors to the site, its sponsors or partners, or any organizations the aforementioned might be affiliated with.
