Reading about the benefits of nursing left me feeling more than a little bit guilty. I thought to myself, "Why would I not want to nurse my baby?"
When I was pregnant with my first child, when I thought ahead to feeding him I always pictured bottle-feeding. It seemed to be the "natural" choice ... after all, that's how all of my family and friends fed their babies. I didn't know anyone who breastfed, ever, anywhere. It was unknown territory, unfamiliar and weird.
I bought a starter set of bottles, excited about the cute designs and sterile bags that you could pour formula in. I pictured myself feeding my dear baby from these adorable bottles, basking in the glow of new motherhood. I always skipped over the breastfeeding chapters in my pregnancy books, figuring that I didn't need to know any of those things since that wasn't in the game plan.
Then, one day during my ninth month I decided to read those chapters. I don't know about everyone else but I read my pregnancy books to tatters during those nine long months. Tired of reading the same old 10 pages of the ninth month chapter, I finally turned to the information about breastfeeding.
Reading about the benefits of nursing left me feeling more than a little bit guilty. I thought to myself, "Why would I not want to nurse my baby? Why would I want to deny him these impressive and important benefits because it would be something different for me?" I felt really bad about my prior eight months and the ease at which I brushed off all possibilty of breastfeeding and I even felt bad about wasting the bottles I had so carefully chosen.
Turns out that all I needed was some education. I wonder if that wouldn't help other expectant mothers make up their mind. I imagine that a lot of women are intimidated by breastfeeding, either because of misinformation or because it's something they're not familiar with ... perhaps some women are like me, coming from a background of all bottle-feeders and it's all they've ever seen. Maybe breastfeeding seems weird and unnatural (what I also used to think) because of this.
I am an absolute convert. I am someone who was planning on bottle-feeding and made a complete about-face and have breastfed all of my children and would not consider anything else. I do not think this makes me a better mother than a bottle-feeding mom, but I sincerely think I'm doing what is best for my baby.
I firmly believe that every mother has the right to make that choice for herself and her baby, but I would love it if every mother at least gave it a shot.
About the Author
Monica Beyer is the mother of three children: Lauren is 6 months old, Corbin is 4 years old and Dagan is 7 years old. Websites include http://www.signingbaby.com, http://www.naturalmommy.com