Breastfeeding: Bottle or the Breast?

Posted on November 1, 2007 in Health & Safety, Parenting by little mochi

How great breastfeeding can be.  Think of the convenience – no bottles to wash, no powder to mix, no packing extra formula when you visit the grandparents.  Just pull up your shirt and have your baby latch on!  Plus, it feels nice to be so close to him.  AND your mother in law can’t fight with you to feed him or get angry at you for not letting her feed him.  You and only you can do the feeding.  That itself is a great reason to breastfeed, right?

But what if your baby never learned to latch on correctly?  I tried.  And tried.  And tried.  I think he got too used to the bottle in my 3 days hospital stay.  My husband and I sent him to the nursery and didn’t tell the nurse to bring him back for feedings.  They just gave him those little nursette bottles.  But I didn’t fret it.  I figured I can always pump.  Afterall, it’s still breast milk with the same nutrition.

Well, it started out ok at first.  The pumping that is.  But hell, I started to get lazy! How in the world does anyone have time to bottle feed the baby and then pump?  It’s like having two feeding sessions!  How exhausting.  I think I valued sleep more because I was so sleep deprived.  I would push the pumping out another hour so I can sleep the extra hour. 

Also, we would visit the grandparents and I would go the entire day without pumping.  Pumping is a private affair so I wasn’t that comfortable doing it in their house.  Well, before I knew it, my milk supply dropped dramatically.  And let’s just say that losing your milk supply is a heck of a lot easier than increasing it!  I tried to increase my milk supply by drinking more fluids, eating more, and pumping more often.  But it’s difficult. 

Ultimately, I gave up.  It just wasn’t worth the trouble and time anymore.  And besides, I returned to work. 

No one has said I’m a bad mother for not breast feeding or for not providing my baby with my breast milk.  He did get two months worth of breast milk in a bottle.  I wish I was able to express more milk for him, but I’m not too hung up on it.  Formula works well too. 

Honestly, women shouldn’t feel like they have to breast feed. To hell with those people who make you feel bad for not breastfeeding.  They invented powdered formula for a reason.

Now that I’m no longer expressing milk, I can actually enjoy my latte.  Cheers!



Comments

4 comments to “Breastfeeding: Bottle or the Breast?”

  1. Grandma Noni on January 24th, 2008 3:25 pm

    Great and helpful article on breast feeding. Regarding your comment about new mom and her mother-in-law not being able to argue about what to feed … can you believe it…my m.i.l. actually took my baby to \’show off\’ the little one to mutual friends but when doing so, fed him a bottle of formula, declaring that I was starving him! \

  2. little mochi on January 24th, 2008 7:17 pm

    Thanks for your comment! I just hate how women feel like they are bad mothers just because they choose not to breast feed. It’s really a personal choice. If you’re a busy mom, then I don’t see why they can’t give their babies formula! The days of wet nurses are gone. I actually think it’s gross, having my baby suck on someone else’s boob.

    MILs can get so over bearing sometimes. They seem to have a mind of their own, don’t they? All i can say is just suck it up because you don’t have to deal with them everyday. =)

  3. Leslie on July 21st, 2008 3:30 pm

    ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! “they” invented powdered formula for MEDICAL reasons not for convenience but all of a sudden every woman thinks it is ok to feed their kids genetically modified reconstructed cow’s milk and formula companies are even advertising its new and improved formulas with DHA & ARA. but do you know its extracted from fermented algae and fungus with a synthetic solvent hexane which is by the way a neurotoxic chemical and mixed with sunflower oil, diglycerides and nonsaponifiable materials? yea, doesn’t sound like breast milk at all.

  4. little mochi on July 21st, 2008 3:40 pm

    Why does every woman feel that they HAVE to breastfeed if they can’t? Stressing over something that can’t be helped isn’t exactly healthy either. It can create a lot of unnecessary tension between you and your husband and the family as a whole. So why stress over it if you can’t breastfeed?

    Even if I could express milk with a pump without trouble, what’s to say that my company isn’t “Pump” friendly? And you know that those manual pumps don’t work as well as the electric ones. Not all mothers have the luxury to stay at home and pump all day or be at home to have their kids suck on their nipples all day.

    That’s my take. =)

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