As a build-up to Christmas, and inspired by the Thanksgiving Holiday in America, I'd like to share an Advent collecton with you. (No Blue-Peter-style Advent crowns here!)
The idea for this theme comes from an exercise we used during our Peer Support training.
My Mother
Mum was so very pleased when I decided to breastfeed my children: she showed me how proud she was every time she saw me (that's one that never grows old!).
My Mum was one of the very few who offered breastmilk in the 1970's, a time when UK breastfeeding rates reached their all-time low. {30% at birth, and it was very rare to continue to 6 months +}. So, she was very grateful that the "culture" had moved on well enough that I felt able to breastfeed in public, and continue to feed both children past 12 months. And of course, she knew from experience that my life as a Breastfeeding Mother would be made much easier, and that it was best for the health of her own child, aswell as her grandchild.
When I think of nightfeeds in the time when I finally felt more settled into breastfeeding, I remember recognising the presence (almost haunting) of the myriad generations of female ancestors who had breastfed in the past. (I guess it was the darkness, making it feel rather like we was snuggled up in a Stone Age cave!)
Lovely ladies like these Great Grandmothers - Lizzie, Anne, and Frances:
"Who's thankful that I breastfed?"
My Child
Both children showed me how grateful they were that I breastfed - every time!
The lovely noises they made and the patting (or in one case desperate squeezing!) were cute, loving, grateful, thankful, and reassuring.
Their emotional & physical health has benefited from the length of time they were breastfed (both over 12 months)... and I'm sure that they will continue to feel the benefits of breastfeeding throughout their lives. A perennial Christmas Gift!
(more on the benefits/risks in the rather rough FF post "Best??!! It's Amazing")
My children have grown up knowing that breastmilk is the normal milk for young children. They watched it everywhere; we still talk about it. My daughter, especially, remembers seeing her brother being fed, and "feeding" her dolls & teddies - so cute.
But of course I'm hoping that these memories will lead her to choose to breastfeed her own children.
I feel sure that both children will continue to normalise breastfeeding in their lives, as they did when they were infants.
Two delightful grateful little bundles! (sigh!)
"Who's thankful that I breastfed?"
My Partner
My husband was so very pleased when I decided to breastfeed my children:
He knew that it was the best for them, but was also delighted to discover that it was the best for me! He also knew that it meant he would be able to skip a large part of the night feeds. (Only seemed fair as he was up for work.)
My partner was very happy to be able to put the money we saved towards a caravan. F***ula would have cost us at least £1200 - well over £600 per year for each child. (I include this here because he is the wage-earner in our house, not because this is the 1950's! Mold is not like this anymore, eh?)
More information & advice for fathers of breastfed babies on this post.
"Who's thankful that I breastfed?"
Myself
I was so very pleased when I decided to breastfeed my children: it gave me something to be proud of at a time when my confidence was low. I was in an entirely new social group; I was not working, I had moved away from my family & friends, I was adrift & finally my Labour (and the recovery afterwards) was a huge overwhelming shock. Phew, thank goodness for the HV who gave me the advice I needed to correct my Breastfeeding techniques and enable me to feed my child for all those months.
The confidence that your body can do it is a huge factor in the success of any breastfeeding relationship, I think.
My health has benefited from the length of time they were breastfed (both over 12 months)... so I was without periods for a considerably long time, which was lovely - but also means that my body was able to take a break from the hormonal onslaught each month. Studies recently have begun to show that it is this break from the monthly cycle of hormones which reduces the risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, cervical cancer and endometrial cancer.
I am grateful, too, for the much easier, more convenient life I had whilst my children were infants - no bottles, easier travelling, much less time spent in my GP's waiting room. The toddler time was much easier with a breastfed toddler than with my other child who weaned before walking & talking.
More information on the benefits of breastfeeding to the mother - on this post.
Have a very Merry & Restful Christmas!
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