This post was written as part of The Breastfeeding Cafe's Carnival. For more info on the Breastfeeding Cafe, go to www.breastfeedingcafe.wordpress.com. For more info on the Carnival or if you want to participate, contact Claire at clindstrom2 {at} gmail {dot} com. Today's post is about breastfeeding and your online communities. Please read the other blogs in today's carnival listed below and check back for more posts July 18th through the 31st!
I should probably sit this one out, but I'll make a few comments.
I was never part of any online forum, in fact, I've never understood the appeal, but I suppose in an age where we find most of our community online and not with face to face contact, it makes sense.
I will say, that recently a friend of mine was having a struggle with her daughter, her JUST 2 year old daughter. She went online to find an answer, and she found an answer alright. And then she posted about it online too. I was saddened that she had such lack of support system that she'd go online to an unknown community to seek advice, I was horrified at the action she took, and appalled that finding the information online somehow made it correct and justifiable. Most of all, I was confused why someone would go ONLINE and ask the advice, or read the advice of a perfect stranger, to help her make a parenting decision. To me, this goes against everything I understand and try to instill in mothers I've worked with, "trust thyself."
So, perhaps here I'd like to ask my own question, what is the appeal?
Living in a country, not my own, when my oldest daughter was born, I was SO thankful for the internet, in order to talk with some mamas I knew and trusted, to use them as sounding boards while I walked the road of the unknown, but I would not and could not have trusted those questions, concerns, fears and even the good stuff, to a forum of mothers I'd never met, and likely never would. Again, I'm sure that when we do not have support systems in place, this is a way to seek a support system, almost anonymously, so perhaps that is why it is an appealing means of forming community. That said, I am then, extra thankful today for the women in my life who I knew I could turn to and trust along the way, and that I DID and do have a support system, when it comes to breastfeeding, but also just in my mothering.
Here are more post by the Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival participants! Check back because more will be added throughout the day.
- Shelly @ Lousy Mom-If you could ask everyone in the world
- Ashley @ Adventures with my Monkeys-Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival Day 7: Online Breastfeeding
- Timbra @ Bosoms and Babes-What’s the Online Appeal?
- Sylko @ Chaotic Mama-Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival Day 7
- And of course the guest poster on the Breastfeeding Cafe’s blog today is Claire Lindstrom-Breastfeeding Online
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