Salt Lake City Based Photographer Timbra Wiist owns/operates Landslide Photography & Photographs the Journey of Motherhood (see bottom of page or sidebar for more info. . .depending on what this blog is choosing to do for the day).

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Liquid Love: A breastfeeding myth

breastfeedingcafecarnivalWelcome to The Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival!

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 myths and dispelling them. Please read the other blogs in today's carnival listed below and check back for more posts July 22nd through August 4th!



Just today a friend came to me and said "There are 80,000 women in the US who CAN NOT breastfeed!" To which I replied, "Well, that's just not true!" And he retorted with "They are adoptive mothers!" To which I replied again "Well, that's just not true!" He went on to say that he would turn someone in if they were trying to breastfeed a baby that they'd adopted, and then that even if an adoptive mother can breastfeed her child, it is only because she has recently had a baby or at least given birth to her own child at one time. NOPE NOPE AND NOPE! Adoptive mothers, even those who have NEVER given birth and have NEVER breastfed a baby, CAN BREASTFEED!!! There are options. There are techniques for inducing lactation. There are also options that come with using an SNS, which means you have a little pouch full of milk, with a thin line that is attached to the breast, baby can suck at breast, though possibly, the milk only comes from the contraption. In this SNS you may have donated human milk or some type of alternative supplement. Recently I read a quote in the Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. It was with regards to older children weaning, however, in this situation, I think it would apply beautiful. "Often times [the child] does not know when the liquid ends and the love begins." The meaning behind this is that some children nurse even when there is no milk supply left.

An adopted child who is breastfed is having MANY needs met at the breast, including nutrition which may or may not be coming directly from his/her mother, but in this circumstance, the baby knows he/she is being cared for and that all of his needs are being met AT the breast, as nature intended. He does not know where the liquid ends and the love begins :)

This leads into another huge myth that there are "MANY" women who simply can not breastfeed. So I ask you, if an adoptive mother, who has never birthed a baby or breastfed a child, can produce, if not a complete supply, at least a partial supply, or nourish her baby at the breast through something man made, but still meets all of his needs at the breast. . .what mother could not?




Here are more post by the Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival participants! Check back because more will be added throughout the day.

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1 comment:

Angelina said...

I missed this post, but I'm glad I took a double look. Perhaps we should call it breast nurturing as there really is much more than simple nutrition going on :)

July 26, 2013 at 12:19 AM

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