The truth is, Lactation Consultants have a bad reputation for saying it's my way or the high way. They have nick names like "Boob Nazi" and are said to "beat you with their breastfeeding stick". I certainly don't want that reputation, and besides, not only do you catch more flies with honey than you can hit with a swatter, I am just not that into forcing people into my point of view. As my childhood friend Missy always says, "You have the right to be wrong."
I am always saying that I want to help women who want help. If you don't care to learn about breastfeeding I certainly don't have any desire to shove it down your throat. Besides, like you, I just want to be accepted even if you don't think I should be breastfeeding my toddler on the deck at Creekside Dinery. You might not know how lonely motherhood is, and how often a breastfeeding mom has to "hide" to feel comfortable feeding her baby or to keep you from feeling uncomfortable.
Most moms, breastfeeding or not, are struggling through the process of motherhood and we all want to hear that we are doing just fine.
With that said, Wiessigner's article, Watch Your Language, has some amazing content. My favorite quotes in her article include:
"The truth is, breastfeeding is nothing more than normal. Artificial feeding, which is neither the same nor superior, is therefore deficient, incomplete, and inferior."
"Breastfeeding is best; artificial milk is second best. Not according to the World Health Organization. Its hierarchy is: 1) breastfeeding; 2) the mother's own milk expressed and given to her child some other way; 3) the milk of another human mother; and 4) artificial milk feeds (4)."
"Most of us have seen well-informed mothers struggle unsuccessfully to establish breastfeeding, and turn to bottle feeding with a sense of acceptance because they know they did their best. And we have seen less well-informed mothers later rage against a system that did not give them the resources they later discovered they needed. Help a mother who says she feels guilty to analyze her feelings, and you may uncover a very different emotion. Someone long ago handed these mothers the word "guilt." It is the wrong word. "
"Breastfeeding. Most other mammals never even see their own milk, and I doubt that any other mammalian mother deliberately "feeds" her young by basing her nursing intervals on what she infers the baby's hunger level to be. Nursing quiets her young and no doubt feels good. We are the only mammal that consciously uses nursing to transfer calories...and we're the only mammal that has chronic trouble making that transfer."
"Women may say they "breastfed" for three months, but they usually say they "nursed" for three years."
