I was in seventh grade when I first heard about breastfeeding.
“They do what!?” I incredulously asked my best friend. “Women’s boobs have milk and they feed their babies? I thought boobs were…for decoration.”
I was completely turned off by the whole thing, not to mention oddly curious how milk could come out of a breast. No way was I going to have anything to do with that in the future. Isn’t that why bottles were invented?
My Plan for Breastfeeding
When I became pregnant for the first time, I didn’t even give breastfeeding a thought. I was going to bottle feed, for sure. My mother certainly agreed it was great — all seven of her children used formula, and we’re all as healthy as can be.
In my last month of pregnancy, a friend who was also pregnant at the time (and gung-ho about breastfeeding) asked me why I wouldn’t breastfeed my baby. “I don’t know,” I said. I knew it was a very uneducated answer, but sadly, it was the truth. I knew all the benefits to breastfeeding, but was still weirded-out by the whole thing . “Well, why don’t you at least try it, and if you don’t like it, then stop.”
That sounded simple enough. I guess trying wouldn’t hurt.
Well, the day finally arrived, and after two hours of pushing, I had in front of me my very first child. I didn’t experience that love at first sight feeling that some parents experience. My experience was more like, “Did you really just come out of me? You’re so. . .humanlike. How did this all just happen?” . The doctor’s did their thing with him, then handed him over to me.
It was time to try nursing. “Here we go” I said with some sarcasm in my voice. “I’m new at this too, so we’ll see how we do, okay little guy.”
Right away, my son latched on and started sucking. I’ll admit, it was definitely weird, but in a really, really nice way. I fell in love with nursing, right there on the spot. It was just so. . .easy.
All thoughts of formula-feeding went straight out the door. No thoughts of having to run to the grocery store to buy expensive formula. No thoughts of preparing the formula, sanitizing bottles, checking temperatures, lugging bottles everywhere I would go…All gone. It felt like such a mental relief.
So in essence, why did I choose to breastfeed? I didn’t. It chose me.
And I loved it! What’s your story? Why did you choose to breastfeed?
