Breast Efforts.com

Sunrise this morning featured a story about “extreme” breastfeeding. I’m not really sure where this title “extreme” breastfeeding has come from. What Sunrise is referring to is usually called extended breastfeeding, and I believe is a better term to explain a child that is breastfed beyond their second birthday. Women and children who practice extended breastfeeding should be celebrated, what an achievement! I weaned Alex about one month out from his third birthday and it wasn’t our choice to do so. After months of the stress of going through the Family Court system, pressure from Alex’s father and extended family to wean Alex as it affected their time with Alex whilst apart from me, I reluctantly gave in to these pressures and forced Alex to wean. It was tough. Alex wasn’t ready and I felt robbed of my plan for Alex to self-wean. A very sad time for us both. Gladly, Alex still talks fondly of his memories of breastfeeding, almost 12 months down the track, pointing to my boobs and saying “these boobs are mine” and I reply with “no they are mine now” then he looks sad, pats them and says “no milk left Mummy”. Alex explains that when he is a little baby again, he will be able to have boob again. I explain to him that we don’t get to be babies again, that’s it, now you get to grow up and be a big boy! Such is the innocence of a child’s mind, that must be hard to comprehend!

Those mothers out there still breastfeeding past the second birthday, I hope you stay true to your resolve in self-weaning, ignore those looks and best advice, don’t tag yourself as an ‘extremist breastfeeder’, follow your instinct and those of your children, because soon enough, it will end. Luckily you’ll have wonderful memories to look back on and share together. Enjoy it while it lasts because it is an amazing adventure, no matter how long or short the jouney!

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Well, the time has come!  Alexander turned two on Friday and so the breastfeeding is winding down.  We are down to just the morning feed (most days) and that’s only because we both like to have a cuddle in bed before getting up and starting the day.  He does make the most of it though as he’ll go from side to side a number of times and it ends up taking about a half an hour before I can coax him to hop off, bribing him with honey toast and milk.

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Breastfeeding has made headlines again this week with a comment from Dr Jennifer James calling for infant formula to be banned from supermarket shelves and only made available through prescription in an effort to encourage women to seek help from medical professionals when breastfeeding difficulties arise.  In my opinion this is a very flawed plan and here are some reasons why:

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As my beautiful bouncing boy approaches his second birthday, the question of weaning has been crossing my mind more regularly.  Alex is a big booby boy and I mean BIG.  In March of this year I discovered I was pregnant again and I suffered a lot of anxious moments thinking that I had made a big mistake, I was in no way ready to wean Alex and neither was he.  I didn’t know whether I could manage to breastfeed through the pregnancy and wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to tandem feed if it came to that.  Beyond breastfeeding, I wasn’t ready to share this special time that I had been having with Alex with another child.

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So we have had a rocky couple of weeks with the misfortune of recently being hospitalised with a bacterial bowel infection.  Two trips to the Emergency Department resulted in an overnight stay and two full days of being hooked up to a drip for dehydration.  Not having eaten for almost a week, needless to say I was quite distraught at the thought of having to give up on breastfeeding Alexander.

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This week I finally went along to my very first ABA (Australian Breastfeeding Association) meeting.  The meeting unexpectedly brought back a flood of emotions from my birth, bottle and breastfeeding journey and I was quite taken aback at how raw my emotions still seemed to be from this trying time.

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Breastfeeding has made headlines in the news today with reports of a new study that finds formula to be as good as breastmilk.  The Norwegian Scientist who has made the claim, and unfortunate foray into an already extensively researched area, claims that breastmilk isn’t responsible for the health of a child but rather hormones provided to the infant in the womb prior to birth.  The researcher claims that women who have a healthy pregnancy are more likely to breastfeed and therefore results in existing research showing that breastfed babies are healthier than formula fed babies.

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We are now at the almost 15 month mark and we are still breastfeeding, yes, still!  For me personally, breastfeeding is still the most rewarding and comforting part of being a mother but there are times when I sit and think, how long will this go on for?  Alexander shows no sign of giving it up and now that he can grab at it whenever he likes I’ve yet to refuse his requests.  I have noticed however, that I can easily distract him with a book or a toy so it’s more about spending time together.  I can’t really imagine feeding a three or four year old child but when can you start to reason with a child that they no longer need the boob?

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Here are a few books that I found helpful on my breastfeeding journey:

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My first four days as a new mother had already presented a number of hurdles and challenges that were to be ongoing for many more weeks to come.  There seemed to be no simple solution to the challenges I had already faced and so when presented with yet another hurdle, I was near breaking point. 

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