World Breastfeeding Week

This week is World Breastfeeding Week and in honor I just had to write a nursing post.

Pea and I had a bit of a rough start to nursing, it wasn't horrible but it wasn't that easy. Bad latches, and blistered, bleeding nipples, everyone has heard a similar story. Luckily we didn't give up even though our house was stocked with bottles from the baby shower we had a few weeks prior.

Our nursing relationship has changed dramatically over 2 years. Nursing an infant is unlike nursing a baby and nursing a toddler doesn't even come close to compared to a baby. At 1 years old I thought Pea had mastered "nursing gymnastics" and boy was I ever wrong! The things my child tries to do while nursing never cease to amaze me. I have heard people question why mothers would nurse a toddler, I have heard things like "They must be doing it for themselves" come out of people's mouths or written on forums and well the truth is, if these people honestly believe a mother is nursing a toddler for herself, they don't know a thing about nursing a toddler!!! Nursing a toddler can be demanding, it can be frustrating and sometimes a bit irritating but the feeling of meeting your childs needs goes above and beyond all the feelings of hardship. Nursing a toddler is rewarding, it is a wonderful parenting tool and it creates a bond that lasts a lifetime.

It is so unfortunate that in this society nursing a two year old is considered "extended", "weird", "gross" etc. It upsets me to think that there are people out there that think that babies/children don't need to nurse past a certain arbitrary age. It also upsets me to think that there are mothers out there that are pressured to wean their children because of family and friends who believe they know what's best, what's even worse is the lack of support mothers get in the early days and the pressure to give a bottle when things are challenging.

I feel very strongly about nursing, and I would love to see our society become more accepting.
Happy World Breastfeeding Week!

http://www.drmomma.org/2009/12/if-you-nurse-your-baby.html