I could not breastfeed, because of physiological issues. But I tried with my first, oh how I tried. She would not latch on properly; I was not producing enough milk (think barely enough to cover the bottom of a cup); and I would keep at it to the point of utter exhaustion, frustration, and tears. I remember the hospital sent around a "lactation consultant" who was dead set on my breastfeeding -- said ALL women can breastfeed; it just takes time and the right combination of baby position, etc., etc. She would not let up -- she hooked me up to a mechanical breast pump that nearly ripped me apart and made me physically ill. At that point we told the woman that we were done, and to please get out and never come back. (I had flashbacks to that last weekend -- I kid you not -- when I watched a milking demonstration at the state fair, with the machinery they hook up to cows.)
Undaunted, the hospital sent me home with a manual pump, so I spent nearly an hour to get next to no milk out of my body. All that got me, in the end, were very sore nipples.I supplemented my pathetic attempts at feeding the "right" way with formula, so my daughter's nutrition wasn't at the mercy of my body. After about two weeks of this, we decided I had been through enough and went entirely to formula. My three other kids were formula fed, too.
Bottom line: It is nobody's damn business how a baby is fed, if that baby is healthy, happy, and thriving. People who pass judgment on non-breastfeeding women have no idea of the backstories as to why they are not. In fact, over the years, I have come to view this argument as one way some women try to "one up" other women. Sorry, but I don't buy the guilt and shame trip that they try to lay on the rest of us, who gave it our best shot but could not do it.
K&R.
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