I ran the hospital breastfeeding clinic, gave a guest lecture at an undergraduate nutrition class at the University of Massachusetts, and attended a talk about the economics of breastfeeding. Plus the usual errands and 3 year-old care.
This is the second time I've given a this talk at the University, and I leave feeling optimistic each time. The course these students are taking looks at "nutrition in the life cycle," and I love the idea of breastmilk as the first in a long sequence of nutrition in a person's life. Have you ever noticed that, when talking about breastfeeding, people call solid food "real food?" Breastmilk really is food in its own right.
The most exciting part is that these students seem pretty comfortable with the idea of breastfeeding. The vast majority of them were breastfed themselves, and many knew a whole lot more about breastfeeding than I did before I was pregnant. I get the feeling that there is a chance that the next generation of mothers will actually think that breastfeeding is normal.
Here are some of the great questions they asked:
- Can women breastfeed if they have breast implants?
- Is it true that cabbage leaves can help with engorgement?
- Can you breastfeed if you have a nipple piercing?
- Why do so many women stop breastfeeding before they want to?
- Can you breastfeed an adopted baby?
The answers to these and many other questions are available on websites featured in the "Breastfeeding Help" section of this blog's sidebar.
So, how about you? Before you became pregnant did you know much about breastfeeding? Did it seem like the normal thing to do or something strange - even radical? If you weren't sure that breastfeeding was for you, what changed your mind?
