Sense to Save: Other Blog

On breastfeeding

When I was pregnant with Johnny, I knew I wanted to breastfeed. It was cheap. It had numerous health benefits. And that’s all I knew about it.

The more I researched, the more I knew we had to make it work. Here’s a bunch of good reasons right here: http://www.promom.org/101/ (again, sorry I can’t hyperlink).

For me, I knew that it would be more convenient, I would recover from birth easier, I’d lose the baby weight faster, and I’d lower my own risks of certain cancers — just to name a few. Johnny would be protected against numerous diseases, he’d be less likely to get sick (and quicker to recover if he did), and much more.

That seems to be true. He’s never had an ear infection. He’s never had to take a prescription med (except for a prescription diaper cream). At his 18-month check-up, the pediatrician was impressed that he’d never had an antibiotic.

His one cold was just a runny nose and general cruddy feeling, and it was over in a few days. Looking back, it could have been teething-related but I don’t know for sure.

Last fall, we were exposed to two families who had H1N1. We didn’t get sick. My own immune system might have been working harder since I was nursing.

He’s a healthy guy and I want to credit part of that to breastfeeding.

The health benefits are great, but there are others.

Like I said, it’s cheap! I had to eat a little more per day than I otherwise would have, so there is probably an expense with that. But minimal. I didn’t have to buy bottles or bottle gear. Formula is pricey. I didn’t buy a pump. I got a manual one from a friend (which I used just once — ugh) and I borrowed an electric for a time (also didn’t like it). Not sure I could hack it if I had to pump often.

It was so incredibly convenient to just pull him onto my lap or lay down next to him or whatever, adjust my shirt and nurse. Once he figured out how to latch without my help, I got to be really lazy with it. It’s nice to have that built-in relaxation time several times per day!

I didn’t have any bottles to make, which probably takes a little bit of time. A screaming baby wouldn’t likely appreciate those extra moments when they want fed NOW.

At night, I didn’t have to completely wake up. I could just pull him into bed with me or just roll over and go back to sleep immediately. (Side note — co-sleeping must be done safely. When he was really little, I made sure to sit up and stay more awake to keep him safe. But when he was bigger, I knew that I wouldn’t smoosh him.)

Some people think it would be more convenient to pump milk so someone else could give him a bottle. For me, I didn’t think so. It would be more work for me to pump than it would be to just feed him myself. I didn’t feel the need to have a “break” from him. I could leave him with Shane and go run errands or something and come back later to feed him. Not so bad.

Practicing “ecological breastfeeding,” I didn’t have a post-partum period until he was 14 months old. Lemme tell you, it’s nice to go almost 2 years without a period! And yep — if you’re doing math then you might have figured that I only had one period between Johnny’s birth and getting pregnant with this little girl. It’s nice not to have to deal with that, but it also means I’m less likely to be anemic. And I’m also less at risk for other cancers because of it.

Especially once he became mobile (and that means falling down a lot!), nursing was so handy. He’d fall, I’d quickly let him latch and he’d be over his injury in no time. Much faster than any other remedy I could come up with. Not only the physical closeness of nursing is comforting to the baby, but the milk is healing for them, too.

I know some sleep experts caution against nursing a baby to sleep, but it worked for us. He’d conk out and I’d be pretty sleepy myself. Win-win.

There were so many benefits to breastfeeding that I discovered along the way. I’m really thankful for being given the opportunity, and I’m thankful for God’s brilliant design.

It wasn’t always easy, though. Next up — challenges I dealt with along the way.