On the heels of last issue's Toni Braxton comment about "wanting to have a life" as a reason for not breastfeeding, this months issue has an article titled "The Battle to Breastfeed: Tales from the Front Lines." The article describes several women's stories about their trouble with BFing. Included are several statements that REALLY bother me... one as a quote (that I can only imagine is taken out of context??) from LLL: "only a very small percentage of American women will be able to breastfeed successfully without help"....which makes it sound like BFing takes professional help. I know, that it doesn't necessarily come naturally and requires patience, but the "small percentage" bit bothers me. It also describes a woman who "weathered two months of pain" and "it got so bad that my husband had to tell me to stop yelling every time our son would latch on" ...now if that wouldn't convince you to skip BFing, I don't know what will...and BTW why didn't she call her doc???? The last quote was from a "veteran" BFer: "I had a misconception that BFing would be easier than formula feeding, IT IS NOT. It's cheaper, more convenient, etc. but by no means easier" I am also lucky that I had a pretty easy time learning to BF (I swear DD just knew what to do and it had nothing to do with me). And OK, I know that I am over-sensitive to media attention to BFing, since it's currently such a big part of my life...But I think this article, while trying to show the difficulties and some of the realities of BFing, it doesn't show any of the many positive, loving beautiful sides of BFing.
Sorry to rant, but this is the Bitching Post, I guess!!! I know that a lot of you have the same subscription, did you get the same gist? Or am I truly trying to pick a fight (with e-Pregnancy) here???
Thanks for letting me air my thoughts...