Goddess Behavior....

This week at work myself and 4 co-workers got into a discussion about brea.st.feed.ing

To preface my mother did not BF us, we were formula fed. I'm not entirely sure my grandmother's breast fed or not, its just not a topic that comes up amongst the women in our family. Early commercial formulas were being introduced during that time period when they were bearing babies, so I dont really know.

I do recall that one of my aunt's attempted to BF her daughter and it didnt go well for numerous reasons. She gave up after just two weeks. One reason was that she was having supply issues. I'm not sure if it was because she didnt know much about BFing, or if she was supplementing with formula in those early days thus creating problems with it or if she couldn't produce enough. The other thing is that she got ZERO support from my uncle and other older family members. Her mother was helpful but nobody else. I was about 20 years old when my cousin was born and my first exposure to BF. I distinctly recall that my grandfather use to make comments about along the lines of "Your tit.ties are too small for that baby, no wonder she is hungry" and "How the hell do you know when the baby is full, its not like you have a gauge on those things." He was just AWFUL...simply awful.

So needless to say, I didn't seriously consider BFing my own babies until the last year. I just KNEW I would get the same BS from the family and comments and just figured it would be "easier" to just formula feed like everybody else did. I started to research it more and decided that I really wanted to BF my babies and that I would do whatever it takes to make it work.

My MIL did BF her boys for about the first 4 months and then stopped. Observing my DH's family members with a cousin that is currently BFing her baby, they are making tons of comments about when she will stop BFing. The baby was born in August so still a very young baby. Needless to say I'm getting some mixed messages on one side and negative messages on the other.

My friends are pro-BFing. Two of my friends are currently BFing and one other has also BF her baby. So there is tons of support and information there.

Anyway, back to the conversation at work. One of my friends really didnt know much about brea.st milk, BFing, bo.obs and so all the things that the experienced moms at work were saying about it blew her away.

My experienced mom friend at work is this incredibly graceful woman and she is a person that I really admire a great deal. She was positively giddy about BFing...she said it was hard but she loved it. She said it was worth it all. She was even funny saying it took about 6 months after BFing to stop feeling herself up befor leaving the house to make sure she was covered up properly.

She talked about her "milk-drunk" babies. She described it as the moment when her babies would just start to look drunk on her milk, snoozing after feeding, a little milk slipping down their cheeks and total bliss on their faces. She said "I may have to watch you feed just to see it because its so amazing!" She was so cute explaning it and said "It made me feel so powerful and incredible to know I did that for them."

Finally after telling us all the amazing things about BFing, she summed it up by saying "BFing moms are goddesses. Its truly goddess behavior."

The reason I write this all out is because it was some of the best advice I've received so far this pregnancy which was intertwined with real stories and humour and genuine excitement. It was definitely a message I was hoping to receive about just one aspect of being a mother. Now I recognize that I may be unsuccessful at BFing for whatever reasons may arise but I now know that I will be able to find support and positive attitudes to give my baby the best start which will not only help me but also my baby.

This conversation reminded me of why women are just so amazing and why I'm so happy to be part of the exclusive club of female friendship.