Chiq Boutique

A Mother’s Big Helper

Several days ago I called up my sister to congratulate her on her first baby.  I found myself dispensing unsolicited advice.  I’m sure I must have sounded like some fountain of wisdom on all things baby.   (Mental Note: I must curb my teaching tendancies.)

I asked her if she was already breastfeeding. She explained that Naya (that’s the name of my new niece)  was always asleep so she hasn’t started yet.  Then she added that maybe the infant was always full because the nurses were feeding her at the nursery.  It became clear to me that my sister  has not thoroughly read the book that I had passed on to her: Breastfeeding Made Simple by Nancy Mohrbacher and Kathy Kendall-Tackett.

When I gave birth to my first child, I wasn’t able to breastfeed. My son grew up with asthma. He was always on antibiotics for upper respiratory tract infections.  On my second pregnancy I was determined not to fail again.  I took classes, searched the internet for info, and combed bookstores for good reference books on the subject. The one and only book I bought was Breastfeeding Made Simple.  Read it from cover to cover. Proud to say that I’ve been successful. For every problem that came my way, I turned to it for help.  It was my bible.  My daughter is hardly ever sick.  Buying that book was a good investment on my child’s health.

The first and most important lesson I got from it was: breastfeeding is a learned skill. You are not born with an inherent ability to do it.  It is not a simple and automatic skill like breathing or eating. I remember how , when I was pregnant with my first child,  my mother assured me that it is a natural thing for all mothers to do, hence I shouldn’t worry my head about it.  This is one misconception that can lead to failure.  It nurtures a sense of complacency in the mother. It makes her think it’s all eezy peezy and when it’s finally time to do it, she realizes how difficult it is and gives up. 

I would never forget my two days at the hospital after the delivery of my second child. It was a stressful time for me. My husband  ( a nurse) kept insisting that I should give the baby a bottle.  He was afraid that my daughter would get dehydrated.  I explained to him the things that I had read in the book .  He countered with, “You shouldn’t believe all the things you read in books. I’ve taken care of many patients suffering from dehydration.”  Exasperated,  I told him, “You may be a nurse, but you are not trained in lactation.”  That closed the argument.  If it weren’t for that book, I would have been too ignorant to stand my ground.  I would not have succeeded.