Additional Meaning...

Before Michael was born I had very different ideas about breastfeeding/nursing… yes this is another one of those posts. So back to what I was saying, before Michael I had a picture of the “nursing mother” in my head. This image was colored by my experience at BYU. Many of the nursing moms I knew there believed in natural medicine, home/unschooling, home birth, and did not vaccinate their children. Many chose to leave school prior to graduation, ate “whole” foods, practiced “attachment parenting:”, and were passionate about making breastfeeding socially acceptable by nursing publically. There were times I was afraid to eat things at ward activities for fear that breastmilk had been used in place of cow’s milk- I love that you think I am joking. These characteristics didn’t fit with my personality, first off I buy dairy products at the store, I plan to send Michael to school, and not only did I give birth in a hospital, but I had an epidural. I was nervous when I found out that I was expecting, nervous that by choosing to feed my son this way I would in some way need to adhere to this lifestyle. As the July drew closer I got more and more nervous, and then Michael arrived, and he had to eat, and I got to know some of the moms out here that nurse their babies… and guess what… they wear bras, have their babies in hospitals, buy their dairy products at the grocery story, and yes… vaccinate their kids. After this I wasn’t as nervous, nursing was less of a statement against the establishment or a lifestyle choice and a more of a necessity of life, a way to feed a baby, and something that “normal” moms did. How come breastfeeding has changed from the way we feed our babies to a statement about our beliefs? Why can’t it just simply be one of the ways that mothers feed their children, why is there additional meaning attached?