by Miss Tara

Created on: February 27, 2007   Last Updated: May 21, 2007

Not all of us that have children are meant to be human cows. The old myth that your body will always produce enough milk to feed your babies demand just isn't true for some of us. Look through history and you will find women that could not breastfeed, and as a result their babies died. Weather your baby rejects the breast, you milk dries or you have health issues that demand you bottle feed it really is your decision and you should never feel guilty. That said there are certain social issues that you will encounter often. People that are heavily into the La Leche League, WIC, certain doctors, or even complete strangers will question your choices. These people are masters at making mothers feel, some how, less worthy of raising a child. I know this because with my 4 children I never managed to successfully breast feed for more than 4-8 weeks. The following have been my experiences.

With my first born I was told, as many of you may have been told, that the only way to have a healthy baby was to breastfeed. Imagine my horror as a first time mom when my baby girl wanted nothing to do with my breast. We would spend a good chunk of the day trying to force her to latch on, but in the end would have to give her a bottle. I had not bought a breast pump so she was given formula. My milk supply was gone in 4 weeks and she was raised on the bottle. At the time we were on the WIC program. EVERY visit their lactation specialist would want to see me and every time when I told her my supply was gone she would tell me I was not trying hard enough. Finally I got the guts up to tell her where to stick it since my baby as as healthy as any other.

With my second baby I was again told that the breast was the only way to feed. Of course I knew differently but thought I would give it a try anyway. My baby boy was more than happy to latch on. He was fed only by breast and seemed like a happy baby. That is until he got to about 7 weeks. All of a sudden he would cry all the time. I was not sleeping and thought that maybe he had colic. I took him into the doctor. They ran every test under the sun, and finally it donned on my pediatrician to give him some formula. He didn't only suck down one of the trial size bottles but managed to take 3. He didn't even spit up when he was done. The doctor suggested I go home and pump to see how much I was making and then call him. I did what he suggested and to my surprise I only got one ounce total. After three more sessions of pumping, and only getting

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