Showing posts with label carnival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label carnival. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Top 10 ways I'm not very good at natural parenting (and why I keep trying anyway)

Welcome to the March Carnival of Natural Parenting: Natural Parenting Top 10 Lists

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared Top 10 lists on a wide variety of aspects of attachment parenting and natural living. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.

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At the birth of my first child, I knew practically nothing about natural parenting. I realized breastfeeding was good, and I thought baby slings were neat. Yep, that's about it. I did not grow up observing many natural parenting principles, and I wasn't the least bit crunchy before I got pregnant.

It should be obvious that now, less than four years since I started learning about all these things, it is still a work in progress. Here are the top ten ways I screw up daily as a natural parent, starting with the least of the evils and counting down to number one. I'm pretty sure I might have read similar lists by others, although I can't remember where. I tried to find one but couldn't. If you know of one please tell me and I'll link to it! Here's my list. I hope you still like me once you get to the end.

#10 - I cloth diaper, but not very well. We have a mix of cloth diapers, mostly consisting of velcro-fastening covers with the cheapest inserts we could find that were not prefolds. We have no wool anything. I have never lanolized or done a wool wash. Our diapers get ugly stains and I just leave them there. I recently bought a bunch of diapers for the new baby from my friend Jenn. They are cute and some of them are, well, beautiful. I never thought of a cloth diaper as something that needed to be beautiful. It was something that could save me money and would be covered by my baby's pants. But I love these tiny little diapers. For Baby Robert, I am going to make upcycled wool shorties and applique something adorable on the butt and buy him some t-shirts to wear so he can show it off. Because now I see that diapers can be an art form.

#9 - I don't ever want to be on the news for being harassed while breastfeeding. I love breastfeeding, and support a woman's right to nurse wherever, covered or not. I think the women who go on the news and out establishments for bullying nursing moms are amazing and important. I've attended a nurse-in held for another mom. And if I realllly had to, I'd stand up for myself and my baby. But probably, my husband Jordan would be the one giving somebody a piece of his mind. I am not one of those women who is like I just hope somebody does say something to me because they won't know what hit them. I probably would go on the news if I had to but I'd much rather just sit there and nurse my baby and be ignored.

#8 - Our toys are not all handcrafted wooden ones, and we even watch princess movies. I enjoyed Disney movies as a child, the princesses especially. There was no way I was going to keep my kids from watching them. But Suzi has not been swayed into being ultra-girly. After viewing a Disney classic such as Sleeping Beauty, Suzi pulls on her rain boots and announces in a gruff voice that she "is the prince! Off to rescue the princess and marry her!" Ivey doesn't currently care about TV one way or the other, except for turning it on and off repeatedly. As for our toys, we usually opt for simple, wooden, handmade toys, but sometimes we don't. Other people frequently gift us with battery-operated plastic items, and if the kids love it we usually keep it. Sometimes I even like those toys, if they aren't just noisy for the sake of being noisy.

#7 - We plan to homeschool, but we haven't nailed down the details yet. Suzi is going to be four in May, so we have a while to figure this out. We don't legally have to do anything until the year she'd be in first grade, but we probably could do a little more than we're doing right now. It's tricky, because Suzi is not into being drilled or directed. She is probably more of an unschooling type, but I went to public school so that approach does not come easily to me. I need to make a point of jumping in and doing more, trying various things and seeing what works, especially in this year before she'd be going to kindergarten.

#6 - I'm not a good cook. I just never really enjoyed cooking, for whatever reason. It's a victory for me to come up with a halfway balanced meal at all, let alone something creative that contains whole, unprocessed foods my kids will enjoy. I try, but all my ideas come from other people. There are also many good foods I've never tasted. Since becoming a parent, and thanks to my more knowledgeable friends, I've been introduced to such things as steel cut oats, real whipped cream, quinoa, spaghetti squash and goat's milk. I need to branch out, have fun and think of my time in the kitchen as working on a craft project. I've always liked the Waldorf idea of having a different grain for every day of the week, so I might go buy the ones we don't have and try some of these recipes. I might accidentally stumble upon something Suzi will eat!

#5 - Hand-in-hand with #6... I'm a junk food junkie. Ice cream, cheetos, cookies with milk, little powdered donuts. I get started and can't stop. At least I have pretty much conquered my soda problem, though, because I drink mostly water now. I'm not going to pretend I have any intention of giving up sweets, but you know what I could do to improve? Bake more of my own goodies with wholesome, real ingredients and leave the barely-qualifies-as-food stuff at the store.

#4 - My kids get sick and I freak out. I know there was something I read one time about treating (whatever) at home, but what was it? Then I find the answer and, of course, we need some obscure herb that I should have carefully packed away in a medicine cabinet, but I never did. Why? Because it's overwhelming and expensive to buy all these things before you need them. Someday I am going to learn my lesson, compile a basic list, drop a couple hundred bucks at Earth Fare and be done with it. Our kids are usually fine without a doctor's visit anyway, because we've acquired some basic knowledge and the most commonly needed items. But we do need to work on this.

#3 - I'm a pregnancy slacker. I don't exercise like I should, although my midwife kindly reminds me that housework (like running up and down the stairs to put laundry away) is exercise. I don't cut things out of my diet that I probably should. I sit in my recliner a lot. I forget to take my vitamins, although this time around I have been very good about taking my cal-mag. That's because if I don't take it I can't sleep, and it tastes good too. It makes me feel better if I look at my first pregnancy, when I was eating large bowls of ice cream all the time because I thought that was what pregnant women did, and think how far I've come.

#2 - Sometimes I lay guilt trips and nag my children to say please and thank you, and that sort of thing, when I should be modeling the behavior I want from them. I should be treating them politely at all times, but sometimes I get downright rude if I've had a hard day and I'm irritated. I say things to them that I wouldn't say to another adult, like telling them to move instead of saying "excuse me" when they are under my feet and I'm trying to get work done in a hurry. And then I expect them to blow people away with their politeness. Silly.

#1 - I yell. I have a temper and get frustrated easily. Sometimes I hurt my kids' feelings. I don't want to yell, but it's a hard habit to break. This is my biggest, most difficult problem.


My reason for sharing all this is not only to make a list of areas I'd like to improve, but also to point out that the idea is not to be perfect, it's to do your best. We didn't choose natural parenting because we thought we'd be so great at it. It's just that the more we got acquainted with natural parenting, the more we realized it would be better for our family. We wouldn't grow as parents if we didn't challenge ourselves to take this better but less familiar path.

So, please tell me I'm not alone. Do you do any of these things? Do you have totally different issues? Any advice to help with some of mine? Please share.

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Carnival of Natural Parenting -- Hobo Mama and Code Name: MamaVisit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!


Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

(This list will be live and updated by afternoon March 8 with all the carnival links.)

Posted by Jenny at 9:08 AM 33 comments
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Monday, October 25, 2010

My breastfeeding relationships: Hospital vs. Homebirth

Welcome to the October Carnival of Breastfeeding! Don't forget to scroll down to the bottom for links to the other participants' posts.


My older daughter, Suzi, was born in the hospital. My younger daughter, Ivey, was born at home. I definitely have opinions on how each experience affected the breastfeeding relationship, but instead of going through the stories (you can read my hospital story and homebirth story for that) I'd like to offer a point-by-point comparison. I won't try to assign fault to each difference; I'm sure some things made a huge difference and some things, at least directly, did not. It's difficult to know for sure which are which, but let's just say I won't be repeating any of the items from my hospital birth in the future.

1) Hospital: Epidural. Homebirth: A warm tub of water and a whole lot of good hormones. Although I didn't want one, in the hospital I ended up with an epidural. I don't think this helped at all with my breastfeeding experience. Most obstetricians will deny this (mine did), but I truly believe an epidural interrupts natural processes and interferes with a number of things. I shivered. I couldn't feel things I should have felt. However, by the time I opted for the epidural--around 7 cm--I felt I had no other choice. At my homebirth I didn't even think about an epidural (not that I could have had one at home, anyway) because I was so relaxed and things were perfectly under control.

2) Hospital: Baby was placed on my chest for a hot second, then whisked away. Homebirth: Baby was placed on my chest. I held her until I remembered Daddy might want to hold her for a minute, too. I quite honestly forgot about anyone and anything but the baby during this amazing hormone rush. I just fell deeper and deeper in love as I held her and looked into her eyes. Tests and weighing were done a little later, right there in front of us. In the hospital, it was upsetting to have my baby taken way across the room for all the hospital procedures. Things felt incomplete in several ways. I had to twist my head around nearly backward to try to see her, while a mean old nurse tried to squish me to get my placenta out. Again, natural processes being interrupted. Big time.

3) Hospital: Baby was quickly swaddled and had a hat pulled down to just above her eyes. Homebirth: Baby was totally naked, but covered with a towel. When I was pregnant with my first and the lactation consultant (and my friend) at the hospital told me to have skin-to-skin contact with the baby immediately following birth, I thought it was a little weird. This is something you have to specifically request in most hospitals, and I didn't. I thought maybe we'd do it at home later. I figured it was some emotional lovey-dovey thing that I didn't necessarily need. I was wrong. It's hard to objectively explain but, having experienced it both ways, there is a big difference.

4) Hospital: Baby was taken for a bath while I got settled in our room. Homebirth: Baby stayed "dirty" and we got settled in our very own bedroom together. The bath was one of the biggest after-birth mistakes we made in the hospital. Suzi had long, thick hair, and it took a long time to dry after her bath. I had been in the mom-baby room a few minutes when I started to wonder what they were doing with my baby, since they were supposed to bring her right back. Jordan nagged the nurses for over an hour, but they said her hair had to dry so she wouldn't get cold. It was around 3 AM and I had been awake for over 24 hours, but I felt wired and panicky. I should have been nursing my baby. She should have been there in my arms. I am still angry over it to this day! At the homebirth, Ivey was born in the water and our midwife rubbed her with a towel as I held her. She wasn't dirty, and really, you'll never convince me that any newborn baby is "dirty" in the conventional sense of the word. In a way, they are cleaner than they'll ever be again! We just dressed our homebirth baby in a little gown and put the bath on hold for a day or two. I remember saying how good she smelled to me. This bath postponement is totally doable in the hospital, as well. A friend of mine recently had a repeat cesarean after trying for a VBAC. She declined the bath until the next day when she and her husband were able to bathe their baby together. I think this is a beautiful family bonding experience, and it gets the baby into mom's (or dad's) arms or onto the breast faster.

5) Hospital: I was given a nipple shield by a nurse. Homebirth: I was given breastfeeding support and detailed information by the midwife I'd spent the past nine months getting to know. Oh, the nipple shield. Nobody told me to stop using it ASAP because it could lead to nipple confusion. Nobody told me it could hurt my milk supply. The lactation consultant would have told me but Suzi was born while she was on vacation. There is only one part-time LC at our local hospital. Several days after Suzi's birth our pediatrician clued me in to the truth about the nipple shield, and I struggled to wean Suzi from it. I still wonder if the stupid thing did us any good in the first place. The morning after Ivey's homebirth, my midwife was back at our house helping me and the baby get a deeper latch. She knew what had happened during my hospital birth and continued to work with us until things were going well. The lesson I learned? For goodness sake, find yourself a maternity care provider who is devoted to lactation support. One guaranteed visit with a lactation expert during your hospital stay is not too much to ask. No, your nurse doesn't count. She'll be busy with lots of other things besides breastfeeding support and she may or may not be experienced with it, anyway. Some nurses are a great help, but don't bank on it. It was a really sweet nurse who gave me that nipple shield with absolutely no instructions. Visit websites and call around to see what level of support is available at different places. There's a hospital about an hour from here with a lactation center and multiple consultants right there on the mom-baby floor! If you can't get reliable lactation support at a hospital you like, seek out an independent breastfeeding guru. Check on rates and add this into your baby budget. It'll be worth the money.

So what happened? Suzi and I worked things out, but it was a rocky start. We ended up having to supplement--not just because of things that happened in the hospital, but I do think the birth experience contributed. It was so hard on me emotionally. In the end, thanks to the help of the hospital lactation consultant (whom I went back to see and talked with at length over the phone) and some hard work, we had a long and happy nursing relationship. We weaned a few months into my pregnancy with her sister when Suzi was 21 months old. With Ivey I was much wiser in general, knowing which things to do and which things to avoid. With the exception of one or two minor issues, breastfeeding came naturally with her. We never had to worry about weight gain or whether she was getting enough milk. We practiced exclusive ecological breastfeeding for seven or eight months, at which time she started solids. She still nurses quite frequently at 14 months old, and I am currently about four months pregnant. This time we are hoping to try tandem nursing once the baby is born.

I think it's important for pregnant women to know, especially for a first birth, that these and other seemingly irrelevant factors can make a huge difference in giving the breastfeeding relationship the best possible start. More importantly, the mother usually has some degree of control over these things no matter what type of birth she has. Take a good childbirth class, hire a doula, and do your best to avoid interventions in the hospital if you can't have or don't want a homebirth. Insist upon skin-to-skin contact as soon as possible. Decline the bath and anything you don't want and delay everything else until you've had a chance to properly greet your baby. Perhaps most importantly, get professional breastfeeding support even if you have to spend a little extra money for it. I couldn't believe the difference these things made for us!

What made a big difference for you in your breastfeeding experience?


Be sure to check out these posts from the other participants in the Breastfeeding Carnival (links will be added as they become available):

Crib Keeper @ Tales from the Crib: On Not Being Discouraged
Suchada @ Mama Eve: Breastfeeding & Birth
Christina @ Massachusetts Friends of Midwives: Early Intervention Lactation Help
Jenny @ Chronicles of a nursing mom: Birth Experiences and Its Effect on Breastfeeding
Michelle @ Mama Bear: Long, wide shadow of bad births
Sarah @ Reproductive Rites: Fighting for Breastfeeding
Tanya @ Motherwear Blog: The Birth/Breastfeeding Continuum
Kate @ Tumbling Boobs: Nursing after Surrogacy or Adoption
Posted by Jenny at 7:47 AM 6 comments
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Friday, November 21, 2008

MomDot Blog Party Day 8


I haven't been participating in the Blog Party so far because I've been so busy blogging about other things. Today the topic looked interesting, so I thought I'd participate.

Day Eight Blog Party Question is Brought to you by Koshas, Leapfrog and Soda Club.

And the question of the day is... Do you shop on Black Friday? What time do you start? Do you finish all your shopping on that day? What’s the best deal you have found? What’s your shopping strategy?

I did shop on Black Friday last year. Jordan and I went to Wal-Mart, and left Suzi with my parents. I don't remember much of what we bought; a bunch of toys we don't have anymore. We did get some great deals on DVDs for gifts. They were like $3 each, and they were the best deal we found. We were out in the crowds by about 5 or 6 am. We did not finish our shopping that day, because there honestly wasn't enough stuff at Wal-Mart that I wanted to give people. I like to diversify a little. And we didn't have a shopping strategy. Basically, we went for the thrill of the hunt.

We won't be going this year. Frankly, I think it's pretty silly how a bunch of grown people can get so worked up over a bunch of junk. Of course, it may be worth fighting through the crowd for a digital camera or a Wii or something, but one lady actually blocked me out of the clothing section with her shopping cart. I wonder what she wanted in there so badly that she had to be such a rude jerk! Black Friday seems to bring out the worst in people, and last year all the misguided shopping we did resulted in me never really getting that Christmas feeling. You know what I mean?

On Sunday we are going to an Alternative Gift Fair in Greenville, and I'm excited about that! Basically, you give donations to different charities to help people in a specific way, and then give your recipient a card explaining how their gift helped someone. My favorite was a teddy bear "companion" for an abused child who has to go through a forensic exam. Those only cost $10, and I honestly can't think of a better way than that to spend a ten dollar bill. Can you? I'd love to help comfort a frightened child for Christmas!

While you are here, be sure to enter my contest to win some Glow Mama Drinks!
Posted by Jenny at 12:51 PM 9 comments
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Sunday, September 21, 2008

Let's take our perverted society to school

I am proud for this article to be a part of Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog's September Carnival of Breastfeeding!

A few nights ago I was holding Suzi as she squirmed uncomfortably and whined. Her daddy pointed out that she might want to breastfeed. "Tell her you want the boobie," he said to Suzi. She looked at me and smiled, then pointed her chubby little finger at my breast and said booh-bee. She got such a kick out of calling it by name, and her proud little smile just melted my heart. At the same time, though, a wave of panic came over me. Was she going to use this word for it everywhere? In front of friends and, worse, family? The glazed, irritated expressions of half my distant relatives flashed through my mind. They would surely be whispering "by the time a kid can ask for it, it's time to wean her, for gosh sakes!" Did I really want to subject myself to all that scrutiny?

It took about twenty minutes for me to decide to place my daughter's needs ahead of theirs.

Rewind twenty years or so. A mother whose daughter I went to school with was attending storytime at the library with a group of five-year-olds and their mothers. Her toddler son (about two and a half years old) was there as well. During the reading, the little boy walked up to his mother and requested tit. She obliged, and for the past two decades has served as anecdotal evidence of Mothers Who Breastfeed Too Long. Little did we know she was extending the benefits of breastfeeding for her son. I never even noticed their nursing session was taking place, but my mom seemed to think everyone else saw her "flop her boob out" and feed him. This toddler-nurser wasn't like the other mothers. My mom weaned me when I was five months old, and I'd wager most of the other moms in our group weaned by then as well, if they breastfed at all. The long-term breastfeeding mom ended up raising a high-school valedictorian. The other mothers did not. She must have been doing something right!

Because of this experience and the dialogue that followed, I spent two decades of my life thinking extended breastfeeding was gross and weird. Imagine my surprise when I turned into one of those mothers myself. It was never my intention; my original goal was to breastfeed for six months. Then a year. As Suzi's first birthday approached it became more and more obvious that her heart would be broken if I weaned her so abruptly. So here I am, breastfeeding a 15-month-old with no end in sight. I know in my heart it's best for her. How else can I ensure that if I get a stomach bug, she won't? (It's happened.) When she refuses to eat anything but Ritz crackers, how can I be sure she's getting any decent nourishment? I love my little girl and I will nurse her for as long as she needs.

And I am not alone. Amy at Crunchy Domestic Goddess wrote a brilliant post on nursing a preschooler. She prefaced it with this thought:

While I’m OK with the fact that I am [nursing my preschooler], it’s not something I try to draw attention to either... It’s not the most socially acceptable thing to do here in the USA... Maybe [this article] will keep another mom nursing a preschooler from feeling like she’s the only one in the world doing it. It’s just something so few people talk about.

This sentiment is common among mothers nursing older children, as they are faced with an impossible choice: Do I deny my child this irreplaceable nourishment and bonding, or do I go against the grain of society? If she chooses to continue breastfeeding she may become a pariah, but if she stops nursing before she and her child are ready she is not following her maternal instincts, which can be agonizing and harmful.

For example, I read about one nursing mother whose three-year-old son had leukemia. Breastfeeding became vitally important to them. Had she weaned him at the age society expects she would not have been able to offer him the comfort, nutrition, or protection of breastfeeding during the most painful and frightening time of his life. After chemotherapy treatments, breastmilk may be one of the few things a child can digest without vomiting!

In The Ultimate Breastfeeding Book of Answers, Dr. Jack Newman debunks the ridiculous theory that once a baby reaches six months, mother's breastmilk is devoid of any value and the mother is only continuing to nurse the baby because she is "getting something out of it." As he points out, the idea that a mother derives sexual pleasure from nursing a child is symptomatic of a perverted society (see Chapter 19, "Breastfeeding the Toddler”). People have grown accustomed to the idea that breasts are primarily for pleasing men, and are only on loan to babies for six-month stretches.

It is widely known that the AAP recommends breastfeeding for at least a year, and longer if it is mutually desired by mother and child. The World Health Organization recommends nursing for two years. The general public implores us to wean ASAP. Our society is in desperate need of remedial education on the purpose of women's breasts. I am so thankful that I live in a state where women can breastfeed anytime and anywhere, covered or not, no matter how old the child is, and I plan to continue exercising my right to do so. However, the law is no help at all for mothers who crave acceptance from their friends, families, and even strangers.

I am a member of our local breastfeeding coalition and will begin teaching a Breastfeeding Basics class for expectant parents in November. Last month I attended the class a friend was teaching to prepare myself. At the end of the class we showed a short video to reiterate the points covered, and it featured a number of nursing mother-baby pairs. When a nursing toddler came onto the screen there were audible snickers. I thought, what are they laughing about? Then I remembered they had probably never seen a baby nursing, let alone a toddler--and if they had it was probably not in the context of acceptance. Although their giggles made me feel like I was in ninth grade sex ed class again, I couldn't blame them. Most people have never heard of nursing an older child and have no idea why anyone would want to do it. Below are a few ideas nursing moms can put into practice to help these people learn.

1) Integrate dialogue about nursing into your children's daily lives. First impressions are hard to overcome, so it helps if children learn at an early age that breastfeeding is the norm. Instead of buying your child a baby doll with a bottle, buy one without. Then teach the child that babies are fed from mommy's breasts. If your child is a girl you can even let her pretend to nurse the baby. I have friends whose children do this and it's a refreshing change. Remembering the hundreds of times I fed my own dolls a bottle, it's no wonder I had to work to overcome my attitudes about breastfeeding! Society had set me up to think breastfeeding was the exception and bottlefeeding the rule. Breastfeeding dialogue will probably come naturally if there is a baby sibling involved, or if a child is breastfed long enough to discuss it. Children won't think breastfeeding at any age is unusual until someone tells them it is!

2) Breastfeed your toddler in public as you are comfortable. This doesn't mean "whipping out a boob" as some people like to phrase it; I am discreet and half the time no one but savvy fellow moms realize I am nursing. You never know when a nursing mom whose child is nearing the one-year mark is going to see you. Your actions may plant a seed of thought in her head and empower her to keep nursing if she was previously unsure of what to do. Furthermore, people need to witness real moms nursing toddlers. While reading Mothering Magazine I came across an article about breastfeeding as portrayed in movies ("Reel Milk" by Sarah Rubenstein-Gillis, Sept-Oct 2008). The most prominent depictions of nursing are comical; for example, a man might accidentally drink a little breastmilk and then spew it dramatically across the room when he realizes it is not cow's milk. If this is the only information routinely given to the public about breastfeeding, it should be no surprise that they are getting the impression breastfeeding is embarrassing and makes people uncomfortable. The more people realize how ordinary and pleasant an experience it can be for mother, child and onlookers alike, the closer it will come to being the norm. There are, of course, times when mothers are asked by an ignorant employee to discontinue a nursing session. At least it is preferable, though, when the mother being victimized is confident and familiar with her rights and can stand up for herself. It's hard to say how many inexperienced, timid moms must be humiliated and inconvenienced, perhaps even pressured to end their nursing relationships, before the first mom comes along and fights back. Most occurrences of this kind end with an apology to the mother and the news coverage they often attract serves to further educate the general public on the legal rights of breastfeeding moms.

3) Don't let anyone get away with publicly condemning mothers who choose to nurse their toddlers. Back when I was still the inexperienced mother of an infant, I read a Babytalk Magazine article in which nursing a toddler was portrayed in a negative way. The author said she saw a woman in a park breastfeeding her "sturdy toddler" and thought "Yuck! She really should wean that kid." At the time, I silently reassured myself that Suzi would be finished nursing by twelve months. Then, a couple of issues later, a reader wrote in to say she was angry about the article. Since Babytalk is usually so supportive of breastfeeding, she viewed the attitudes in the article as a step in the wrong direction. Her comment pointed me in the direction I needed to go. More importantly, if a mainstream magazine runs an unfavorable article and is subsequently flooded with emails from concerned readers, perhaps next time they will publish something more helpful. Since so many moms read these inexpensive or free magazines, getting them to commit their support to long-term breastfeeding is a major victory.

4) Debunk the myths whenever you get a chance. Many people discontinue their nursing relationships for what they think are good reasons. "He was getting teeth!" is a popular one. While some babies may bite their mothers, mine rarely has. I thought I'd have to wean once Suzi had opposing teeth growing in, but it turns out I was worried over nothing. The times I have been bitten were not as bad as I'd expected; some mothers expect blood and gore to be intrinsic to nursing a toddler, but it's just not so in the majority of cases.

5) Talk about it! In November when I start teaching our local Breastfeeding Basics class I will be proud to mention that my toddler is still nursing. When I was pregnant with Suzi, a mom in the breastfeeding coalition mentioned she nursed her daughter until she turned two, and she would have nursed longer had she not been planning to try for another baby and didn't want to wean during her pregnancy. Although I was a bit shocked at the time, her mention of nursing her toddler was highly instrumental in my decision to continue nursing Suzi. Now I can appreciate what an amazing role model she is.

If we breastfeed our toddlers and talk about it rather than keeping it hidden for the sake of our prudish society’s sensibilities, more and more people will realize how beneficial it is. I hope that one day children will grow up not batting an eye when they see a woman breastfeeding her two- or three-year-old. Until then, we have some work to do!


Want to read more about breastfeeding education? Check out the other articles in Motherwear's Carnival at these blogs:

Beautiful Letdown
Motherwear Blog
Hobo Mama
Breastfeeding 1-2-3
Breastfeeding Mums
Momoply
Poked and Prodded
Stop Drop and Blog
Nurturing Notes
Posted by Jenny at 10:30 PM 14 comments
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