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I Hate Breastfeeding – Now What?
Considerations Before You Quit
By Shel Franco
What's the most important thing you will ever do with your life? If that baby on your lap is any indicator, being a good parent and raising a healthy child is probably what you're thinking. If I pressed you further and asked how you intended to do that, would the answer come as easily?
Few people would argue the importance of breastfeeding – to the child and the mother. Science doesn't have to say another word. Human mothers make milk for their babies. Obviously, human babies should drink human milk. But that simple fact doesn't translate to a majority of breastfeeding infants, and it certainly doesn't guarantee that all human mothers will enjoy the experience.
Melissa N. of Katy, Texas, is one of those mothers. "I found the size of my breasts while I was breastfeeding [to be] very inhibiting," she says. "I never could get into a comfortable position, and my back always hurt either because of the weight of my breasts or the contorted positions I needed to be in so the baby would be comfortable. I had to feed him in the football hold, so I really could not see him while he ate. The bonding I was hoping to feel was replaced by resentment."
For other moms, breastfeeding doesn't go as they had planned, and feelings of never being able to satisfy the baby add to the insecurities of new parenthood.
"Audrey would not latch on," says Misty Albert of Cypress, Texas. "I made several attempts with a lactation specialist, but Audrey just wouldn't take for very long. Her first 36 hours she cried and cried."
So what do you do if you encounter difficulties or simply hate to breastfeed?
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