Today I saw a news report about a woman who was homebirthing here in Indiana whose baby didn’t make it. The story portrayed all homebirths as unsafe and crazy. It even incorrectly referred to the birth as unassisted (midwives were present) and did nothing but scare people. While the story did have a tragic outcome it’s not a accurate representative of most homebirths and that is why they story upsets me.
Homebirth is not for every woman and every pregnancy which is why there needs to be adequate laws and regulations in place to protect women and midwives (like there are in Tennessee). Homebirth should be an acceptable and viable option for most but thanks to one sided stories, scare tactics and profit driven laws it is not. This is sad and maddening to me.
Another thing that is wearing on my nerves is breastfeeding ignorance. Everly is just over a month old and we are exclusively breastfeeding. We haven’t introduced the bottle or a pacifier because we don’t want to cause “nipple confusion” and disrupt the working breastfeeding relationship (you are supposed to wait until 6-8 weeks). For some reason people who hardly know me can’t wrap their minds around this and it is annoying me. (If you are reading this, it’s not about you I promise!)
Sure bottles and pacifiers would be more convenient but they aren’t best for E at this time (in my mind) and I’ve chosen to commit to breastfeeding, why can’t people understand and respect this? Plus she wont have anything to do with them anyway.
Speaking of respect, my ex-doctors office (remember the bad OBGYN?) sold my info to formula companies without my consent. I’ve been receiving formula vouchers like crazy and I’ve got free formula coming out my ears now!
Sure, free stuff is nice but not when you wont use it and the only reason they are giving it is to get you to mess up with breastfeeding and to get you hooked on their products. It is like they are tempting you to give up on breastfeeding. And don’t even get me started on how little support exists for breastfeeding moms…
Can you tell I am running on major lack of sleep? I am all irritable and full of complaints today.
The media F**k everything up in my opinion. Not all newspapers are jacked but most don’t get the story right. I personally love the idea of a midwife and homebirth, I wouldn’t do it myself but I think those who want to do it should.
As for breastfeeding, I LOVE IT! It’s free! What better way to feed your little one? I think it is so much better for their little tummies. Yes, it may be inconvienent (sp) at times but your supplying your babies meal, there is a lot to be said about that. I think there is nothing more beautiful than a mother feeding her baby from her own milk. Anyone who is giving you a hard time can go shove it! E is your baby and your doing a damn good job making sure she is happy, fed, loved, etc. It isn’t anyones business when you introduce her to a bottle or binky!
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.-= Jess´s last blog ..Please God… =-.
Great Job Mama! I tried bfeeding, adn it wasnt for me.
You could alway put the formula up on freecycle. There are prolly lots of parents out there that could use it!
.-= Krystal McCarthy´s last blog ..Brain Dump =-.
oh the breastfeeding and bottle feeding issues! Take a look at my post. I have learnt that you cant swap and change. I exclusively breastfed until last week, when Emily was 8 weeks. I had her babysat for a night and she ran out of breast milk I had expressed so had some formula. She was constipated from Sunday until today. (Wednesday)
.-= Tanya´s last blog ..I never thought I would be so happy to see a POO! =-.
The lack of support for breastfeeding mums is insane. It’s so isolating and this is in Oz, where people are mostly supportive! Have you got anyone who is formula feeding you can give the coupons to?
We use a dummy, but no bottles. I had to give a dummy at 10 weeks to save my sanity. The constant comfort sucking overnight was doing my head in. Although since starting solids, breastfeeding has gotten less draining because hey! have some apples! Or a banana! It’s nice.
.-= Veronica´s last blog ..Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. What day to day life is like. =-.
Why is it that one tragic death can set home-birthing back so far? Ignorance, perhaps?
.-= witchypoo´s last blog ..HoHoHo =-.
On pacifiers (or dummies… lol, Brits and Aussies have such neat names for some things!):
My husband had a little “procedure” done yesterday and shortly after they gave him a bit of pre-op happy juice, he drifted off. I glanced over at him, and he’s doing the baby-sleep sucking thing! I am giggling my head off, holding my sides and trying not to burst out in gales of laughter.
If there’d been a pacifier handy, I’d have stuck it in his mouth just to see what would happen. Afterwards, I realized I had something better — my phone which will record videos.
Ah… but now back to the topic of much younger babies:
Support for breastfeeding mommas seems to be regional. As is support for those who use formula. In a perfect world, both would be supported and there’d be no criticisms. But even now, the general public should just butt out on comments to mothers in public places.
The only acceptable comment a stranger can make about a baby is some variation of “Oh, what a beautiful child!”
(Well, that and they should respond to the socialization attempts of older babies and toddlers. It breaks my heart to see a baby wave and say “hi” to everybody in the grocery store and get ignored. A returning smile is sufficient.)
As for home births, anything can happen there that can happen in a hospital, except the close proximity of emergency services when something goes wrong. Most of the time, in both places, the result is a healthy baby and mother.
Being in a hospital doesn’t guarantee a good outcome, it just increases the chances of it IF there’s a problem.
Just a thought, but since being a midwife is “illegal” in Indiana, maybe the paper was doing someone a favor (probably unintended) by referring to the birth as unassisted.
(I’ll stop now… )
.-= Donna B.´s last blog ..Transportation =-.
Donate the formula and coupons to the nearest battered women’s shelter. KEEP BREASTFEEDING, regardless of the external support. Mack exclusively breastfed for 9 1/2 months. We tried bottles of expressed milk early on, and it destroyed his latch for a month. NOT WORTH IT. NOT WORTH THE FEW MINUTES OF SLEEP YOU’LL GET WHILE DADDY FEEDS THE BABY!!!
Yes, it was hard. Hard to be oncall 24/7 for that long, but totally worth it.
Ignore everybody else. They don’t matter.
I think I’ve told you Wynnie weaned herself at 6 weeks and she was on formula. I’m not against formula.
.-= Hyphen Mama´s last blog ..Top 5 Things That Would Be Easier Than Potty Training My Son =-.
Ok, granted it was 25 years ago I breast fed, but,, I remember the video we saw at the Lamaze classes, and first off, they gave the tip, DO NOT USE BRILLO PADS TO CLEAN DRIED BREAST MILK FROM YOUR BREAST.. ummmm, gee, ok, I guess I will try to get a refund on those. I breast fed until my daughter didn’t want to anymore, but the pressure to continue longer from some people was overwhelming. At some point baby or mom will dictate when it is time to change, and there are some (not me sadly) who are lucky enough to have a split between bottle and breast from the get-go. I don’t like pressure either way, as some baby’s/mom’s can’t breast feed, or if they can, as one friend found out, the milk is lacking in nutrients. She was basically starving her baby yet not lacking in milk. I get upset when people tell you what you HAVE to do, or pressure you, as even if you want to do it one way, you can’t for what ever reason. Then they guilt kicks in, am I doing the best, am I giving my baby the best. You have to do what is right for you, in turn that is right for the baby. Breast/bottle, which ever, if the baby is healthy and happy, and you are healthy and happy, well well, there ya go!
When it comes to formula and coupons etc, there are tons of websites where people exchange coupons (milk coupons for lactose intolerant people are kind of pointless etc) and yes, shelters etc for moms could use them.
.-= Lori´s last blog ..Nancy Drew and the Case of the Missing Thong =-.
I feel that breastfeeding is a personal issue and everyone else should just butt out. No one has the right to dictate what you do, or where you can feed your child. I nursed Seth exclusively for 6 months. Then I nursed him only at night until he just over a year…it was our ritual.
.-= Becky´s last blog ..We Don’t Need No Education =-.