Since very early on in my life, I planned to nurse my babies to be. When I was pregnant with my first child, I went into preterm labor. He was born at 34 weeks. He was perfectly healthy, just small, so he had to stay at the hospital NICU for 2 weeks. At the hospital, I got lots of support for using the breastpump but little if any support for actually latching my son on and nursing him. I had planned to give birth with midwives in a wonderful birthing center which would have been a much more supportive environment. Unfortunately his early arrival prevented this. I visited my son every day, bringing him bottles of my expressed breast milk. Each time I tried to latch him on, I felt discouraged because he wouldn't. Finally after what seemed like an eternity, I brought him home. Before I left the hospital, the nurse warned me that I must supplement his feedings with bottles of expressed milk even though I told her I would be strictly breastfeeding. For the first day, I tried and tried to latch him on, each time finally giving him expressed milk. It was an extremely sad and frustrating time for me.
The next day, I woke up and said to myself, "no more bottles, this boy is going to learn how to nurse". It was not easy but I stuck by this and within a few hours my baby was nursing away. Never again would he accept a bottle and this was just perfect for me.
I continued to nurse him almost until his third birthday.
I now have a baby girl who will nurse for as long as she wishes.
Cecilia Marek's Story
| © 1998 Paula Bobbett Last Update: April 2, 1998 | |