Tomorrow is the first day of August and the beginning of World Breastfeeding Week. I was just thinking about what nursing my son meant to me. Before my son was born I planned to nurse him. My mother had nursed me and I knew a lot about the benefits of breastfeeding, not just to my son, but to me. I felt that I had carried my breasts around all my life and I wanted to get some good use out of them. My attitude was that nursing would be a chore, but a chore I was willing to do, like changing diapers.
What I found was that nursing was an interaction between my son and me. This is why in La Leche League we call a mother with a baby a nursing “dyad”. We started off with some difficulties in nursing, but once we had overcome them, we both enjoyed nursing.
Before you have children, people tell you things will be different with your own child. That’s the way nursing was. It wasn’t an endless painful austerity. It wasn’t painful. It was joyful. You get to snuggle your own baby and nurse him into drowsy, happy sleepiness. Then perhaps, you can take a nap together. It is a blissful time in a mother’s life. It is a magical time. That is the experience I am trying to help other mothers have. A joyful time with their own beautiful baby.
Tags: breastfeeding, breastfeeding relationship, breastfeeding support