"Look at how sickly you are, there's no way your milk is good."
"He's spending more energy trying to eat than he's actually getting."
"Your milk is like water."
"It's not gold, just put more in the bottle and throw out what he doesn't finish."
"There's so little there, just make him some formula."
"Don't be so cheap! Use formula, it's better."
Paul questions me too. He wonders if my motivations make sense. How good is it for James if his mom isn't getting any sleep? How good is it for him if he's getting frustrated and worked up because he can't get enough milk? He reminds me that I have to top up anyway, so why not just pump and bottle feed?
"Because I want to," doesn't seem like a good enough answer. I cite how feeding from the breast is better health-wise for both me and James* (e.g. right antibodies produced, my reduced health risks) and that pumping and prepping takes a lot of time too. But, mostly, because I want to. It makes me feel like I'm actually doing something right... but what if I'm wrong?
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* Admittedly, these are pro-breastfeeding sites:
- International Breastfeeding Journal "Benefits and challenges of transitioning preterm infants to at-breast feedings", summarised in Table 2
1 comment:
An interesting read from Pacific Standard "The Unseen Consequences of Pumping Breast Milk"
By Olivia Campbell, provides perhaps a more balanced view of the benefits of breastfeeding versus bottle-feeding EBM (expressed breast milk), namely calling out that there aren't enough studies of the latter to claim whether there are the same health benefits for mothers or babies.
The social implications of the "separation of breast milk from breasts" I'd not really thought about. Here it brings up this concern:
"The normalization of exclusive pumping could have major societal implications: It may erode societal support for breastfeeding, for example. There’s also a danger that moms will go straight for the pump and never even attempt to breastfeed their babies, and that the availability of efficient pumps will make it more difficult to argue for the importance of legislated maternity leave. "
https://psmag.com/the-unseen-consequences-of-pumping-breast-milk-ddb50b16d4a7#.ap4kc38yc
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