LOVE

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

I am re-posting the picture above because to me, it represents a whole lot of love. I believe that breastfeeding my son is currently the most loving thing I am doing for him.  I am decreasing his chance of developing allergies, asthma, ear infections, eczema, obesity, leukemia, diabetes and gastrointestinal problems. I am helping him create his immune system, increasing his IQ, increasing his visual acuity and nourishing him with the perfect balance of protein, water, sugar and fat for him to grow and develop in the way he should. Oh, and it's free.  Formula costs between one and three THOUSAND dollars a year.

My husband is loving my son and me by being incredibly, awesomely supportive of breastfeeding.  When my nipples were bruised and blistered in the first days, he was encouraging and sympathetic. Now, he brings me glasses of water (I am incredibly thirsty while nursing), keeps the things I need within my reach (like my lap top, cell phone and the TV remote) and frequently thanks me for feeding our son.

Breastfeeding is love.  I love feeding my son.  I loved feeding him in Starbucks today.  I love feeding him at home when it's just the two of us.  I love his sleepy eyes looking into mine as we nurse in the middle of the night.  

I had this picture as my facebook profile picture for a while and got a lot of flack: "You've posted your breast on the internet!" I, however, love this picture...I don't think it is in anyway inappropriate, it shows less breast than most tank tops, for crying out loud. Anyways, a lot of people made comments to me (although no one actually posted anything about it on my facebook) and it made me want to keep the picture up all the more...it was my badge of honour picture - in spite of all the challenges encountered thus far - I breastfeed my son - and will continue to do so.  

Although BC has the highest breastfeeding initiation rates (97%) in Canada, only 37% of women in BC are still breastfeeding at six months.  This is an appalling number.  My uneducated guess would be that most of these women quit breastfeeding because it isn't as "convenient" as formula feeding. Leaving your baby for extended periods of time when you are breastfeeding takes more planning ahead, a bit more work.  There is also the  issue of societal views - breastfeeding in public, while being legal, is often frowned upon as it makes many people (unreasonably) uncomfortable. We need to do everything we can to create enviroments and a culture that is encouraging and conducive to breastfeeding. I am of the opinion that if we are not actively encouraging and promoting breastfeeding, we are actually discouraging it.  In a society that does not generally have a supportive view of breastfeeding, a passive attitude towards it is not benign - it is active discouragement.

Well, my warm and fuzzy Valentine's Day post turned into a bit of a rant...so I'll finish off with this:  Breastfeeding is also love for the woman doing the breastfeeding - it decreases her chances of developing breast cancer, ovarian cancer and osteoporosis.  It also helps burn that left over baby fat.  So, when your time comes...love yourself and love your baby: breastfeed!

The World Health Organization's official recommendation is "exclusive breastfeeding for six months and continued breastfeeding up to two years of age and beyond." If we flip the BC stat I mentioned above, it means that nearly two-thirds of women are not following WHO recommendations for the providing their children with optimum nutrition. I would also like to comment that the "beyond" part is common in most of the world, but not so common in North America.  My chiropractor and I were discussing this earlier this week.  He asked me how long I plan to breastfeed my son.  My answer?  As long as he wants to. Two years and beyond baby, two years and beyond.

Oh, and about my facebook profile picture?  I did eventually change it.  But only after one our church's pastors told my husband that he sees my breast everytime I post something on facebook. God forbid that I should make a pastor feel uncomfortable with my cleavage.  But being a deacon and all, I figured it would be in good taste to switch it up.