While staying home with your child with a fully supportive significant other and surrounded by friends and family cheering you on is ideal. Often this is simply not the case. If you have difficulty breastfeeding, for one of the multitude of reasons that seem to pop up in the early days, this lack of support can lead to giving up. That doesn’t need to be the case.
In my little circle of friends, we experienced all sorts of different situations. Some Moms had the luxury of staying home with a fully supportive significant other. Some returned to work full time almost immediately and argued with a variety of caregivers about the benefits of breastfeeding and the importance of feeding their little one expressed milk. Some had the support of all with whom they came in contact. Some were hassled by store clerk, waiters, airline employees and …. The list goes on!
One of the hardest issues that a new mom trying to breastfeed can face is lack of support – from spouses, from relatives and from close friends. It’s particularly hard to focus on your goals if you happen to find yourself in a group of moms all giving birth at the same time. As they one by one give up and resort to formula, it can be hard to stay on track.
It’s extremely hard if your significant other or mother or mother-in-law, certain in her own choice to formula feed, isn’t there to cheer you on? Where to turn…well there are some resources.
In this age of the internet fortunately hooking up with like minded folks, whether you have the time to attend La Leche League or Holistic Moms meetings or not, is if not easy, doable. A number of resources exist online to help newly nursing moms and provide virtual support and the needed steely reserve to just say, “No” to those encouraging giving up.
Here are some of my favorites:
Breastfeeding.com
Babycenter.com
Sometimes all it takes is a little support.
Photo Credit: Magaffny at Flickr Under Creative Commons License
Related Posts on Breastfeeding:
Mother’s Milk: Breastfeeding AA in a DD World; A Human Pacifier Story
Mother’s Milk: Nursing and Weaning my First Child
Mother’s Milk: Boobie Boot Camp
Another great recourse is Kellymom.com. I have used it time and time again.
New moms need all the support they can get. Another great resource for me when I was a new mom was Parents as Teachers. A woman from that organization came to visit once a month to ensure my baby was hitting all the development milestones. PAT is very supporting of breast feeding.
http://www.parentsasteachers.org
Agree that support is key; psychologically and universally…I DO think the forums and first-person stories are quite helpful and supportive in ‘been there done that’ mode…like:
http://forum.baby-gaga.com/about260258.html
especially since you can search down to a gnat’s eyebrow these days in terms of the exact ‘issue’ or specificity!
(gawd I love the internet!) Thanks, MC!
Wow, MC. Great photo selection. That photo just reaks of “unsupportive.” Every time I scroll by that post I’m drawn to the dismal look on the woman’s face (seriously, I’m not joking).