Breastfeeding week …
2 years ago I was breastfeeding my baby (who is a "big little boy" now) and I breastfed him 100% for 6 months.
On the occasion of Breastfeeding Week, I wanted to share my testimony with you. I would like to point out in advance that this message is in no way a pro-breastfeeding indictment and that I am not here to judge anyone, especially those who have decided for various reasons not to breastfeed after their pregnancy.
Was breastfeeding always a belief that I wanted to implement after birth?
No, not at all. I was rather against the idea of breastfeeding. It wasn't for me. And finally, on the day of the birth, when the midwife asked me if I wanted to breastfeed him, seeing my little baby instinctively turn towards my chest, I answered "yes". Breastfeeding went well. I didn't experience any pain and I immediately became a fan of the bond that it created between my baby and me. This was all the more powerful because I had just had a caesarean and I had suffered a little from the fact that my baby was taken out of the operating room immediately after giving birth to do his care and so that he wouldn't catch a cold.
On a physiological level, I found it crazy to see that when the baby cried, all I had to do was breastfeed him for him to calm down.
Did baby sleep less the first few nights?
I was told that breastfed babies slept less through the night or later than others. I did not encounter this problem since Hugo woke up once a night for 1.5 months and then slept through the night completely at 6 weeks. I put him to bed at 7 p.m. after his last feed and he woke up the next day at 7 a.m. I think that if your milk is nourishing, baby is satisfied for the night.
How did I manage to reconcile breastfeeding and returning to work?
I found it difficult to manage both. I had to leave my position as an analyst in the Strategy Department at 5:45 p.m. to breastfeed my son and I was looked down upon by my manager (who didn't have children...). My files were taken away, the junior I had recruited before I went on maternity leave kept my files and I was put on the shelf. I would like not to share a cliché with you but it is nevertheless the reality.
A few weeks after taking over, leaving the company became obvious if I wanted to be able to continue living my relationship with my son as I wanted and enjoy him.
Yet we hear a lot about the benefits of breastfeeding on the health of the child, we are encouraged to do it and yet, we are the only country in Europe where women do not have flexible schedules to be able to leave earlier and devote themselves to their baby. In the UK, there are rooms for expressing milk and in Italy, people systematically leave work earlier when breastfeeding. In France, apart from the Grand Speeches of the Ministry of Health, nothing is concretely put in place to help women experience breastfeeding with serenity.
My testimony is just another page on the web, but I believe that it is also the rivers that make the great rivers. That by dint of expressing oneself, of highlighting the contradictions of the system, things change little by little. After all, 70 years ago, women could not vote...
Am I in trouble? What are my tips for breastfeeding with peace of mind?
I was lucky enough to never have pain. Baby latched on very well. I left my chest exposed after each feed and put on Lanolin cream to heal. I breastfed on demand, without question, and when my chest was swollen and I felt I had to breastfeed. It's quite a mammalian process. As soon as baby is hungry, your body feels it and your chest hurts. I found this bond incredible.
How did I experience stopping breastfeeding?
I took it so badly that I cried. I felt like my baby wasn't a baby anymore, and that my child was being taken away from me... And then it quickly passed. It was also nice that dad could finally give him a bottle.
To all those who breastfeed or want to do so, if I have one piece of advice to give you: don't listen to advice, but listen to yourself! Just like when taking care of your baby. You will be the only one who knows what to do to ensure your baby is happy. And if you don't feel like doing it, listen to yourself too. It's better to have a mother who is happy in her head than a mother who is stressed or suffering because of breastfeeding.