How to Breast-feed in a Fast-Paced World!

As a mother of six children and having breast-fed for over 15 years I can honestly say those breast-feeding days were the best experiences of my life! Although in the early eighties, breast-feeding was still considered a taboo and also natural childbirth, I persisted in learning all I could learn about the positives effects of breast-feeding versus the negative effects. I decided to breast-feed my children early on in my life, because of my educated mother who indeed, did breast-feed her children for a short period, only three months, but taught me that breast-fed babies have less allergies and less problems with their intestinal tracts then bottle fed. Most doctors and pediatricians refuse to understand or will deny the benefits of breast-feeding because of the business relationships they have with formula companies. Conversely, from my experience with breast-feeding, I found that breast-feeding my children proved to me that they were less sickly then other bottle fed children I came across. Their stools are loose, which helps the baby expel them with ease and without pain. It is a proven fact through scientific studies, that breast-fed babies have a higher degree of immunological protections in the way of less food allergies, because their is no need to introduce foods into a baby's diet until your baby is around six months old. You will find that your child will show interest in tasting foods at about the six month period.

The bonding is especially important in a baby's life and breast-feeding offers a child a sense of security and love that will stay with that child until far into his adulthood. It also offers a natural way of warding of subsequent pregnancies, if your a full time stay at home mother. All my six children, except for the first born, were evenly spaced two years apart. I became pregnant immediately after I was told by a close relative that I should stop breast-feeding! That was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made, because I was then faced with providing an endless supply of milk bottles to my six month old son, who was incessantly colic for that period of time. But I learned from that unpleasant experience and the next child, my daughter, whom I then went on to breast-feed until her fourth birthday!

As a matter a fact, I breast-fed two children at one time, but found it rather cumbersome and decided to wean my first daughter by putting garlic around my areola's, which proved rather successful. In contrast, my daughter who has three children of her own, remembers me doing this to wean her off the breast. We laugh about it today, but inside, I long again for the mother-baby relationship and the inner peace it brought me and my beautiful children. For the most part, I can only encourage new mothers to give it a chance, to go beyond the six week period, because after those six dreadful weeks of nipple and breast pain, all of a sudden it's smooth sailing! Plus your baby drops a feeding, so you aren't as tired anymore and you can feel your body reshaping itself to its prior state and your uterus shrinking at a faster pace.

Also, most importantly, drink plenty of water or a natural juice before you breast-feed you child. That is the secret to a successful breast-feeding mother. Drink and eat to your hearts delight and you will still lose weight! Read everything you can about breast-feeding and follow your inner voice and never be ashamed of breast-feeding in public. Just cover yourself enough to hide the important parts of your body so you don't attract unwanted attention onto yourself. I used to sew-up woolen ponchos and breast-feed every where I went, without feeling restricted from social norms. Especially in the park, where no one bothered me, because I was covered up enough to keep it private between baby and I. It was our little secret! And to this day, I can honestly say, those were the best days of my life!