Crazy ideas

I had a post partum visit recently with a woman who was fussing and complaining because there was no way to attach the breast pumps to her chest when she was using them so she had to sit and hold them in place to express milk. She was so offended that she is creating and marketing something to hold the pumps in place while expressing. This will allow her to "do things" while she is pumping out the breast milk so that she can feed her baby with a bottle. Now, I asked the obvious question "Why don't you just nurse your baby at the breast and then you won't have to worry about pumping?" Well, my patient replied that she just couldn't get the hang of it and by pumping and bottle feeding she could be "doing something" while her baby is eating because she could prop the bottle and of course once she perfects her pump holding harness she will be able to "do something" while pumping her breasts as well. I cannot imagine it is more efficient to pump the milk from the breasts and feed in a bottle (going thru the middle man as it were) than to just learn how to put the baby to breast and have the milk go directly from the manufacturer to the consumer. I just shake my head in wonder and dismay. Perhaps I am getting old and cynical. I think breastfeeding is a unique and wonderful way to feed a baby/child while establishing a bond of closeness and demonstrating to said child that you have time to meet said child’s needs and that "doing something" is not more important than the child or the child's needs.

Thoughts on instant gratification

I have been thinking for a long time about the role of breastfeeding in infant development and growing up. I have come to an interesting insight. When formula feeding, the moment the bottle is in the mouth there is food coming out - instant gratification. This happens from the first feed forward. There is no wait and no no learning. With breastfeeding, the infant goes to breast and has to work to suckle, there is the comfort of being close to Mother's heart and touching Mother's skin but there is not an instant food reward. In fact, there is a lot of suckling that goes into getting the first little bits of colostrum out and there is a lot more suckling that goes into bringing in the milk. In fact, it is work to get the breastmilk out of the breast. Now, we know that breastfeeding helps decrease infection. Breastfeeding also helps with facial development and eye development. At this point, I am thinking that breastfeeding also helps with learning that instant gratification is not the way of the world. Breastfeeding lays the foundation that one has to expend some effort in order to receive pleasant things (i.e. food). So not only does the breastfed infant learn to feel safe at the breast, the infant also learns the very basic idea that one has to work to gain things one wants - there is no instant gratification.