Keeping Strength

by Angela Tadlock
It seems, no other topic rises such rivalry when a woman becomes pregnant than the bottle vs breast debate. breast feeding, as wonderful, natural, and nutritional as it is, is hard. Though I not always believed this.There was no need to think about it, I thought. My grandmother breast fed. My aunts all breast fed. My mother breast fed. I would breast feed. Like most new moms not yet introduced to the truth about parenting, I was arrogant. Breast feeding is natural. If cave women could do it then I sure as heck could! I went in prepared with a plan.I would have my child. Then, before I would plant my first kiss on her cheek, I would take her to breast and we would bond. Beautiful bonding in a picture perfect scene.I did not foresee the emergency c-section. The thirty minutes in the recovery room where I had to argue with a nurse about bringing me my daughter. I did not plan on my morphine making me so comfortable that pain from an inappropriate latch did not send the signals to my brain telling me that her latch was incorrect.By the end of the first day my left nipple had cracked so much that it looked as if the nipple was lacerated. The pain was enough that I screamed when Emily suckled on the left side. The lactation consultant came to instruct and correct, but the damage was done. The next month would be filled with excruciating midnight feedings. My milk supply would diminish on my left breast making me look lop-sided and grossly unbalanced.Every night my husband pleaded with me to formula feed until I was healed, at least. But I knew that once my milk dried up, I would have no milk. It was not an option. I bore down on the pain and suffered through it and finally, FINALLY, after a long month of a torn, bleeding nipple being suckled off with every feeding, I healed.My daughter was breast fed – as was my son and my second daughter. Only now, I’m wiser and less arrogant.Breast feeding is work, but the reward pays off. Go in knowing that it will be hard at first and that the process will "toughen up" your nipples. The first week is the most difficult and challenging. But don’t place your child’s nutrition on the line if it ends up being more than you bargained for. The difficulties you experience end a lot sooner than the benefits your infant will gain from breast feeding.