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Home › Articles › Issues for Mom › Family "Myth"information

Family "Myth"information

History Doesn't Have to Repeat Itself

By Brenda Nixon

Pages:  1  2  3  

"Every woman in my family breastfed, so I know I can too," the confident, young mom said as she tucked her infant daughter into the car seat. Her determination is needed to succeed, but is her information accurate? Does breastfeeding success or failure run in families?

"Being from a family that has successfully breastfed doesn't guarantee success; it just means that moms have a lot of experienced support," says La Leche League leader Sherri Penko of Mount Vernon, Ohio. "Each mom and baby pair is unique."

Read Between the Lines.
Some women don't even try after being told their mother couldn't produce milk, believing the same for themselves. "My mom told me that she couldn't make enough milk, but in talking with her, we discovered a lot of the horrible practices in the military hospitals in the 1950s thwarted her attempt," Penko says. "Taking babies off to the nursery and only bringing them in to moms every four hours didn't provide moms a way to stimulate their milk supply. Then prepping Mother's breast with alcohol pads to disinfect them would make any baby squeamish of the breast. To me, that was not a hereditary problem; that was lack of knowledge and support."
 
Don't Worry If You're Sick.
Various behaviors can thwart milk supply, giving Mom the false belief she can't produce. When a woman stops nursing due to infection, her milk dries up for lack of daily demand. As a result, she concludes she can't nurse. However, by the time a woman has signs of illness, she's already exposed her baby. If Baby becomes sick, nutrients and antibodies in Mom's milk lessen the severity. Even breast infections, including painful abscesses, are no reason to end nursing. In fact, the infection is likely to settle more rapidly if Mom continues feeding on the affected side.

"In my line of work, I have heard many reasons why moms have been told to stop nursing," Penko says. "If the baby wants to nurse more than expected, the mother has been told she doesn't have enough milk, so [she] should supplement with formula. Some moms have been told to wean because they are going back to work, others because of a need for some medical intervention or medication."


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