I slept with my babies, and let them drink as much as they wanted to. I always knew when they'd "hit the cream" because they'd immediately get very intense about the sucking, as if they'd suddenly hit pure gold, sometimes so intense they'd be sweating to get that last drop. As they got older, they'd even put their hands into the work, much like we hand-milk a cow;-) Apparently, in the dairy industry they call this "stripping out the cream" which doesn't start flowing until after all of the "blue john" (watery) stuff has been milked out.
I breastfed both my kids (in the 80s) - one for 10 months, the other for six. With the first one, we visited my French in-laws when the baby was 4 months. My mother-in-law was a midwife (sage-femme in French, but she wasn't very 'wise'). She was pissed off with me because I wouldn't follow the French protocol of hiring scales and weighing the baby before and after every feed (and giving formula if the figures didn't add up satisfactorily). I insisted I'd only weigh her once a week, as was my habit at the local baby clinic and explained that if I started giving her formula my own milk supply would lessen. She kept insisting the baby wasn't putting on enough weight, although she had normal chubby baby-thighs and was clearly perfectly healthy and lacking nothing. Although I had told her before I went over that I wasn't going to be using formula - and anyway she'd soon be starting on solids (which was recommended at 4 months then, rather than the current six - I think) - she'd bought 30 x 1kg boxes of baby milk powder and hired scales from the chemist (which I declined to use, except as above). I concluded that the function of 'madwives' in France was to turn mothers into neurotics. Nightmare holiday, when all I'd wanted to do was share the pleasure of their first grandchild. And I booked five weeks instead of the two that my husband took, in order to give them more time. A fellow 'add-on', i.e. French cousin not a blood relation of my husband, warned me that, if the MIL kept upsetting me, the baby would get what the French called 'colic', but I take to be rampant diarrhoea, since that's exactly what happened.
I'm 61 and would be living a totally different lifestyle if I hadn't been brainwashed about absolutely EVERYTHING since I was hatched. Thanks Unbekoming, as always for concise information. Even if I'm not breastfeeding I can pass this info along to my kids, one of which will certainly have another baby.
I thank goodness that my mother was wise enough back in 1946 to breast feed. I feel I've benefited from it all my life in terms of very good health. My younger sister, born in 1952, was not so lucky, probably due to the further encroachment of modern "medicine."
Cranial osteopathy soon after birth is an important practice contributing to the well being of an infant, especially as it supports the diaphragm and the umbilical cord ‘wound.’ Simple manipulations can set a baby up for a lifetime of sound body structure and cut down enormously on ‘colicky’ behavior and potentially other problems (well, that and avoiding vaccines!). 100 years ago or more this was standard practice but nowadays most have never even heard of cranial osteopathy, except as it includes cranial sacral therapy.
I was lucky to be breast fed in the 70s, and so so lucky to nurse my son. It's the one thing that went well in my 'plan'. He was a c-section birth, that was not part of my plan, but we had heard that babies will find their way to the nipple, if they are placed on the mom's tummy after birth. Indeed, we set him on my tummy and he inched his way to the breast and latched on by himself with a giant open mouth for his first nurse.
After that, the nurse tried to explain to me how to grab my breast and shove it in his mouth, but I could not comprehend one thing she was saying. I should have gone back to letting him find the nipple on his own again!
I nursed him until he was 3.5. The only reason I might ever want to have a baby again is for the sweet nursing relationship, and baby wearing.
My second baby was colicky but probiotics helped a lot. Massively reduced spit up too...I wish I would have thought of that with my first (very spitty, but cheerful) one!
I didn't expect that a naturally birthed, breastfed, unvaxxed baby would need a probiotic, but it made a world of difference!
I slept with my babies, and let them drink as much as they wanted to. I always knew when they'd "hit the cream" because they'd immediately get very intense about the sucking, as if they'd suddenly hit pure gold, sometimes so intense they'd be sweating to get that last drop. As they got older, they'd even put their hands into the work, much like we hand-milk a cow;-) Apparently, in the dairy industry they call this "stripping out the cream" which doesn't start flowing until after all of the "blue john" (watery) stuff has been milked out.
I breastfed both my kids (in the 80s) - one for 10 months, the other for six. With the first one, we visited my French in-laws when the baby was 4 months. My mother-in-law was a midwife (sage-femme in French, but she wasn't very 'wise'). She was pissed off with me because I wouldn't follow the French protocol of hiring scales and weighing the baby before and after every feed (and giving formula if the figures didn't add up satisfactorily). I insisted I'd only weigh her once a week, as was my habit at the local baby clinic and explained that if I started giving her formula my own milk supply would lessen. She kept insisting the baby wasn't putting on enough weight, although she had normal chubby baby-thighs and was clearly perfectly healthy and lacking nothing. Although I had told her before I went over that I wasn't going to be using formula - and anyway she'd soon be starting on solids (which was recommended at 4 months then, rather than the current six - I think) - she'd bought 30 x 1kg boxes of baby milk powder and hired scales from the chemist (which I declined to use, except as above). I concluded that the function of 'madwives' in France was to turn mothers into neurotics. Nightmare holiday, when all I'd wanted to do was share the pleasure of their first grandchild. And I booked five weeks instead of the two that my husband took, in order to give them more time. A fellow 'add-on', i.e. French cousin not a blood relation of my husband, warned me that, if the MIL kept upsetting me, the baby would get what the French called 'colic', but I take to be rampant diarrhoea, since that's exactly what happened.
I would add that there's no bond in the world quite like breastfeeding a baby. I was really sad to give it up, both times.
I'm 61 and would be living a totally different lifestyle if I hadn't been brainwashed about absolutely EVERYTHING since I was hatched. Thanks Unbekoming, as always for concise information. Even if I'm not breastfeeding I can pass this info along to my kids, one of which will certainly have another baby.
Valuable resource, Unbekoming. Thanks for sharing.
Here's another I highly recommend:
> The Golden Hours: The Importance of Breastfeeding in the first hours after birth
-- https://bra.in/5vN2DW
For mastitis… in the shower use a wide tooth comb to comb the breast … and coconut oil on the nipples for sore nipples.
https://www.garymoller.com/post/a-guide-to-breast-feeding-baby
I thank goodness that my mother was wise enough back in 1946 to breast feed. I feel I've benefited from it all my life in terms of very good health. My younger sister, born in 1952, was not so lucky, probably due to the further encroachment of modern "medicine."
Cranial osteopathy soon after birth is an important practice contributing to the well being of an infant, especially as it supports the diaphragm and the umbilical cord ‘wound.’ Simple manipulations can set a baby up for a lifetime of sound body structure and cut down enormously on ‘colicky’ behavior and potentially other problems (well, that and avoiding vaccines!). 100 years ago or more this was standard practice but nowadays most have never even heard of cranial osteopathy, except as it includes cranial sacral therapy.
I was lucky to be breast fed in the 70s, and so so lucky to nurse my son. It's the one thing that went well in my 'plan'. He was a c-section birth, that was not part of my plan, but we had heard that babies will find their way to the nipple, if they are placed on the mom's tummy after birth. Indeed, we set him on my tummy and he inched his way to the breast and latched on by himself with a giant open mouth for his first nurse.
After that, the nurse tried to explain to me how to grab my breast and shove it in his mouth, but I could not comprehend one thing she was saying. I should have gone back to letting him find the nipple on his own again!
I nursed him until he was 3.5. The only reason I might ever want to have a baby again is for the sweet nursing relationship, and baby wearing.
My second baby was colicky but probiotics helped a lot. Massively reduced spit up too...I wish I would have thought of that with my first (very spitty, but cheerful) one!
I didn't expect that a naturally birthed, breastfed, unvaxxed baby would need a probiotic, but it made a world of difference!