ABOUT NOT BREASTFEEDING

Good afternoon to everyone. I am aware of the fact that today’s article will be a bit controversial, but I have no intentions to offend anyone. Breastfeeding any many other topics about motherhood are risky to mention online and I think that that’s pity.

There are more reasons why I decided that I don’t want to breastfeed. I take it as something personal, so I won’t go in details. I have thought about this step even before pregnancy, I have discussed it with my man, I’ve read many articles and I have consulted it with plenty experts. I don’t want to cause any discussion, but I want to share my own experiences, how did it go when I decided not to breastfeed because many of you were interested.

I totally agree that breastfeeding is the best nutrition for a baby. On the other hand, I think that it applies every time. If you know that you can’t breastfeed/you don’t want to and you know that it’d cause you more struggles than pleasure, I think that it’s better to use infant formulae from the beginning. Happy mom=happy baby.

I believe that freedom of choice is one of the biggest values so, therefore I think that this is up to every one of us. I feel sad for the women that feel ashamed of their choices and decide to lie that they didn’t have milk at all. You know that I’m trying to share my private life with you the way it is (even though I share only little specific part), so I wanted to avoid all the similar lies. As I said, I was really thinking about it before the pregnancy and during pregnancy and after considering all the pros and cons I decided that our son is going to be on the infant formulae from the beginning.

AND WHAT IS THE PROCESS?

This is something you were the most curious about. If you are really sure that you don’t want to breastfeed, it’s better to find maternity hospital where they won’t have issues with it. I heard that in maternity hospitals where they support natural labours is bigger pressure on breastfeeding, they support lactation etc. Maybe it is like this somewhere but I (even though was supposed to deliver baby at a different hospital), I delivered the baby in a maternity hospital outside od Prague, which supports natural childbirth, and they didn’t have any problem with my request to stop the lactation.

It's important to have it in your labour wish and repeat it when you arrive at the hospital. If you decide not to breastfeed it’s easiest to stop it as soon as possible. That means that you get one pill right after the birth and another one after few hours which will stop the milk production.

After the birth of my child, the doctor came to ask me why I decided the way I decided and inform me that breastfeeding is the most nutritious for the baby because it was a mandatory step. I didn’t take it as a personal attack, she was formal and straightforward, and it felt like she just wanted to do her duty. It was just a bit delayed question since I already took the pill because they gave it to me after stitching during bonding and she came to visit me after three hours.

REACTIONS

I didn’t get any negative reaction during my whole stay from the personal of the hospital. I had agreement with the hospital I was supposed to go, to bring my own milk because it was obligatory. They brought me the milk for my son prepared at this maternity hospital so my tubes with milk remained unused. But the doctor came to see me before the first feeding to discuss the proper hyper allergenic milk due to my health restrictions. Which was great. Then I went to knock on the nurses every three hours, and she gave me the bottle with warm milk.

As I already mentioned I didn’t get any negative reactions during my whole stay at the maternity hospital for my decision. I didn’t even consider mentioning it because I expected a professional approach, but I know that some of you were curious.

 And if it was about the reaction of my closest-neither me nor my husband act to please others. We do the best for us and for our son with the intention not to harm anyone so we don’t see the reason why anyone should comment on our decision. And maybe because I set it like this, I didn’t get any negative reaction. I have to admit that I also discussed with my closest ones that I am not sure if I’ll breastfeed. And I also shared the reasons why with some of them. So that might be the reason why no one was surprised.

Even though I don’t breastfeed, I not only chose the hospital that supports natural childbirth, but I also visit various courses and activities which I can call courses for “bio moms”.  And it’s true that I am the only one who gives a bottle to their baby. Other babies were mostly in the beginnings breastfed, but I didn’t see any negative reaction even then.

MYTHS

I’d like to add that the fact that you won’t breastfeed your baby doesn’t mean that you will avoid the colic. And not even if you feed them with hyper allergenic milk. And it also doesn’t mean that they’ll sleep the whole night. Our son will be eight months old I give him supplementary feeding and he still doesn’t sleep the whole night. So, if you want to pick infant formulae because of these myths, I can’t confirm them.

IS IT UNCOMFORTABLE?

Because I don’t have experiences with breastfeeding, I can’t tell you.  The preparation of formulae isn’t an issue for me. You need to buy flasks of various sizes. The bigger ones for home, the smaller ones for travels and the smallest ones to fit in purses and stroller and you need to have the formula ready to mix with boiled infant water. And I don’t see the need to boil the water every morning as something bothering. It’s important to be cautious about the sterility, so you need to sterilize the bottles after every use. If you plan on not breastfeeding your baby, you can buy various gadgets for sterilization which you can also use for dummies if you are going to use them. If you are travelling or planning on not staying at home, you can boil the bottles in water, but you need to make sure that the pot is clean.

I am not propagandist of not-breastfeeding, I’m just sharing my experiences with you. It was a solution for my health complications and dislike of breastfeeding. I see the main advantage in the fact that my partner can give the bottle to the baby during night. And you’ll appreciate it if, your baby wakes up often during night. Another advantage was that we could travel with the baby because I don’t see myself as a woman, who would be able to breastfeed everywhere. I’m the opposite and it’d be really uncomfortable for me.

Many women feel that one of the biggest advantages of breastfeeding is that the baby falls asleep during it. And I have to say that I have the same experience. He falls asleep during drinking even though it’s infant formulae from the bottle.

BREASTFRRDING AND SEX

And I can’t tell you if the theory that women who breastfeed have less interest in sex because I don’t have comparation. It’s claimed that the hormone prolactin rises the tiredness and maintains the constant interest in the babe.

Even though I may be part of the more needy people, this theory didn’t influence my decision to breastfed or not to breastfeed.

I don’t regret the decision and I am sure to choose the same option with my other babies to have the lactation stopped in the hospital. I didn’t want to influence you or convince you, but to explain you how this works in the maternity hospital. If you are about to deliver a baby and you are curious where I was supposed to stay and where I actually stayed, write me a message and I’ll be more than happy to share the details with you.

If you are considering having the lactation stopped as well, I’d recommend buying pads to insert in bras because even though the lactation was stopped there was a discharge from the nipples for the first two weeks approximately.