[Hunca Munca]

Do you remember yourself or your siblings being breastfed? Are your memories positive? Do you think it affected your intentions/ability to breastfeed your own children?

I don't remember myself being breastfed, nor my younger brother (despite being more than 4 years older than him). I don't remember him being bottlefed either though so I guess I wasn't paying attention! I can't ask my parents if we were breastfed as they're both dead.

Breastfeeding has been important to me with my son, and he is still breastfed at 2years9months. I guess I'm curious if he'll remember anyhting!

[kerrie23]

I remember mum feeding my youngest sister, and my other sister and I copying her. It did not last that long because I remember making soy formula (prescribed) bottles for Rach as she was allergic to milk protein.

I don't believe I was breastfed, as a traumatic birth where the doctor tried to deliver me vaginally out of my mother's extraordinarily small pelvis, resulting in a senior pushing me back in and doing an emergency ceasar, left mum comatose for quite a few days and me a special care due to some paralysis.

I was always going to at least attempt exclusive breastfeeding with children, to me it seemed like the only choice - I was successful with 2 of them but with the 3rd I had to stop at 9 weeks as she was allergic to milk protein so it was onto soy formula for her.

[vitaechel]

No, I don't remember being BF. My youngest Brother had bottles and I remember making them up for him (I am 9 years older). tbh I don't remember if mum tried to BF with him, but she had an emergency c-section for him and had a lot of issues later.I believe she breastfed my sister, other brother and I, but I do not remember. I know she had to try almond milk, soy and goats milk for me as I had lots of tummy issues.

[fancie]

My mother breastfed all 8 of us until 9 months when we were weaned.

In addition, mum also breastfed another baby born at the same time as my brother. The other baby's mother died just after giving birth from eclampsia, and mum was asked by the nurses if she would feed the other baby too as baby was quite poorly. I think she continued to feed the baby for 4-5 weeks until the dad moved away to be closer to his extended family.

I don't remember being breastfed but I never questioned that I would breastfeed my baby as it was the accepted thing in my family.

This post has been edited by fancie: 31/01/2013, 06:17 AM

[countrymel]

I don't remember being breastfed - but because my mother was a breastfeeding counsellor I do remember hundreds of other babies being breastfed at my house!

I also 'breast fed' my dolls when I was little.

I may have had some residual memory though as when my Mum got her breast cancer diagnosis I went "NO! But that is my FAVOURITE breast!" and Mum laughed and said "Why yes it was!" (but we both decided that as I was 30 this probably shouldn't impact on her decision to have it removed!)

Mum was so involved and passionate about breastfeeding and supporting breastfeeding mothers (she was made a life member of the ABA) that there was never a doubt in either mine nor my sister's minds that that is what we would be doing.. (I haven't had a chance to yet but I have two beautiful breastfed nephews).

My mother has since passed away but I hope that if I ever get in a position to need to feed a child of my own that there will be breastfeeding support available to me similar to what she was able to give to all those lovely women and babies who filled our home.

[cinnabubble]

My mother stopped after two weeks and put me on watered down cow's milk, so I don't remember. I have a faint recollection of her feeding my sister during the six weeks she did that. Needless to say, she turned up at my hospital bed with bottles and a steriliser.

At the rate my almost three year old is going, she'll be writing multi-volume memoires about being breastfed.

[niggles]

I don't recall my own breastfeeding but I was 8 when my brother was born and 11 by the time he stopped breastfeeding so can remember it vividly. I saw lots of breastfeeding. I always thought of it as a routine part of caring for a baby and it has been, more or less.

I also heard my mother talk about advocating for herself and her babies. I've often heard her relate the story of being asked to feed her baby in the toilet (this was before the days of parents rooms) and her replying with the question "I don't think so. Would you like to eat your lunch in the toilet?"

[AvadaKedavra]

I was breastfed until six weeks. My grandfather was the local GP in a rural area where I was born and got in all six local midwives/LCs to help mum but for whatever reason, i was failing to thrive, so they started comp feeding, and then changed to exclusive formula.

My sister was born nine years later in a large urban city in the western world, and also failed to thrive despite all efforts of several LCs, who ultimately concluded that my mother is probably one of the rare people who don't produce enough milk despite all efforts. She was comp fed until 12 months, and I do remember that. I knew at the time that I had not been breastfed for as long as she was, and it made no difference.

My mother was never breastfed, despite her four siblings being breastfed. My grandmother is still not sure why her milk 'dried up' and my mother was given water buffalo milk from about two months. My father fed until he was four and can remember it, but doesn't have any strong emotions associated with it.

I don't think it really makes a difference to a person if thy were breastfed or not; I think it makes a much bigger difference to a woman if she is able to or not, but only because there is a strong cultural expectation that women do.

ETA - I DO think that seeing breastfeeding is important, whether your own family or in the wider world. I DO think that breastfeeding should be the 'norm' (but also that women can make a free choice within that paradigm where breastfeeding is normalized.

This post has been edited by AvadaKedavra: 31/01/2013, 07:14 AM

[katpaws]

My mother breastfed my sister, i think for some time. My memories (sister was seven years younger than me) are neither positive or negative about this; and i don't believe they had any influence on my decision to BF or not. I was bottlefed, don't know with what, as i was not with my mother from birth, returned to her about 1 1/2 years (and i don't remember that).

I did not see a lot of women breastfeeding as an adult as i did not really hang around families with young children. I went to a BFing class before DD was born and had read a lot about BFing in pregnancy books. I had not considered not BFing DD before she was born and had not read anything on bottlefeeding etc.

Circumstances made the decision for me when it came to BFing DD and i chose to use EBM. I had a traumatic birth and things were not going well (on a whole range of issues). I could not bear DD being near my breasts (we were seperated for about a week in different hospitals) and BFing for me was a nightmare.

If i had been involved with more BFing women would it have made a difference? I don't think so. Not many women go through what i did, so it is hard to compare different experiences. I felt very damaged from my surgery when DD was born, as well as being manually expressed by midwives, and could not bear anyone touching me, including DD and i think that was increased due to my history of sexual/physical abuse and that i generally don't like people touching me (unless i trust them very much). None of this was discussed when i had problems with BFing DD (well trying to) and perhaps someone should have asked me about how i was feeling about the BFing attempts, that might have been more helpful. I think if i had better memories of my childhood (and had had better experiences) i might have been able to perservere with BFing a bit more (and this does not relate to watching my mother BF).

[Super Cat]

No but my cousin and her two brothers remember being breastfed. They were breastfed until around age 4. They're all very pro breastfeeding as adults. All if their children were breastfed until around age 3.