More breastfeeding goals?

Today’s Topic on the Breastfeeding bloghop is goals, which is appropriate for January and a new year. I have previously talked about what my personal breastfeeding goals have been and what influenced me to have those goals.  But as I was pondering the topic of breastfeeding goals, I realized that I am most likely breastfeeding my last baby.  (God can always do the unexpected, but we do not plan to add any more children to our family.)

While I believe my family is complete,  I am a little sad that this is the last baby.  I pray that the youngest will not be the one to self-wean early.  But, it also means that it is a good time for me to set some breastfeeding goals that are bigger than my personal breastfeeding experience.

I have had the opportunity at three different jobs to work with mothers who were breastfeeding.  And I have always absolutely loved it.  It has been quite enlightening also.  Although I had tons of problems getting my first to latch correctly, all in all breastfeeding has been pretty easy for me personally.  But, some of the women I have worked with have had lots of trouble.  They have had to work really hard to breastfeed their babies.  Before seeing how hard it can be to breastfeed, I had been almost a breastfeeding Nazi.  Now, not so much.  I do think that there are lots of things about our current culture that make it harder to breastfeed.  In the past 10 years I think hospitals have been doing a better job of allowing moms and babies to stay together and nurse sooner after birth.  But there is still work to be done.  I have seen way too many stories in the news in the past year about women who were asked to stop breastfeeding or leave current stores.  And the whole Time magazine controversy.  I can definitely say that I agree with Support with Integrity.  We should not be judgmental about how a mother chooses to breastfeed.  I have signed the pledge and will display the button.

In general I like to have goals and a plan.  But right now I am still praying about what my long term goals or mission should be for breastfeeding.  So, instead I’ll give you my 2013 breastfeeding goals.

1.  Breastfeed baby (the entire year Lord willing) and then wean early 2014.
2.  Write a weekly post for the breastfeeding bloghop.
3.  Take one continuing education class on breastfeeding.
4.  Explore ways to support or encourage a culture of breastfeeding.
5.  Pray about my long term goals related to breastfeeding.

Making breastfeeding goals

Throughout my experiences as a mother and nurse I have come to believe that how a woman feels about breastfeeding and her stated or unstated goals develop from many factors. Factors like, family and friends, education and sometimes other support systems like La Leche League. I’ll tell you about my goals and the influences that got me there.

My breastfeeding goals

• Natural childbirth
• Breastfeed as soon as possible after birth
• Provide breastmilk exclusively for 6 months
• Breastfeed for 1-2 years
•  Wean by age 2.

Breast feeding influences

My grandmother was a nurse and wanted to breastfeed. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the support she needed to successfully nurse her babies. But she encouraged my mother and my mother breastfed me. It was unusual when I was a baby to be breastfed. My mother went to La Leche League for support. My mother-in-law breastfed my husband. As a newlywed, I just assumed that I would breastfeed my babies.


My breastfeeding goals became stated while I was attending nursing school. I had the best professor for women’s health. She was a great advocate for natural childbirth and breastfeeding. During her lectures I learned about the benefits of breastfeeding and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation to breastfeed exclusively for six months and then with other foods for at least a year and longer if desired. During clinicals I was taught how to help a mother latch her baby and how to determine if the baby had a good latch.


And I saw a video. This video was from a study done in Sweden. In this study newborn babies and their mothers were randomly divided into two groups: medicated births and unmedicated births. Then each of these two groups was divided in two again: those who nursed within 15 minutes of birth and those who did not attempt to nurse until 30 min or more after birth. This was an amazing video. The babies from unmedicated births who were put on their mother’s stomachs within 15 minutes could find the breast and latch themselves UNASSISTED! (It is called breast crawl and you can see an example). After 30 minutes, the unmedicated babies would latch with assistance, but they needed assistance. The babies from medicated births who were given to the mothers within 15 minutes tried to latch themselves but could not find the breast alone. The medicated babies who were given to mother 30 minutes or later did not even try.


While I was pregnant I visited La Leche League meetings. It was here that I learned about baby led weaning and started to think about how long I wanted to nurse my babies.