bf and younger and older mummies

[vicwick]

Yup, confidence. I was sooooo embarissed in the hospital when people came to visit, I wouldn't feed her untill they left.

I was the same..Plus the weird thing was even though I got over it eventually with my first baby, that initial embarrassment STILL came back straight after I had my son a few years later and AGAIN when I had Sam, although in Sam's case even though he latched straight on for ages at birth I still felt scrutinised to hell and back in the ward by the *perfect latch and feeding posture* nazi's.

To be fair I'm sure in a great many cases these women are helpful, but I've found that so long as other things are fine then a textbook perfect latch isnt the be all and end all of life and the lack of one doesnt automatically mean you'll have a starving, colicky child..

at *perfect latch and feeding posture* nazi's.
You are so right i felt more nervous about sitting right than anything else and Alfie's latch looks totally perfect from the outside and we both do everything right but it still hurts due to a physiological problem of his so the perfect looking latch isn't always "right"

 

[soon2b6]

I didnt BF my 1st when I was 23, mainly because of pressure from my family, I remember comparisons with cows in the field, great hey!! However with my subsequent 4 I have BF for between 9 months and 18 months, the first time was really tough, sore bleeding nips and a picky eater but bizzarely he was the one who went on 18 months??? I have to say once you've got it sorted its much, much easier than all that washing and sterilising, and warming bottles in the middle of the night. As for droopy boobs well mine are past hope now so it doesnt matter to me,lol.

 

[Jelly Bean]

I also think that when I was 20 and and probably in my sexual prime, I thought of my boobs differently to the way I do in my 30's. I think I find it easier to separate my sexual boobs from my feeding boobs. Dunno why.

Interesting topic!

I think that as a 21-year-old 11 days away from being a mum, I feel a little worried about being able to think of my boobs in a sexual way after having my LO latched onto them morning day and night.

 

[golcarlilly]

I 'tried' to bf my DD for only a day in the hospital (she is now 15) I gave up mainly because I 'couldn't do it' I had a very defeatist attitude back then and that coupled with extreme shyness about my body gave me little hope of success. I am determined to give it a good go this time, I feel older and wiser and more confident although I am still very worried about keeping 'under cover' as I haven't developed an exhibitionist streak in my old age

Sorry forgot to say, I was 24 with my DD and I am 39 now

 

[Mervs Mum]

I 'tried' to bf my DD for only a day in the hospital (she is now 15) I gave up mainly because I 'couldn't do it' I had a very defeatist attitude back then and that coupled with extreme shyness about my body gave me little hope of success. I am determined to give it a good go this time, I feel older and wiser and more confident although I am still very worried about keeping 'under cover' as I haven't developed an exhibitionist streak in my old age

Sorry forgot to say, I was 24 with my DD and I am 39 now

To start with I felt like it was ALL hanging out all over the place So I only went to places I knew I'd be able to feed in private. When you first start both you and baby are learning so I felt like I needed about 6 pairs of hands, 8 pillows, a pint of water, muslin, feet raised, cutrains drawn, no audience just to get her positioned right never mind latched, unlatched, relatched...... So dont be suprised if you still dont feel as 'under cover' as you'd like to be to start with - it comes with time.

Once you get going though you'll be a dab hand - I just sat this lunchtime in Sainsbury's cafe on a sofa and I absoloutely guarantee, not a sole noticed. In fact the lady on the table near smiled over and said to her friend something about 'a nice cuddle' then looked later after she'd done and I'd managed to magic myself back together and did a bit of a double take looking around for a bottle when I was winding her. I smiled - she smiled - then we all drank our coffees and life just continued!! I am yet to be noticed BFing while out.

 

[Brockie]

im 28 and never felt uncomfortable feeding in public, i think after you have gone through the indignity of labour getting a boob out to feed your child is nothing!! and again like MervsMum said you get to an age where you can seperate boobs from just being a sexual object to something thats making your baby grow xx

 

[lauzliddle]

I am only 20 just in jan and had my little boy in feb. I always wanted to BF as soon as I give birth he latched on for a good 15 min within seconds. I did have a few hiccups in the hospital with no help.
When he was 2 days old we went out to the pub for lunch and I just whipped it out and fed him
I came from a family of FF babies and I think people thought I wouldn't do it and had a little bit support. Fortunatley for me my husband supported me alot.

Now 6 weeks later we are still going strong and my dad actually walks into a room when I am feeding
He is brilliant and sleeps through the night has done from being 1 week old and I also go out during the day.

I also agree that it should be more advertised for younger people and to at least give it a good try.

 

[Mervs Mum]

Lauz you are an inspiration girl....

 

[UKMummy]

I was 28 when I had my first and I BF because I am from a family of breastfeeders and also knew that it was better for the baby and also I couldn't be bothered with bottle feeding. I was one of the only people on the ward who breastfed. Many of the younger girls were bottlefeeding because according to them, they could see that they could leave their babies with relatives so they could go out of an evening, which I can understand. However, what did make me want to cry were some of the girls who were very young, with very underweight babies who were being bottlefed and the babies were crying and all I wanted to do was grab the poor babies and feed them myself because I knew that it would be better for them. Also some of these girls weren't exactly rolling in money and it makes me wonder how they can find the money for the formula when breastfeeding is free!!! Where I live there is not only an old/young divide on breastfeeding but there is also a financial divide on breastfeeding....seems that the less money you have, the more likely you are to bottlefeed.....how does that work??!!! Funny how we are the only species of animal to feed our offspring with milk derived from another animal.....

 

[emma_27]

I was 24 when i had Benn and i went to a group that was all older moms and i was the only mom breastfeeding! Im from a family of breastfeeders they kinda bullied me in to breastfeeding but i found it easy and took to it without a problem. I think its alot to do with confidence well it was for me anyway.

 

[Hevz]

I think with the younger Mum's it's possibly to do with peer pressure and maybe lack of support/information. For the "older" mums...having a little more life knowledge IYKWIM? Obviously the older you are, the more you will have witnessed (if that makes sense?).

I got pregnant with my 1st baby as a very young teenager and was adamant I was going to breastfeed even though I'd never, ever witnessed anyone doing it. Dunno why I wanted to but the urge was overwhelming. My daughter was born at just 24wks and while she was in Special Care I asked the midwife if I could express some milk for her. Unfortunately she died at just 17hours old so she never did get any of my milk

I have breastfed all 4 of my children and really struggled with the first two but with support from my hubby I managed to carry on.




My sister had her 1st baby at the age of 19 and even though none of her friends had breastfed she successfully fed her baby for 9months...I'm sooooooo proud of her as I know things can be very tough for teenage mums and the pressure from her friends to bottlefeed never deterred her. She found it easier to get out as there wasn't as much stuff to carry around and baby slept like a dream as well which my sister swears was to do with not having to leave baby crying while she went and warmed bottle up in the night...she just picked her up and fed her before she got upset and woke up fully.

My sister said the reason she breastfed was because she'd seen me feed mine so many times and can honestly say that she never once saw my boob....she had no idea that you could breastfeed as discreetly as I do. People's biggest hang up seems to be "flashing" but I always pull my t-shirt to baby's nose and have a muslin at the ready to throw over if baby pulls away suddely etc

 

[Mervs Mum]

Thanks for sharing that Hevz. It's nice to read about people bucking the trends isnt it.

 

[Hevz]

Thanks for sharing that Hevz. It's nice to read about people bucking the trends isnt it.

Yeah...I really was proud of her


Her baby is a month younger than Toby and my sis is a great Mum

 

[Novbaby08]

Yup, confidence. I was sooooo embarissed in the hospital when people came to visit, I wouldn't feed her untill they left.

I was the same way. and it didn't help that I struggled and she would scream her head off everytime I didn't even like the nurses there when I tried

 

[mama2b]

Im 24 and planning on BF and haven't even considered FF I just knew that I want to BF.

Two people that I know that are a couple of years younger than me both decided from day one that they would FF and neither of them even did the first feed in hospital. I don't know if the reasons they gave were the truth or not but one said that she wanted her oh to be able to do the feeds to and the other one just didn't like the idea of BF and her oh (who is 18) didn't like the idea of BF infront of other people.

Admittably I won't be doing it in front of other people, the thought of BF infront of my dad, well but I figure being shy about it is quite a bonus when trying to get rid of visitors !

 

[Mervs Mum]

Im 24 and planning on BF and haven't even considered FF I just knew that I want to BF.

Two people that I know that are a couple of years younger than me both decided from day one that they would FF and neither of them even did the first feed in hospital. I don't know if the reasons they gave were the truth or not but one said that she wanted her oh to be able to do the feeds to and the other one just didn't like the idea of BF and her oh (who is 18) didn't like the idea of BF infront of other people.

Admittably I won't be doing it in front of other people, the thought of BF infront of my dad, well but I figure being shy about it is quite a bonus when trying to get rid of visitors !

:thumpup:That's something I took advantage of in the early days!

 

[clairebear]

im 22 and im the only person who bf's at my mummy group.

i think its about confidence, knowledge about bfing and support rather then age x

 

[mernie]

I'm only 19 and didn't really have a problem doing it i did it in public the first time ever the other day too there might be something to do with age in SOME cases but I also believe that theres plenty of older mommies out there who don't BF either just because they find FF easier and more convenient

 

[mommyof3co]

I had Landon at 16 and it never even crossed my mind, breastfeeding was just natural and to me was just what everyone did...I found out later that's not the case haha. I had a really hard time with Landon and my milk dried up by about 1mo, that made me even more determined to do it with Casen and Hayden...I knew it was best so it wasn't a choice it was going to be done. Casen after many problems nursed for 11mo and Hayden just self weaned at 18mo

 

[Samantha675]

I live in an area where BFing seems to be the norm. Every mama I know and hang out with BF's. We are also older, so I don't know if it is age as much as it is support. That is really a big part of BFing successfully