In a society such as ours where breastfeeding is not accepted as the normal method of nurturing a young child's physical and emotional needs, women require support for breastfeeding long before they birth their first baby. I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by the wisdom of the so-called "milk militia" (women who are passionate and up-front about their advocacy for breastfeeding) throughout my first pregnancy.
During my pregnancy my breasts began leaking colostrum at twenty weeks gestation. It was at this point that I realised I had body-image issues with regard to my breasts. My reaction to my breasts doing their job beautifully was disgust. I was surprised by my disgust because I knew how important breastfeeding is, and always intended to nurse my children. But I learned that knowing the importance of breastfeeding intellectually is not enough. I was lucky enough to have a network of lactivists at my feet when this happened and I could turn to them. Together we delved under the surface of my reaction and discovered what the cause of my disgust was. I spent the rest of my pregnancy dealing with this and preparing myself for when these issues might rear their ugly heads as I established a breastfeeding relationship with my child. Had I not had the support of my lactivist friends during pregnancy it's possible that I could have spent my life burdened by self-image issues without realising they were there!
If I had been surrounded by formula feeding mothers who shared my uneasiness with leaky breasts it is unlikely that I would have got the help I needed. And the foreignness of milk production and breastfeeding on top of my body-image issues would have made the perfect recipe for unnecessarily formula feeding my child.
If my breasts had not started leaking colostrum twenty weeks into my pregnancy I would not have discovered that I had any body-image issues relevant to breastfeeding until the time came to feed my child - at which time I was tired from giving birth. It is highly likely that at that point, overwhelmed by these new experiences and confronted by psychological issues about body-image, that I would have struggled to breastfeed and given in to the temptation to feed my child artificial milk.
As it happened I did run into breastfeeding difficulties in the first week of my daughter's life, but they were not related to the earlier body-image issues. For several reasons my baby struggled to latch onto my breasts in the first eight weeks of her life. Again I enlisted the help of the milk-militia because I knew from past experience that I could trust them to be with me as I struggled and that they would listen to me doubt myself, without doubting me.
When I reached this trialling point it would have been easy to give up and deem myself incapable of breastfeeding. But I had a trusted support network who believed in me, and believed in women's bodies and in breastfeeding. Many women do not have access to this sort of support. If they do have this support, more often than not they find it after they've already had a child.
Offering pregnant women information about breastfeeding and the opportunity to work through their emotions and opinions about breasts, feeding babies, and milk is one of the most supportive things we can do. Likewise, sharing our wisdom and experiences with women who have not yet become pregnant, and men who will one day support their girlfriends become mothers, can make a difference to how informed and prepared they are when their own time comes.
I am of the opinion that one of the biggest reasons mothers require breastfeeding support is because it is unfamiliar and therefore intimidating. If breastfeeding is familiar to young women, meaning they see it regularly and it is openly discussed and enjoyed around them, they are more likely to understand that breastfeeding is normal.
Here's an evolving list of support ideas to get you started.
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