I very much understand what you're saying, even if I hear it from a different perspective. (And I hope it wasn't hurtful to hear my whining about nursing!)
My daycare is impressed and bemused by my dedication to breast feeding. Most of the mothers there -- the working poor -- don't have $200 breast pumps and quiet private rooms and every-three-hour 15 minute breaks that make pumping possible. My daycare provider notices my healthy, happy, intelligent child, and knows that I bring frozen bags of breast milk. She has decided that my milk is why my boy is who is is. But honestly? I'm much more skeptical. I have no doubt that there are some benefits (otherwise I'm not sure I'd still be pumping) -- he may have gotten sick less often, it might help his growth somewhat, etc. But the core of who he is is genetics and nurture, with nutrition coming in a pale third or fourth, and then at the margins.
Although I admit I once found myself horrified halfway through a lecture (before I was even a mother) when I encountered the coworker whose wife wasn't nursing because it was "gross". But even still, I was out of line. If you think "ew" every time you feed your child, I don't think that's healthy for either of you.
You've done a terrific job of being a mother to Alex. She's a beautiful, wonderful girl. I wouldn't let any guilt or anxiety cloud that. You've done a terrific job.
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Date: 2006-04-12 05:59 pm (UTC)My daycare is impressed and bemused by my dedication to breast feeding. Most of the mothers there -- the working poor -- don't have $200 breast pumps and quiet private rooms and every-three-hour 15 minute breaks that make pumping possible. My daycare provider notices my healthy, happy, intelligent child, and knows that I bring frozen bags of breast milk. She has decided that my milk is why my boy is who is is. But honestly? I'm much more skeptical. I have no doubt that there are some benefits (otherwise I'm not sure I'd still be pumping) -- he may have gotten sick less often, it might help his growth somewhat, etc. But the core of who he is is genetics and nurture, with nutrition coming in a pale third or fourth, and then at the margins.
Although I admit I once found myself horrified halfway through a lecture (before I was even a mother) when I encountered the coworker whose wife wasn't nursing because it was "gross". But even still, I was out of line. If you think "ew" every time you feed your child, I don't think that's healthy for either of you.
You've done a terrific job of being a mother to Alex. She's a beautiful, wonderful girl. I wouldn't let any guilt or anxiety cloud that. You've done a terrific job.