I am pregnant and really want to breastfeed, but need to hear some stuff to get me through the early stages if it is tough.
Here is the thing. I hear it, breast is best, but I have limited experience of it given that I was not breastfed, neither was anyone in my immediate family- 3 brothers 1 sister.
We are all happy, healthy non-overweight individuals with high levels of education and good jobs, not one of us has hayfever, asthma, allergies etc...
DH was breastfed, he is is happy, healthy non-overweigh etc etc. I haven't gone around doing a survey, but he is basically the only 'good' example of it I know of.
His mum got breast cancer and passed away in her 50's. (My own mum also had cancer and passed away but it was lung cancer).
DH's sister was also breastfed, she has always been very overweight since a child with a 40+ BMI but otherwise healthy, didn't do well at school/college.
I only know of two of my cousins who were breastfed (now 20's), they are intelligent, but also short, pale and are both asthmatic, one has bad ezcema and hayfever...
Three of DH's cousins I know of were also breastfed (teens & 20's), not great school results, always pale and anaemic looking, one of them is extremely overweight, they all have terrible skin...
DH's sister has one ds who was breastfed for 2 years. It didn't help her lose weight as she still has 40+ BMI and her son, who is now 3, is really chubby (and he constantly has a tummy bug, though is otherwise healthy).
I know of one other woman who breastfed all 4 of her children who died of ovarian cancer. This stands out in my memory as I remember her mother telling me how she had breastfed and it didn't protect her so 'she didn't believe in it'.
I keep trying to balance all this out and the only thing I can come up with is that myself and my brother were both particularly bothered by ear infections in childhood - perhaps we would have avoided this if we had been breastfed.
I know this all sounds hopelessly one sided, but this is my point - In my life there are no 'wow, they were breastfed, I'm breastfeeding' examples. Can someone please give me more positive examples of intelligent happy, healthy breastfed individuals. How many of our olympic medal winners were breastfed, I wonder? Or am I completely missing the point?
I completely get the bonding aspect, the emotional aspect for mum and baby. I would say that those who were breastfed are close with their mum, but beyond that, can someone convince me in terms of their own experience that it is actually best in terms of having a healthy, happy, intelligent, non-overweight child?