Musings about reasons why people stop breastfeeding earlier than they want to

[Wallace]

I find it quite sad that I often meet mothers who would have liked to carry on bf for longer, but "had" to stop because of one reason or other - these reasons usually being ones that had they had proper support and advice, they could have conitinued bf.

Among my friends I have someone who stopped because her baby fed so often (she didn't realise this was normal) and someone who had mastitis so "had to stop"

I was speaking to someone the other day whose dd dropped a pound after being born, she got worried and started to give her bottles The baby began to gain so she said she regrettfully had to stop bf. She was very sad about it, but said she had to do what was right for the baby not herself

Yep, on the whole I am ok now. People say I did fantastic well to get to 4 months but I still can't help feeling useless nearly six months later. So many people have told me that formula is the scourge of the devil I am almost inclined to agree but I honestly think I had no alternative. My seizures were getting worse and the last one I had before I was pregnant resulted in me ending up ventilated in intensive care. I couldn't risk another llike that.
I just think I will always feel guilty as though I copped out

What I meant was I have been brain washed (at a time when I felt crap anyway) into agreeing that formula no good.

different cognition needed MERLYPUSS.you worked bloody hard for your twins.need to balance your mental/physical needs too

I breastfed dd1 for 10 weeks, she arrived late and back then you only got 12 weeks maternity leave. I was going back to work and felt I couldn't carry on with feeding her as I'd be working shifts and had never quite got the hang of the breast pump that I'd bought so we stopped and I was fine about it and so was dd1.

With dd2 I had 7 months maternity leave so was determined to feed her for 6 months then wean. I only lasted 6 weeks of feeding with her, most of which was spent in pain and tears. The pain when I would start to feed her was awful I'd never experienced anything like it with dd1. She was also a lazy feeder and would slip off the breast slightly which of course caused even more pain for me as my nipples were in such a mess.
Then she started wanting to feed every hour on the hour, it would get to 10pm and I'd be in tears so we started mixed feeding and eventually she was weaned onto bottles.

There are times, even now that she's 4, when I feel so guilty for having given up so early. I realise now that she liked to suck for comfort, she wouldn't take a dummy and was always slightly unsettled until she found her thumb at 9 weeks. I wish I had persevered for a few more weeks until she'd found her thumb maybe after that it would have all clicked into place.

Nobody told me how difficult it would be. I had read books, so was aware of problems that could occur. Nothing prepared me for the disappointment when my baby failed to latch on. She was prem and had a tongue tie, although I suspect she is a lazy sucker (things haven;t really improved with bottle feeding either). I really wanted to BF and felt sad when it didn't work out. She lost so much weight in hospital until a midwife suggested expressing with an electric pump. I never looked back and expressed until she was 4 weeks old. My Dad died 3 weeks after she was born and I was under alot of stress, so I gave up expressing and moved onto formula. I refuse to feel guilty about it now but I did at the time.

May I just clarify that when I said MOST babies, that meant babies that are not prem and babies that have no physical reason for not being able to latch on!!! All 'normal' babies are able to latch on, as long as the help and support is there and Mums are taught how to position and feed adequately!