Social Learning

[Babieseverywhere]

It is frequently talked about on this board of how much new mothers lose out in terms of support and in particular social learning. i.e. We don't see many women breastfeeding so we don't pick up information about it as chilldren or young adults. Our family and neighbours are highly unlikely to be able to help advise on common breastfeeding problems.

I find this interesting as DD who occassionally breastfeeds her toys, has recently started holding her 'baby' correctly at the right position under her top. DD waits a few minutes, tells me the 'baby' has finished and moves toy to the other side and then announces in a stage whisper that the 'baby' has gone to sleep. Awww.

She has picked up several hints on positioning and when/how to swap sides even at the tender age of three.

I suppose it give me a tiny insight to how much breastfeeding information children growing up in a country which has a lot of adult breastfeeders must be like.

I think you are right my dm exclusively bf all her children for 6 months we all self weaned at diffrent ages (very unusual in the 80s I would have thought) and never used formula at all.

It never crossed my mind not to bf at birth but both of mine have ended up on formula at different points for different reasons but the thought of ff a tiny baby is completely alien to me.

I never had any problems with positioning or anything like that both times and never had any pain so I do wonder if I picked things up from seeing it so much when I was younger.

That's an interesting concept. It's amazing how early they begin to mimic, and it must stay in their heads and continue to develop as they get older. DSD was very interested in me bfing DD, and used to ask a lot of questions (she was almost 3 when DD was born). She also used to feed her toys (a small dog, usually) and used to swap sides too. It was very cute and I hope seeing this helps in the future

Weirdly enough was just reading today's Guardian magazine and theres a pic in the photo competition of a little girl 'bfing' her doll....dp thought it strange, but I remember my sister and I doing the same...We were both bfed until 6 months

Yes I remember "breastfeeding" my toys when I was little, my mum breastfed my sister in front of me.

Disappointingly though I can't say I consciously remembered correct positioning etc, I went to NCT classes which included a bf workshop and the teacher asked us to hold a doll/toy in the best position we thought for breastfeeding, and all of us held them in a bottlefeeding/cuddling position ie with their bodies turned upwards rather than against us.

There must have been some subconscious conditioning going in though because I automatically assumed I would and could breastfeed