What bfing influences did you have?

[Roryrory]

My mother did not BF me and in fact was quite put off by the whole concept. She had a very negative ealry attempt at BF in hospital after a c/s (the nurse brough me in the next day and forced me to the breast - apparently I had blood all over my face by the time the "session" was over and mum was understandably crying). I think her BF issues have to do with her early experiences with her own mother, too.

But all that said my mum did childcare and mouthed the "breast is best" line, albeit without any heartfelt conviction. She just didn't "get it".

I was committed to BF and read up heaps about it before Flynn was born, so much so that when I was in hospital with him I had lactation consultants asking me if I had BF before. Apparently my technique was quite good from the start, and while I was lucky that Flynn was a good sucker and had no mouth/palate probs, I knew about different holds, the let down reflex, breast protection, correct attachment, the fact that it was a "relationship" that had to develop and so on. I truly felt that by the time that my baby was born all I needed wasa kid to practice on.

So luckily for me my BIGGEST influence WRT BF was the ABA's book "Breastfeeding...Naturally". It really set me up for success in so many ways. Now as i count down to bub # 2 I look forward to doing it all again.

As for my mum? She said to me when Flynn was little that "it must be so wonderful to know that your body nourished him in the womb and is still nourishing him today". Needless to say, she now "gets it"

ETA: As for BF in public, it has never bothered me in the slightest. I must be a "streaker" at heart

[Danni]

it must be so wonderful to know that your body nourished him in the womb and is still nourishing him today

what a gorgeous sentence!! I love it

[MrsFabuloso]

I had my mum who often tells me that both my brothers and I were bf for a yr each. Despite my brother being 10wks early (36ysr ago) and me being 6wks early (28yrs ago), born in quite traumatic conditions, all births begining with attempted vag. births, all ending in caesars.
She travelled on a train with a 14mth old toddler for 30mins then walked for 20mins to get to the hospital to give my brother ebm, he was in hospital for 8wks. The nurses told her he would grow better if she gave him bm so she did what it took to get it to him. She did the same for me, but didn't have the toddlers to drag around too, and I was in hospital for only 4wks. She then went on the bf us sor a yr. She also expressed extra to give to the other bubs in the scn!
Unfortunately I did not sem to inherit her capacity to produce copious amounts of milk and I am both ff and bf (about half half) due to health complications. But I have persevered and was very disappointed not to be able to fully bf. Hopefully next time will work out differently for me!!

[MantaRay]

Thanks for all your interesting replies. I have enjoyed reading them all. It does seem that there are limited bfing influences out there for those who don't witness it at home.
There have been lots of discussions about the influences ffing images in the media etc have on mothers' feeding choices, but I'm thinking that a real problem is the lack of bfing images in the media etc.

The bfing in public issues is also interesting. In reading your stories, it occurred to me that the reason I was funny about feeding in public at first was that I had heard people talking about it in the past, as if it wasn't the right thing to do. I now feed everywhere in public (usually on the floor in the middle of a shop as that is the only place Tom will drink LOL), and luckily I have not noticed any negativity. For those of you that have, good on you for proudly continuing. You are champions!!

[christy]

I've been thinking alot about this over the past few days. I only saw one family member breastfeed. She was a neo natal nurse and had a 27 weeker and was pumping all the time. I have 8 aunts and heaps of cousins & I didn't see any others breastfeed growing up.

But to me it feels as if it should be more natural, should be seen more. My grandmother had all 10 children at home, breastfed them all... and yet its not something that was passed down to her children.

[Smoke Jaguar]

I knew that my sister and I had been BF and that my family in Central America were all BFer's, but didn't really get exposed to it growing up (I didn't ever meet my CA family till 2003). There was one family friend, who my mum reliably informed me was vulgar (they were atheists and my mum must have confused it with anarchism, and blamed anarchism for this behaviour) because she breastfed in public. "It's normal in Spain, but we're in Australia for goodness sake", the implication being that we are more civilised and keep our naked bodies out of sight. Thankfully, by the time I did have a child, I was well over the taboo about feeding in public. I never did subscribe to my mum's feelings on that one!!
Later in life, when the partying stopped, I joined the fire brigade, and it just so happens that the brigade members' partners are all BFers. So, when they were having babies a few years ago, I got quite a good dose of BF talk, so in the space of 4 years, BFing had become totally normalised. Not only that, at least 2 of them were extended BFers. By the time I was preggers, I knew that I would be doing infant-led weaning - whereas, had I thought about it at all 6 years ago, I would not have known that not weaning your child is actually a more beneficial choice. That said, it did always bother me that animals needed to be 'weaned'. As soon as I knew what that meant, as a younger person, I wondered why it had to be done if there weren't any humans to enforce all this weaning in the wild for these animals.
For me, my BFing influences have converged over time - mainly external, but also these niggling questions about animals in the wild!!

[Jennifer13]

I guess in a way I was lucky, myself and my two younger sisters were all bf by my mother. I remember photos of Mum feeding me and one in particular of us when I was 15 mths old (just before she weaned me). So that was definitely an impetus!

Altho, she did still believe a few things that weren't correct (like needing to wean to fall pg, which she did with us) and I also remember thinking it was a bit strange to be bfing an older child. Now I am all for it for as long as you and your child want to!