AS IF I WASN'T FEELING GUILTY ENOUGH...
Ugh.
I really didn't want to do this post, but I feel like I have to now. There has been so much discussion this week on the internet that now I feel like I have to throw my two-cents in, even if it means I am viciously attacked. (Hey, I can always delete the ugly comments, right?)**
In a recent post, I mentioned how mothering in-and-of itself brings up a lot of feelings of guilt in me, because I am not "the perfect mother" at every turn. Well, apparently the Federal Government has now decided that I AM, in fact, a horrible, horrible mother and that I do have PLENTY to feel guilty about.
Amanda has been formula-fed since the day she was born.
*Argh!*
*Shriek!*
Apparently I should basically be thrown in jail for committing such a heinous offense!
Actually, I managed to shrug the ads off this week, seeing them for what they are: scare tactics. Nothing more, nothing less. And I try not to pay attention to ANYONE who tries to educate me using nothing more than scare tactics. If you want to educate or inform me of something that may be beneficial for me to know, than go about it in a civilized manner. Do it respectfully. If you can't do that, you are invisible to me. Period.
Anyone who reads me knows that I have been down in the dumps lately. It behooved me to do my best to ignore these ads and all the news stories surrounding them, especially now when I am particularly vulnerable and these ads clearly were targeted squarely at ME.
But as the week continued it was getting harder and harder to ignore the flurry of discussion and debate happening in the blog-world. Finally, I contributed a comment to Julie's post about these ads. And then this morning I read what the rest of her commenters had to say. And what they had to say is what prompted me to come out of the closet and write this post:
I do not breastfeed my child. I never even tried.
Long before I ever tried to get pregnant, before I even knew that I was infertile, I had the debate in my head about whether I would or would-not, when the time came. Back then I didn't know - I never felt strongly compelled to breastfeed, even though I knew that it is ultimately better for the baby. That said, I wasn't against it either, I just didn't know if it was the right choice for me. Foolishly, back then, I considered it just that - my choice. How naive I was, apparently.
Through the first six months of my pregnancy, I strongly considered breastfeeding. I really did. But as the third trimester hit, and the birth of Amanda approached, I began to feel a little panicky about it. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew - I JUST KNEW - that breastfeeding was not the right decision for me at that time. I don't know if I can accurately explain here, in black and white, the reasons WHY. But I just knew that it was not something I could do. Was I scared to try? Yes. Was I reluctant to try? Yes. Was I MAJORLY STRESSED OUT about the prospect of trying? Hell yes. In 2001 I had breast reduction surgery. At the time of the surgery, I was warned that I may never be able to breastfeed, but I was okay with that because children seemed so far off in the future. Having the surgery was not a guarantee that I would not be able to breastfeed, but it presented the potential for it to be problematic. This always stressed me out, that breastfeeding is hard enough to do anyways without trying and trying and trying and ultimately failing because my body just couldn't physically do it. I know that plenty of women have had breast-reduction surgery and have gone on to successfully breastfeed. I just wasn't really looking forward to being a guinea-pig, I guess. Not with this.
I watched my sister try to breastfeed, and when it wasn't working it stressed her out big time. The baby was rapidly losing weight, and both mom and baby were unhappy. Deciding to switch to formula feeding was "the best decision I could have made," according to her. Witnessing that, I didn't want to potentially add that kind of stress to what was already going to be one of the most stressful periods of my life. Especially if there was also a chance that the prior surgery would be an obstacle. There were far too many "what ifs" for me.
Somewhere in that last trimester it occurred to me that I didn't want to breastfeed if I was doing it purely out of guilt. And from what I was feeling at the time, that was, honestly, the ONLY reason I considered doing it. Not because it was best for my baby, but because I was terrified of the backlash I would receive if - God Forbid - I actually decided that I DIDN'T WANT TO DO IT.
I spoke with my OB/GYN about it, who was completely supportive in my decision. She reassured me that it was entirely my decision, and that I should absolutely not let ANYONE try to make me feel guilty for deciding to formula-feed. She marked it on my chart "to make sure the lactation consultants leave you alone after delivery," because she assured me that the consultants at the hospital could be "very aggressive." Since my mind was made up, she saw no reason to expose me to them whatsoever. In fact, I eventually learned that she, my OB/GYN also formula-fed her children*. To this day I am SO GRATEFUL that I had a doctor who was so kind to me about such a highly charged topic.
So there - I said it - I didn't breastfeed because I chose not to. That is the end of the story, at least it is for me. Go ahead and think what you will of me, but the fact of the matter is that even though I offered a teeny-tiny bit of insight above as to my reasoning, the absolute truth is that I don't owe ANYONE an explanation as to WHY I made this choice. Ultimately, the choice was mine to make, and the last time I checked Amanda is MY child. Anyone who wants to tell me what kind of decisions I should be making with regards to her better be prepared to take over her care 24/7. As her mother, I am entitled to make my own choices about her, and unless I am putting her in grave danger (abuse, neglect, etc), it is nobody's business. And let me tell you, feeding my baby formula is NOT putting her in grave danger - it just isn't.
I guess what prompted me to write about this subject after all this time was the tone of the commenters on Julie's blog today. I was initially pleased to see that so many women agreed that the ad campaign is idiotic - that scaring women into breastfeeding is not the best way to educate. And there were many, many commenters who over and over again repeated the same thing; that it is important to educate women on the benefits of breastfeeding and that the health benefits to the baby are scientifically undeniable. So far I am okay, I agree with this completely. So many of the commenters were incredibly sympathetic to the poor women out there who tried to breastfeed and, for whatever reason, were unsuccessful. They all agreed that these ads were horrible for making THOSE women feel guilty about what was probably already a heartbreaking situation. Again, I agree.
But...and this is a huge but...almost all of them seem to agree that I am some sort of leper, some apathetic abhorrent human being because I CHOSE not to breastfeed. The fact that I was potentially physically able to and still DID NOT makes me the worse kind of woman ever. Their brains cannot get around the fact that a person like me can exist in the world.
No, okay, I never tried to breastfeed. I chose not to. And apparently I am an outcast of society because of it.
Gosh, it is enough to make me cry.
It is so sad, because I knew that by making this choice I was setting myself up for criticism, and frankly it is just not fair. Who really thinks they have the right to tell me how to take care of my child? Does the simple fact that I am doing something so different from the mainstream threaten your own confidence so much that you need to make me feel bad? Is breastfeeding "right" and formula-feeding "wrong"? Is this subject REALLY that black and white? Because if it were, there would be a law in this country mandating that women breastfeed - again, if what I am doing truly is the WRONG thing to do.
Four days after Amanda was born, my body was covered from head-to-toe with hives. I have never had that happen before, and it was some scary shit. I very, very reluctantly called my primary-care physician, because the last thing I wanted to do was go to the doctor with a four-day old baby to take care of. When she returned my call, she told me to go to the urgent-care center at her office, that she had made a 9:15PM appointment for me and I would be seen my the nighttime doctor that was on-call. I hung up the phone and cried, because with the hormone surges and lack of sleep, the very last thing on earth that I wanted to do was leave my new baby at home with a novice dad. I hadn't left her side in 96 hours and was not happy about the thought of doing it now. My mother could sense that I was a wreck and she insisted on coming with me to my appointment. (She told me later that, with my exhaustion and my hormones being the way they were, she wanted to make sure I didn't drive off the side of the road).
Anyways, long story short (too late!) the doctor that saw me that evening BERATED me when she learned that I wasn't breastfeeding. BERATED me. It wasn't even her business, the baby was not there to be checked out, I WAS. It only came up because I asked for a prescription and she mentioned that she would not give a prescription for steroids to a breastfeeding mother. She just ASSUMED I was breastfeeding. When I told her I wasn't she actually raised her voice and spoke to me in a harsh, scolding manner telling me that it was "very bad" - her words - that I was giving formula to my baby. I stood there for ten solid minutes, being verbally ripped to shreds, and stood firm taking the abuse long enough to make sure I got my damn prescription.
When I left and I saw my mother in the waiting room, I dissolved into a mess of tears. And I sobbed in guilt and in anger the whole drive back home to my family. I already felt guilty enough to leave my baby's side at such a young tender age to tend to my own needs, for this doctor to throw that heap of guilt on top of everything else was more than I could bear. And I was so, so grateful that my mom was there, because that drive home could have been something ugly otherwise.
Anyone who thinks the above-mentioned doctor did the right thing to me, frankly, is out of their mind. Anyone who thinks that I deserved that from the doctor, frankly, should re-examine their own beliefs as far as what is the right way and what is the wrong way to treat people.
Do I have guilt that I didn't try to breastfeed Amanda? Absolutely. Am I scared that perhaps I made the wrong decision? Sure I am. Am I also happy with the choice that I made? Yes indeed, I am. Formula feeding has been, overall, a wonderful experience for me, for Anthony AND for Amanda.
Every family has to make the right choices for what works best for THEM. Period.
Let me put it another way: Let's say I meet a mother who works full-time and has their child in daycare. I could (but I wouldn't) attack her and say "how could you let someone ELSE raise YOUR child?," pulling statistics out of my ass claiming that it is more beneficial for her child for her to stay home full-time. I could claim that because I am a stay-at-home mom, and that is what works for me, EVERYONE should do the same as I do. I could try to make her feel that she is failing her child, not knowing the following:
a) does this woman not have a choice? does she put her child in daycare because otherwise she cannot pay her bills?
b) does she already feel guilty on her own for putting her child in daycare and am I simply piling on more guilt to her?
c) does she LIKE her career and WANT to continue working, and putting her child in daycare is a choice that she has made, not a necessity?
d) is that child severely worse-off than mine simply because they attended daycare? Is it anywhere in the realm of possibility that daycare is perhaps a better option for that child than it would be for mine?
I cannot answer any of those questions, nor should I try to. We make decisions based on what we CAN do, what we are ABLE to do, and what we ultimately feel is best for both our children and for ourselves. Sometimes, those decisions may not be the right ones, and yes, sometimes we cannot go back and undo them and try again. But I am not going to tolerate anyone - ANYONE - telling me that I am a "BAD MOTHER" because Amanda is on a steady diet of Enfamil. I just am not.
So at this point I guess all I can do is apologize to my dear sweet daughter. Amanda, I am sorry that your government considers your mother to be a complete and total failure. (Apology stated tongue-in-cheek, of course).
*Before anyone pounces all over this, just because my OB/GYN formula fed her own children, she was not a formula-advocate nor was she anti-breastfeeding. She was a supportive doctor, who listened to me, her patient, who advised me of the pro's of breastfeeding but did not in any way try to persuade my decision one way or another. Just to be clear about that.
**I welcome - no, I encourage - healthy discussion and debate in my comments about this post. But, as I have mentioned repeatedly, I am in a very vulnerable place these days. I am not kidding when I say that ANY overly hostile or attacking comments will absolutely be deleted. I am not trying to perpetuate a war here. There are so many sides to this issue and I welcome all of them - but just like the ads I referenced, if you try to get your point across in a negative manner, your comment will be deleted and then no one will get to hear your thoughts on the subject. Because its MY blog and I can do what I want to. Capice?