Mothering through Breastfeeding

Before I gave birth, I assumed that breastfeeding was simply a tool for providing nutrition to a baby. While it certainly is the most natural and effective way of supplying nutrients as well as protective antibodies, I quickly realized it is so much more – it’s an important part of mothering!

Those early days with a newborn can be scary and bewildering. Suddenly a mother is responsible for a tiny human being, a being who at first cannot communicate needs and wants other than by crying. Breastfeeding helps mother and baby develop their relationship and a means of communicating and comforting. A breastfeeding mother soon learns to read her baby’s cues, and to distinguish between cries of hunger, tiredness and just plain fussiness. A perceptive mother quickly learns to read her baby’s cues before the baby even cries.

Breastfeeding becomes a mutually rewarding means of bonding. As a mother it’s invaluable to be able to soothe the needs of hunger, comfort, and “pacifying” at the breast. Each time she successfully meets the needs of her baby at the breast, her mothering efforts are positively reinforced and rewarded. Of course, each time the baby is put to the breast the baby is comforted with the knowledge that his or her needs have been communicated, understood and fulfilled.

As the baby grows, breastfeeding may become part of a mother’s parenting style. It’s a way to re-connect after a separation, to soothe an injury, to settle to sleep, and so much more.

Of course there are many different parenting tools, and breastfeeding is just one of them, but what a valuable tool it is!