I didn’t breast feed. I’m not blaming it on being high as a hippy for days after my difficult delivery or the absent breast Nazis who never taught me that “latching on” secret or even the breast pump that sucked not one drop of anything from these breasts. I tried a little. And then I just gave up.

Looking back, do I regret it? Of course. Especially when I hear more and more stories of the far-reaching benefits of breast milk for children. I want my son to have the best in this world. He is my life.

Now there is evidence that breastfeeding can be just as beneficial to mothers as well. According to a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine study, touted as one of the largest and longest-running investigations of its kind, women who breast-fed for two years or more had a 23 percent lower risk of heart attack. The same study also showed that women who nursed had a lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, with a 15 percent lower risk per year of breast-feeding.

“Is it the lifestyle of nursing mothers or the milk itself?” asks Alison Stuebe, M.D., assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UNC Chapel Hill who lead the study. “These questions are hard to answer in observational studies. But the protective aspects of breastfeeding are becoming clear.”

Photo, Flickr, honey-bee

Post from: Blisstree

Breastfeeding has Lasting Benefits for Mom

Well, it seems you have found the secret to a golden career selling books by the million and luring in listeners to your radio show – be one-sided and controversial. Get your face on every TV show that will take you and tell them how you know you are right because you lived both lives – as a career woman and as a mother. Tell them how you can separate the two, but other women should not because our children need us, especially in the first three years of their life.

The thing is, Dr. Laura, I don’t disagree with you there. I think children need us for the rest of their lives and we should always be accommodating. I think the mother-child bond transcends all others. But I believe the father-child bond is just as important, and that both parents can be providers for their families as well as caregivers for their children. I want my son to grow up supporting his wife’s decision whether she wants to stay home fulltime with her children or juggle motherhood and the career she’s studied hard for. I want my son to see that mothers can become doctors and CEOs and even presidents of great countries and still be devout caregivers to their children. I want him to understand that when he becomes a parent that his role in raising a child goes beyond bringing home a paycheck and being the great disciplinarian. He, too, should be a nurturer.

You see I’m not only black or white. I’m somewhat gray. I applaud those women who choose to stay home with their children and are fulfilled doing so. I tried to do that, but I’m not programmed that way. My desire to write again overwhelmed me, and my husband and I found a way for me to split my time between staying home with our son part time and writing the other. Those “other people” with early childhood degrees who have been “raising” my child the other part of the time have helped me socialize him and educate him in ways I could never do on my own.

Do I feel fulfilled as a woman? Yes.

Do I feel like my husband’s girlfriend? Always.

Do I feel like I have touched the soul of my kids? Every day.

And what about those mothers who have no choice but to work in order to feed and clothe their children? Are they depriving their kids? You say that every woman is capable of choosing her hours of work so that she can sandwich her job during her child’s school hours, but how realistic is that for a woman flipping hamburgers making minimum wage who is thankful for whatever hours she can get? Especially in this day and age.

But no, Dr. Laura. You’re always right, aren’t you? You hold yourself to a different standard than the rest of us, and want those of us who disagree with you to feel inadequate as a mother. Well, shame on you, Dr. Laura. Shame on you.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Photo, Amazon

Post from: Blisstree

Shame on You, Dr. Laura