“Engorged breasts, and sore nipples seem to be part of breastfeeding… I never considered it self-sacrifice. I think this is similar to breaking in a new pair of hiking boots that one wants so they can backpack in the mountains.”
– Rane
From the archives: The original post was posted on 17th June, 2000
“Not commenting any post in particular, but I wanted say something about self-sacrifice… I can’t possible think of a way of not self-sacrificing with an infant even if you’re very well prepared before hand for baby’s arrival and predict all situations, which is almost impossible.
For example, breast-feeding is very painful for most mothers in the beginning. Any other mother that has sore nipples, engorged breasts”
Engorged breasts, and sore nipples seem to be part of breastfeeding… I never considered it self-sacrifice.
I think this is similar to breaking in a new pair of hiking boots that one wants so they can backpack in the mountains. I don’t consider the breaking-in period to be self-sacrifice… on the contrary, it’s taking steps to make them right for you.
“and goes to a conventional doctor gets medication to dry breasts and formula prescribed to baby.”
My conventional doctor never suggested such a thing…
“But if they ignore conventional medicine and are persistent they turn to be successful breast-feeders.”
Which you can do with conventional doctors… 🙂
“Should a mother quit while in pain and give formula to her baby, sacrificing not only his health but his pleasure?”
Should a hiker quit because the shoes are stiff in the beginning and forego the awaited pleasant experiences? Wouldn’t it make sense to break in the shoes before being in a situation where blisters are horrid consequences?
“Breast-feeding is not only about feeding but a close contact between mother and child that doesn’t happen with bottle feeding.”
Again, I never thought of it as self-sacrifice… I thought of it as the ‘breaking in period’.
“And to give a wider example, having an infant requires changing habits and schedules imposed by a lifetime, and that is very hard.”
Why is the infant there? You could apply the same thing to a puppy or a kitten or new shoes or exercise, sports, etc.
When I chose to have an infant, I knew that I would have to change how I lived. It was part of having someone else in your life. The same is true of a partner.
See also:
- Moving, improving: punishment will not help
- My heavenly-horrific vision of Taking Children Seriously
- How do you take babies seriously?
Rane, 2000, ‘Does breastfeeding require self-sacrifice?’, https://takingchildrenseriously.com/does-breastfeeding-require-self-sacrifice