Why do so many women have poor access to proper breastfeeding support?
Personally I think it’s because there was a gap from the late 60’s through the 80’s when breastfeeding was largely unfashionable. Because of this I firmly believe we lost the knack for it that women passed on to other women. It used to be that the midwife or your mother would show you how it was done. Now that women don’t use midwives as much and their moms did not breastfeed them they have no one to turn to and often feel uncomfortable trying. One woman I know said it felt awful and embarassing to be leaking so much from her boobs so she quit at week 3. She had no one to tell her the leaking pretty much stops after another two weeks or so. Myself I had poor support. The lactation consultants at the hospital were clueless. I ended up pumping and my baby became conditioned to breastmilk in bottles until I called in certified LC to my home who helped me get the baby back on the breast so we could throw the bottles away. It was very hard but we did it. BFed for 20 months.
