13 Jan 2004 - 10:05pm - Childbirth Class & Baby Shower!

So tonight we had our Breastfeeding Class, which is really more of an intro to breastfeeding than anything else. Don't worry; I'm not going to go into details. I don't suppose it's a topic that many of you really want to know the nitty-gritty on. ;)

John was commended by our instructor for attending. Statistics show that women are more successful at Breastfeeding when they have a supportive spouse. Of all the people there, John was only one of two guys to attend with their significant other - and the other guy was clearly not there by choice, and little interested in what was going on.

A lot of what we talked about I had already read, but it was so much more useful actually seeing things (no, there were no "live models" - though I must say that these types of classes have the most interesting props) than just reading about them.

My cousin Heather gave me a book called "So That's What They're For!" at our baby shower (which I'm about half-way done with now) - it's a very humorous approach to the topic, but also highly informative. The author talks, in the beginning, about how Americans have "lost the art of breastfeeding" because of indoctrination by Formula (aka artificial milk) companies. Third world countries don't have the problems with breastfeeding that America does, and that's largely because we don't grow up seeing babies being breastfed and thus learn by seeing. Part of the difficulties of breastfeeding is just ignorance of how to do it correctly - and how to deal with the problems that may arise.

It's somewhat weird for me to listen or read about how unsupportive people in general seem to be about breastfeeding, and how "uncommon" it was until recently. My mom breastfed all of us kids, and I grew up watching her care for my siblings, so breastfeeding doesn't seem odd at all for me.

Besides, the benefitsto both baby and mom can't be beat. And there are over 100 vitamins, nutrients, etc. in breastmilk that we cannot reproduce with artificial milk.

Not that I intend to breastfeed exclusively, though I do intend on giving breastmilk exclusively (until the baby is old enough for solids). But I cannot be a stay-at-home mom, so a bottle must be introduced eventually. And that will give John a chance to feed our little JAM as well. So sometime around 4 weeks - once breastfeeding is well established and there's no chance of nipple confusion (the term for when a baby rejects breastfeeding due to confusion on how to suck; a bottle is very different than a breast in that regard), but not so late that the baby will refuse a bottle (which can happen, too, and would cause us all sorts of problems! ;) ).

It feels somewhat surreally weird to be so involved in "real-life stuff" these days... going to childbirth and breastfeeding classes, to be organizing a baby's room, researching childcare options, reading up on caring for a baby. I sometimes wonder, "Is this really me? Am I just dreaming all of this? When did I become so... adult?"