Interview 32
Really enjoying child-led breastfeeding. Supportive partner, family and friends. “Give it a go to see if it works for you” she says. Slight engorgement, copious milk supply.
An easy-going mother, this young woman takes her cues from her daughter, feeding when her baby wants it and sleeping when her baby sleeps. She used the internet for breastfeeding information. She has fed in public and feels that the looks were approving. She now feeds in front of her partner’s friends and it has become normal for them all. She has a good milk supply and her daughter is piling on the weight. She is very proud of herself. She has never used a dummy and only recently given her daughter a bottle of water on the doctor’s recommendation for her baby’s constipation. Her daughter had not had a bowel motion in five days and the doctor thought that her milk might be too thick and concentrated, on account of her not drinking much water. She usually drinks tea and her baby was having plenty of wet nappies. That night the baby did fill her nappy but she, the mother, was going to continue giving water because she thought there ‘was obviously something wrong with my breast milk’. She is using a progesterone only contraceptive pill because she was told that it would not interfere with her milk supply. Her plans are to breastfeed for about six months and then gradually introduce solid foods with continued breastfeeding for as long as her daughter wants. She thinks that a lot of other young women don’t breastfeed because they are concerned about the sexual connotations, specifically that breastfeeding would feel sexual, but for her it just feels natural. She thinks that other young women like her should try breastfeeding and if they are comfortable with it, then continue doing it.