Nachi's pointless rants and recollections

I didn't say breastfeed, I said give baby breastmilk.

I'm a serious breastfeeding advocate. Wherever I go I talk about my experience with breastfeeding and how beautifully my son has grown thanks to that.

I am NOT against synthetic milk though, I think that we as parents come by difficult times and difficult choices need to be made. If you and your family have gone the formula feeding route, all I hope for is that it was an informed decision and not something you took lightly.

Breast milk is, has been, and will always be the best and most natural way to feed a baby. There is no point in trying to compare it to synthetic milk, it just doesn't compare.

Does that mean that feeding your child formula is bad?

Well no of course.

I just believe that if you can feed your child the best possible thing for him or her to thrive, then you should seriously go all out in trying to make it happen.

This brings me to an interesting story I saw months ago no television.

It was an interview with Sir Elton John and his partner where they talked about their infant.

As you know, they are both male parents and therefore they have no breastmilk to offer their baby.

Still, they understood that the best food they could give their child was breast-milk, so they had the surrogate mother deliver the expressed liquid gold to them.

How insanely wonderful is that?

Not only do they get to bond with their wonderful baby by feeding him together, but they are giving him the nourishment he needs, straight from the mother that carried him until birth.

Yes, they could have gone the easier route and just fed him formula, but no, they went the extra step and decided to give him breast-milk.

That my friends is what you call exceptional parenting. I salute this wonderful couple for understanding how amazing this is for their son.

So how does this apply to you?

Well if you find a baby feeding on your breast gross, or maybe it is too painful.

If you've tried and tried and no matter what you cannot properly breastfeed your child even though in your heart of hearts you seriously want to, maybe bottle-feeding with breast-milk is for you.

If you can express your own breast-milk that would be wonderful. It is time consuming, and it does need to be done around the clock at first otherwise your supply goes down, but it is so totally worth it.

I am both grateful and lucky to have had so much support while I started to breastfeed Luka. I was ready to give up only a couple of weeks into it, but everyone was so encouraging and that helped me keep going.

After all, all the women in my family have breastfed their children, most of them until two years of age. Who was I to break the tradition.

No no, I'm just kidding, I didn't do it to follow a silly tradition, I did because this was the only thing that I could give my child that nobody else could, and it was the only thing that helped him grow to such an enormous size and become such an intelligent individual.

I'm so sorry, I've seem to be rambling.

Breast-milk, the best option.

Expressed breast-milk, the second best option.

Donated expressed breast-milk, the third best option.

Anything else is good, not the best, but good.

I'm very sorry if I have offended anyone with this post. My intention is not to bash or look down on anybody not breastfeeding their little ones. You do what you can as a parent and you should be proud of your decisions so long as you have informed yourself of what you are doing and do not take anything lightly when it comes to your child.

Some amazing breastfeeding communities online are

http://www.facebook.com/TheLeakyBoob - Real women online at all times ready to answer all your questions regarding breast-feeding, co-sleeping and all things baby!

http://www.hm4hb.net/ - You can find local people willing to donate expressed breas-milk. Perfect for premature babies or if your baby is sick and you are not making any milk