What I have had is that kind of comment that sounds friendly and well-meaning along the lines of, “Oh are you still feeding that? when are you going to wean, when are you going to?” it's almost like people want you to give up, I don't know why.
How do you deal with those sorts of comments?
I've just tended to say, “Well I'll just see how things go” and, you know, there's no particular reason to do it now and I don't want to cause a lot of distress to the, the baby when, or the toddler when, when they're obviously wanting it and enjoying it still and it's not really any big deal to me to I mean as I've said the only time when I thought, 'Right I'm really going to wean this toddler now' my first daughter was when I wanted another baby, and I know this is not the case for all women but I hadn't had the return of periods at that point, I imagine because I was breastfeeding, and so I thought, 'Well I want a sibling for the baby so'.
Were you aware of the contraceptive effect of breastfeeding at that stage, did you know anything about it?
I realised, yeah that breastfeeding was going to suppress my periods for at least for, for a short while but it carried on and on and I didn't, and I suppose that was the reason I didn't, they didn't come back for as long as they didn't, but I was still feeding a lot at that point, I mean that it wasn't just one feed a day I was still feeding six times a day or something probably, on and off.
Okay so how did you handle the weaning?
I think it was, it was something she didn't want to do so there was a little bit of guilt, I felt a little bit guilty doing it and I was very much saying, “Well you're a big girl now” and, you know, obviously by this point she was also drinking all sorts of things and eating everything and, you know, and I really got the feeling that it was more for comfort than for nutrition at this point, so I think I just sort of distracted her really, when she would come to feed I would say, “How about a story?” or we would, you know, get up and off the sofa and go and go off and do something and, but I remember our last breastfeed quite clearly and I, you know, I feel sort of quite, you know, emotional when I think well that was the last time that she fed.
Did you cut out one feed at a time or anything like that?
I don't think it was as kind of planned as that, I suppose by that point she was more snacking than having really great gulping feeds apart from at bedtime when she still would, and no, first thing in the morning actually was the biggest feed for a long while and I think it was when I got rid of that one it's almost like all the other ones fell away by themselves.
And any problems with milk supply at that stage as you're slowing down?
I think I must have been cutting down gradually because I didn't find any engorgement or mastitis or anything then, it must have just sort of happened quite slowly and without any kind of massive cut off. |
