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Monday Morning Missive
Monday, July 30, 2007

Mondays are extremely crucial for me. A good Monday morning means that my week will be productive, peaceful, pleasant, and satisfying. Today is one of those Mondays that I truly love. First, I'm blogging from a different state, Virginia, where we're visiting my mother for a few days. I love coming here and seeing the trees outside her living room windows. Blogging from here and listening to the Blue Jays squawking overhead is pure bliss.

I want to say thanks to the Brazilian blogger who writes at Sindrome de Estocolmo, for pointing her readers here. While I don't read or speak Portuguese, I think "fantastico" is fairly universal. I'm glad she enjoys my blog!

Although I'm on a mini-vacation of sorts, I don't want to be indolent and miss blogging about breastfeeding, especially so close to World Breastfeeding Week. In today's Boston Globe, there is a fascinating article reporting the terribly high numbers of infant deaths in Botswana because their mothers were instructed to feed them formula as opposed to breastfeeding to prevent the spread of AIDS from mother to child. There is only a 1% chance that mothers will pass AIDS to their infants if they breastfeed, but formula feeding in African nations is causing widespread infant malnutrition and fatal diarrhea. It's a tragic situation!

Also, GMA Weekend ran a story about extended breastfeeding. Of course, a lot of people commented saying four and five years is way too long to breastfeed, but it's all about what a mother wants. I breastfed for two years. That was sufficient for me, but other mothers have differing timetables and that's cool.

How long did you, or do you expect to breastfeed?

Labels: Africa, breastfeeding news, extended breastfeeding, HIV

posted by Jennifer James @ 9:47 AM,

16 Comments:

At July 30, 2007 11:55 AM, Kendra said...: #1 for 4 years, #2 for 3 1/2 years, and #3 for at least another 5 minutes. ;)
At July 30, 2007 12:08 PM, rach said...: 26 months and going strong!
At July 30, 2007 1:15 PM, Eilat said...: I was breastfed for 18 months, which my parents boasted about for my entire life. So I figured I should go at least that long, but I had no weaning plan. Child-led weaning sounded like a good idea. So here we are at 23 months and Im starting to think we need to set a few boundaries, like no more than 2 sides at a time (side switching is driving me a little crazy!). I'm not ready to totally wean. I find breastfeeding to be the best way to calm and soothe my (no so baby) baby, and its still a key part of our bedtime routine.
At July 30, 2007 1:57 PM, roslynholcomb said...: I weaned my son at 18 months. I have arthritis and couldn't stand the pain any longer. He was pretty much ready. By then he was only nursing at bedtime.
At July 30, 2007 2:19 PM, Isil Simsek said...: My baby is just 7,5 months old.I'm planning to breastfeed her until she self weans.
I was formula fed as I had to spent one month in the hospital, this was in 1975 in Germany.So I want to give my baby the best start in life.Have a nice vacation!
At July 30, 2007 2:58 PM, Rose said...: I expected to breastfeed for 3 or so years each. I was shocked when both of my girls weaned before 2 and 1/2. They went from nursing all the time to just once a day and then once a week pretty quickly. I was shocked.

My son is closing in on 2 and still nursing, but not very often. His sisters were nursing 3 times a day at this age. He can nurse once every other day and be happy. I wonder if he'll actually wind up nursing longer than his sisters, though. We shall see.
At July 30, 2007 6:30 PM, Jennifer said...: While pregnant with my first I planned on nursing for 3-6 months. I ended up nursing #1 for 22 months, #2 for 30 months and #3 for 33 months, #2 & 3 tandem for 10 months.
At July 30, 2007 9:34 PM, Elizabeth F. said...: While pregnant I had the goal of 12 mos. Baby #1-3 mos.(lack of support), Baby#2-25 mos (baby-led), and Baby #3 still nursing strong at 23 mos.

I saw that article as well and went to their post and commented. I couldn't believe some of the ridiculous comments there.
At July 30, 2007 11:34 PM, Fat Lady said...: When I had my first daughter I had no plans to nurse beyond a few weeks, I didn't know anyone who nursed longer than 6 months. So I was continually surprised that she just kept going and going for 3 years.

With my second daughter I was ready for her to continue way beyond a year. She turned 2 recently and is still going strong - though she does nurse a little less than her sister at the same age. I fully expect her to continue for another year.
At July 30, 2007 11:35 PM, amygeekgrl said...: my daughter is still nursing (1x/day) at 3 years old.
my son is still nursing (lots of times/day and night, heehee) at 8 months old.
:)
At July 31, 2007 10:16 AM, Sarafu said...: I intended to nurse 1 yr and then wean my first son because I thought that was what you were supposed to do. I NEVER thought I would go past a yr. LOL! My first son weaned at 2 1/2( with a little help from me because of the fact that I was 6 months pregnant and REALLY sore). My second son is still going strong at 20 months. Its funny because alot of moms say that at this age they have slowed down and I havent found that to be true at all for my boys. Asher still wants to nurse ALL the time it seems. :) I do put limits on it to a point but we still seem to nurse an awful lot! Its just so convienent and such a great way to soothe your child!
At July 31, 2007 9:08 PM, Cairo Mama said...: Before I had my son I thought I would nurse for a year, but my baby is almost 11 months and still going strong. Now the plan is to keep going until one of us doesn't want to anymore.
At August 1, 2007 8:10 AM, Jennifer James said...: Hi, ladies. Such wonderful stories of extended breastfeeding! Thank you for sharing. Extended breastfeeding is so wonderful and it's also great when moms let their children choose their weaning time:) It's funny because really, who says three to four years is "extended" breastfeeding anyway.
At August 3, 2007 11:53 AM, nyjlm said...: I thought you might be interested in this blog post, if you haven't seen it already
http://enabling-breastfeeding.blogspot.com/2007/07/did-you-all-see-coverage-of-botswana.html
Miriam Labbok is brilliant and a great speaker if you ever get to hear her!
At October 7, 2007 1:26 AM, Azúcar said...: I intended to go at least one year, and we ended up at 2.5 years when he self-weaned. I'm currently nursing my second, who is 6 months, and I intend to let him self-wean as well.

I agree with you about the use of the word "extended." It should be normal, not viewed as out of the ordinary. I wrote about our experience extended nursing here.
At November 10, 2007 11:33 PM, Anika-Kai said...: wow...it's nice to see exteneded breastfeeding mothers. my daughter turned three in july and i just stopped nursing her two weeks ago. she'd still be going strong but i am now eight weeks into a high risk pregnancy so i opted to stop. it was an easier transition than i thought.