Lonni's Story:  A Helpful Role Model

I had never spent much time around pregnant women or infants. I am an only child, and near the youngest of all my cousins so there just weren't many babies around me growing up. I almost never babysat, and when I did, it was only for older kids, no babies.. My friends who had their children in their 20s lived across country from me, and at the ripe old age of 35 when my daughter was born, I knew almost no one locally with kids. But when I was pregnant, a new neighbor moved in across the street who was also 35 and pregnant! Wow! Someone with whom to compare notes, it was amazing! She and I swam together, two blimps creating tidal waves in our local pool as we tried to keep cool that summer. Her son was born five weeks before my daughter. My friend was totally uninhibited about nursing. She also had the largest breasts I had ever seen on a non‑obese person, it was astonishing. So there I sat, still waddling and sweating down to the pool by myself, with regular visits to my new friend with the breasts that were bigger than the baby boy's head! 

So by the time my daughter came out, I was used to seeing a nursing mom. I'm sure this contributed to my success nursing. I certainly had no clue that sometimes women had trouble. I also had no notions about the politics of extended breastfeeding. So it was not my plan to breastfeed forever, I just figured we would let nature take its course. So, it did, and I had a healthy, greedy little nurser who hung on for four years! And today she is a glorious, self confident little thing......

Michelle's Story:  A Prenatal Breastfeeding Course

I’d had a vague feeling during my pregnancy that I should breastfeed my baby, at least for a few weeks.  Having grown up seeing only one woman nurse a child, I felt as though it were not a natural, normal thing to do.  Since all I saw was bottle-feeding, that became the norm for me.  But a few weeks before my daughter was born, I attended a breastfeeding course that my hospital offered.  It was then that I learned that breastfeeding is far better for babies and children and is the norm in most other countries.  I came out with a real desire to breastfeed my baby, but I still knew very little.