What me and my breasts are up to

The main impetus for this blog is really my experience so far with attachment parenting. I'm only eight months into this motherhood thing and I've already settled into a defensive posture. Part of this experience is universal--I think societies of all times across all cultures have spent copious amounts of times criticizing vulnerable new mothers. I mean, you're already exhausted, fat, hormonal and fighting with your husband, why wouldn't you also want to hear that your swaddle wouldn't hold a kitten?

But in addition to the random women who have stopped me during afternoon walks, vehemently shouting and gesturing in languages I don't understand, us attachment parenting folks are afforded another special blessing: we are judged even by the new moms who hate to be judged! I think the problem is that American mothers do not view attachment style parenting as one of the normal options out there--it is either off the continuum altogether or way "out there" in crazy land.

Here's an example. In the good ol' BREAST vs BOTTLE debate, the standard continuum on the far left* is breast-feeding exclusively for 4-6 months and then weaning around 12 months. On the far right is formula feeding from day one. Most mothers probably fall somewhere in between, either combining breastfeeding with bottles of pumped milk/ formula or exclusively nursing for some period of time and then switching to other baby foods (rice milk, formula, etc.) And what about us attachment folk? Well let's just say my eight month old baby still nurses about 8-10 times in a twenty-four hour period (yes ma'am, that does mean we're still nursing at night!) and I don't have any kind of strategic get-that-baby-off-my-boob plan in place. In fact, when people ask me when I plan to wean I simply say I don't know. Now ladies, this does not mean I plan on breast-feeding my seven year old son after soccer practice. It simply means I don't have predetermined deadlines for these things. I watch my child, I try things, I see how it goes.

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*You may wonder why I put breast-feeding on the left and bottle-feeding on the right, given that breast-feeding is a more conservative choice, medically-speaking, in line with things like natural birth and other non-intrusive practices. However, I think breastfeeding for long periods of time, like most of the other attachment features, is viewed as a politically left behavior, in line with things like hippie revolutions and green campaigns.