My Eco-breastfeeding Experience

A few days after Nathan was born, I was searching blogs for other mothers’ experiences doing ecological breastfeeding. I had read Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing by Sheila Kippley, but everything was a little abstract to me when I read it because I hadn’t had experience breastfeeding a baby. I found a few summaries of the ecological breastfeeding standards and a few posts from women announcing the return of their periods at 8 or 17 or 24 months postpartum, but I couldn’t find very much at all in the way of detailed experience. I don’t really remember what I was looking for specifically; perhaps I just wanted some affirmation in my postpartum emotional state that my experience (the first few days of it at least) was normal.

As a new mother, I was looking for someone to tell me I was doing a good job. I wanted to read another’s eco-breastfeeding experience that was exactly like mine so that I could feel like I was doing OK. And I couldn’t find it.

In the first chapter of Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing, Kippley writes, “Breastfeeding provides a natural and easy way for the mother to learn how to be a good mother and to gain confidence in her mothering abilities. The rewards in giving, especially to one’s small children, are emotional ones that cannot be measured.”  Eight  months after having Nathan, I can see how breastfeeding, and specifically eco-breastfeeding, made me confident in the mothering abilities God gave me. He gave me this child to take care of, and I am the only one who can love him and care for him with a mother’s love.

Though there are seven standards of ecological breastfeeding, it isn’t necessarily a system or a set of unbreakable rules. I have generally followed each standard, but I have never thought, “I want to give my baby a pacifier. But the book says no” or “I really hate taking a nap with my baby. The book says I have to, though.” I’m also not the type of person to get stressed out about following things to a T, so perhaps some people would feel like they were failing if they didn’t follow the “rules” perfectly. But the standards just make sense to me; they have come very naturally, and I have loved mothering my son in this way from the moment he arrived. And I think in many ways it’s because Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing taught me that it was OK, even God’s design through breastfeeding, to follow my mothering instincts and my baby’s natural needs for mother-baby togetherness.

Now I am so thankful that I didn’t find what I was looking for in those searches. I couldn’t compare my experience to anyone’s, so I didn’t get anxious or frustrated because things weren’t going the way they did for someone else. My baby is unique, and I am uniquely equipped to take care of him. And the rewards have been immeasurable.