In Three Countries – Part 2 – Guest Author – Angela Piper
With my youngest, who is now 8 months old, we birthed differently and again evolved our underlying philosophies. Now being in the US I was confident in the great care I would get using a home birth CNM rather than hospital based care. The birth and initial breastfeeding experience were wonderful – he was latched on so well right from the start given respect and space to just “Be” and he was well into his first good feed before the cord was cut and any but the essential checks were done. He was “well-attached” before he was fully “detached” from me – it’s rather lovely to think of it like that. I follow my intuition much more now – training in Childbirth Education and being an experienced parent helped in that respect. We had no difficulties this time.
I hope that our nursing relationship continues well past one year. I am so much more open to the ideas of “extended” breastfeeding, tandem nursing and breast milk supply for other babies now that I have been open to and surrounding myself with more intuitive/attachment parenting and birthing styles. That is should we ever decide to get pregnant again or have a happy accident. It’s wonderful being surrounded by kids but I don’t know if my husband would welcome adding more to the current happy chaos. I am slightly mourning the idea that this might be my last wee baby.
The ideas you might have before having a baby can be changed dramatically once you are actually doing it. US Healthcare stuff we are yet to fully come to grips with… one step at a time. At least we got the birthing bit right!