The Intangible Gifts of Breastfeeding

WELCOME, Carnival of Breastfeeding Readers!

Here’s a holiday post for this December’s Carnival of Breastfeeding–check the links at the bottom of this post (updated throughout the day) for others’ thoughts on the subject.

What are the gifts of breastfeeding? I think they fall into two main categories:

First, the basics: nutrition, vitamins, antibodies, and hydration for my son, through infancy, daycare winters, childhood viruses, toddler picky-eater phases, and even international travel in 115-degree heat

Next, the everything-elses:

• quiet, calmness, comfort, and peace, for my son and for me and anyone else in the vicinity, during plane rides and bus rides and subway rides and restaurant meals and Sunday School classes and museums and airport lines
• joy for my son and for me, as we laugh and tickle each other and read books while nursing and play silly games, and gaze into each other’s eyes to reconnect after a day of work for me
• self-satisfaction for me, that with the (in my view) God-given miracle of the human body and the practical help of midwives and lactation consultants, I was able to avoid formula and cow’s milk entirely and give my son the milk he thrives on
• education, in the form of a new perspective on nursing and birth and natural parenting for my husband and others we influence, that breastfeeding (now particularly “extended” breastfeeding, since our son is over two years old) is normal and healthy and beautiful.

Read the other contributors to this month’s Carnival here:

• Momma’s Angel, “The 12 Gifts of Breastfeeding”
• Motherwear, “A Gift I Never Expected”
• Blacktating, “A Gift of Confidence”
• Breastfeeding Moms Unite “The Gift that Keeps on Giving“
• The Milk Mama, “Breastfeeding: My Baby’s Gift to Me”
• Motherhood Actually “The Gift of Life: Breastfeeding During a Time of War“

–Christina